The Shins hint at new material with creepy trailer

The band's comeback hasn't been a secret but the exact timing has remained something of a mystery - but that mystery might get solved in the near future.

There are a few interesting points in the new clip: a poster reminds the main character "You'll Be Dead March 7th 2056" and a title card, reading "I Gleek On Your Grave - a Dead Alive production" flashes up towards the end.

2056 is a ways off, but 7 March could well be a release date - and "I Gleek On You Grave" might be a single. "Dead Alive" definitely is a single - it's one of two they debuted at End Of The Road last month. We're totally guessing at what this trailer means at the moment, but The Shins are definitely up to something.

pic.twitter.com/trcEFIbqpC

— The Shins (@TheShins) October 25, 2016

Earlier this year the band's James Mercer spoke at length about the next Shins LP:

“The record is done basically and mixed. We’ve been making little tweaks just because we have extra time. My intention was to have the the record to come out this year, but there’s inevitably these reasons that the label or whatever wants to postpone release just so that they have more time to set things up and do whatever sort of marketing and things that they have to do. So it looks like it’ll be coming out next year. Early next year, like January hopefully."

“I’m really excited about this record. We had a good time making it. It was a lot of hard work, but I think we’ve got something that Shins fans will really love and I think there’s some other things on there that are just different enough. I made a concerted effort on certain songs to fit the palate, or to use the palate that I’ve used historically for the band. And then on other songs, I really jumped off because I was having so much fun just leaning some new tools that I had at my disposal like arpeggiators and things. So I was able to do some stuff that is a bit more synth-oriented… I think lyrically I’m better than I ever was and I think my songwriting is stronger than it ever was.”

He also admitted that external influences have delayed the long-awaited comeback:

“Coachella was a factor in my label wanting to postpone the release of the record. Because Coachella is such a powerful influencer, it’s such a high profile festival, that we want to get as good a placement as we can in it. And I guess apparently when you release your record has some sort of an influence on that.”