Fans' Cell Phone Clips Used in Shins Video

Jan. 9, 2006 — -- No strangers to the file-sharing, music-downloading universe that has reinvented the music industry, the Shins have achieved a cultish popularity by giving Web sites like Napster, MySpace and YouTube unfettered access to their music, videos, touring schedules and merchandise.

The indie-rock band has taken this populist ethos to the next level for their latest video, a live concert cut together from multiple cell phone video clips.

"If you can't beat them, join them," said lead singer-songwriter James Mercer. "We figured this was a cool way to embrace this whole new phenomenon."

The images were shot at the Austin City Limits Festival in September 2006. The Shins then teamed with the user-generated video Web site Current TV so fans could upload their footage to be edited for the video.

They ended up with a mix of images from the stage performance to audience antics to even bathroom shots. "The whole idea of the audience participating in the making of a video … you couldn't have done this 10 years ago," Mercer said.  "So it's just embracing the new technology and the ubiquitous nature of video nowadays."

Armed with cell phones and digital cameras, the Austin crowd set out to capture every chord, angle and head bang during the performance of the Shins' latest single, "Phantom Limb." The song appears on the group's third full-length album, "Wincing the Night Away," which was released this week.

Although they're not the first band to turn their fans into filmmakers -- the Beastie Boys did it in their 2006 "Awesome … I Shot That!" concert film -- the Shins are the first to encourage people to upload their raw clips, bytes and images onto a single Internet site.