The Shins in Concert At Stage AE; Mr. Smalls Hosts Phantogram (Tues., 8/1/17)

1) “New Slang” and “Caring Is Creepy” appeared on 2001’s Oh, Inverted World, The Shins’ debut album, but the songs gained additional exposure after appearing on the Garden State soundtrack three years later. 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, the band’s third album, charted at no. 2 on the Billboard 200. Then The Shins disappeared. Frontman James Mercer broke up the original lineup and started Broken Bells, his collaboration with noted producer Danger Mouse. The Shins, still fronted by Mercer but with an otherwise new lineup, returned in 2012 with Port of Morrow. Singles like “Simple Song” proved that Mercer could still write Shins songs that would “change your life,” to quote Sam (Natalie Portman) in Garden State. 2017’s Heartworms is The Shins’ latest. The group plays Stage AE. Tennis, an indie husband-and-wife duo, opens. Doors open 7 p.m. 400 North Shore Dr., North Shore. (CM)

2) Electronic, pop-rock band Phantogram, from Greenwich, N.Y., is made up of Josh Carter (vocals, guitars) and Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards), who perform at Mr. Smalls. An optical illusion that makes two-dimensional objects appear three-dimensional inspired the band’s name. The duo recorded its first album, 2010’s Eyelid Movies, in a remote and rustic barn called Harmony Lodge in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Phantogram epitomize the kind of genre crossing that’s become common among an internet-flattened landscape. “When I’m Small,” off of Eyelid Movies, appears across a myriad of Pandora stations. The group appeared on The Flaming Lips’ The Terror in 2013 and on Miley Cyrus’s Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz in 2015. The Game’s “Mula” (featuring Kanye West) sampled “Fall in Love,” off of 2014’s Voices, Phantogram’s sophomore album. With rapper Big Boi, they formed Big Grams in 2015 and released an EP. Phantogram’s third album, appropriately titled Three, was released in 2016. Skott opens. 8 p.m. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. (RH, CM)

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