Career
In the early 1990s, Mercer belonged to a group called Blues Roof Dinner. In 1992, Mercer founded the band Flake Music (originally called Flake) with drummer Jesse Sandoval, keyboardist Marty Crandall, and bassist Neal Langford. Together, they produced the well-received album When You Land Here, It's Time to Return, and toured with Modest Mouse and Califone.
Shortly after the release of When You Land Here, in 1999, Mercer formed The Shins in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a side project. Mercer named the band The Shins after the family in the musical The Music Man, a favorite of Mercer's father. The project began as a way to explore three-minute pop songs with conventional chord structure. Mercer recruited Jesse Sandoval to play drums and the two began performing as a duo. The Shins played with Cibo Matto and the American Analog Set, with Mercer serving as the primary songwriter for the band. As The Shins rose to popularity, Flake Music eventually disbanded in 1999, leaving Mercer, Sandoval, and Langford, who joined after Flake Music's disbanding, to focus completely on The Shins. In 2002, the band relocated to Portland, Oregon.
In 2007, Mercer sang backup vocals on the tracks "Florida," "Missed the Boat," and "We've Got Everything" on Modest Mouse's album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Mercer has also been credited with playing several instruments on The Shins' albums, including guitar, bass, synthesizer, ukulele, banjo, harmonium, percussion, beat and MIDI programming.
Mercer began collaborating with Danger Mouse in 2005 when he performed in the song "Insane Lullaby" featured on the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album, Dark Night of the Soul, which, however, was not officially released until July 2010. After working together on the album, in September 2009, Mercer and Danger Mouse announced a new project called Broken Bells, and, on March 9, 2010, released their debut self-titled album, Broken Bells.
In 2010, Mercer acted in Matt McCormick's feature film Some Days Are Better Than Others, playing the role of Eli, a directionless slacker. The film premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film and Music Festival. Also, in 2010, Mercer and Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock contributed original music to director Chris Malloy's 180° South, a documentary about adventurers in Patagonia. Of the two songs that Mercer contributed, one was a cover of Neil Young's "Journey Through the Past."
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