The Shins Star Thankful to Natalie Portman  1/14/07

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The Shins front man James Mercer is grateful to actress Natalie Portman for name checking his band in movie Garden State, because their record sales increased dramatically as a result.

The US rockers were a moderately successful cult band with two albums released when Portman's character uttered the line, "The Shins... you gotta hear this song. It'll change your life."

And Mercer admits things changed overnight for The Shins.

He says, "Probably nobody's life was changed by that as much as mine. It really helped the band.

"I look at licensing songs as a way to get some visibility... and to get paid for it.

"We'd toured (album) Chutes Too Narrow for 18 months. Then the plan was to take some time to do a new record but Garden State hit and it was time to go on tour again.

"As the movie became popular, our sales increased and we began getting invitations to play bigger shows."