James Mercer, Danger Mouse Team Up For New Band

Tough to find a news item able to trump the Thom Yorke forms new band headline presently shaking the music world to its core, but word that The Shins frontman James Mercer and Danger Mouse are also forming a new band comes pretty darn close.

The high-profile duo will be known as Broken Bells, which will release a debut album in 2010.

The website is live, but no new material just yet.

A juicy, side story might be the fate of The Shins and Gnarls Barkley, but no doubt this news is being hailed as a winning collaboration; is their debut album already atop the most-anticipated releases of 2010 list?

As noted by NME, Mercer and Danger Mouse, real name Brian Burton, have already collaborated previously.

Mercer appeared on Dark Night of the Soul, the joint project of Burton and Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous that also featured a host of guest singers including The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop and Frank Black.

And for those who think this Broken Bells deal is just going to be another one of those Danger Mouse one-off collaborations (that are so good), it looks like this joint project is the real thing. According to Pitchfork, he and Mercer are already making future plans beyond that as-yet-untitled first album.

Lord knows what musical direction the duo will push Broken Bells, but that’s a parlor game fans of the two talented artists are happy to play until we hear what they come up with.

The band name might change the name, but for now the Mercer-Mouse collaboration is running even with Thom Yorke’s new venture for indie-rock story of the day – if not the month, or even the year.

No comment from Cee-Lo Green yet.

What do you think about this new musical venture between Danger Mouse and James Mercer?