More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Neal Langford was close to the flame.

He lived there for 14 years, flirting with fame and fortune, plucking steel strings with some of his closest friends - a group known worldwide these days as the Shins.

This week, the Shins released their much anticipated and already critically acclaimed third album "Wincing the Night Away."

And they did it without Langford.

Langford and his Albuquerque buddies played together as Flake Music, which disbanded but for the most part re-formed as the Shins - led by singer/songwriter James Mercer on guitar, drummer Jesse Sandoval, Marty Crandall on keyboards, and bassist Dave Hernandez. Langford had been Flake's guitarist but was eventually the Shins' bassist.

They were a constant presence in the Albuquerque music scene, all the while having no clue about the fame around the corner.

But two solid EPs and word-of-mouth led to an opening spot on a Modest Mouse tour in 2001 - a huge deal to Albuquerque musicians who claim to never have had delusions of grandeur.

On the tour, the Shins won over an indie music label, a feat that led to "Oh, Inverted World" - a jangly album featuring a would-be hit song, "New Slang."

Langford had been along for the entire wild rock Õn' roll ride.

Then, one spring day in 2003, Langford says, a quick phone call smothered the flame.

"I got a two-minute phone call from James Mercer, and he basically kicked me out of the band," Langford, 34, says.

It was two years after "Oh, Inverted World" was released but one year before the soundtrack to "Garden State" - a film on which "New Slang" was prominently featured - became the soundtrack to life for hordes of angst-ridden 20-somethings.

"I miss the band a little bit, but most of all I miss my friends," he says. "We were best friends for almost 14 years.

"It's almost like a divorce."

Langford hasn't spoken to the Shins since. He had, he says, been burned.

All along Langford had been close to another flame, too.

This one was hotter, brighter, more tangible.

This flame shot through the belly of a hot-air balloon.

"I took my first ride when I was 5. Friends of my parents had a balloon," Langford says. "I became a balloon dork, collecting baseball cards and anything that had to do with ballooning."

Well, almost anything. He swears he doesn't have a giant fuzzy hat covered with pins.

"I'm not that bad."

Ballooning was, and is, Langford's passion, even as bass lines filled the air with opportunity.

His devotion to the gondola is what the Shins say kept Langford in the Duke City as they moved on to Portland, Ore., moved on to fame.

The band, which could not be reached for comment, has a section on its Web site about its history, including Langford's part in it.

"Relocated from Albuquerque to Portland . . . Mercer and Sandoval lost Langford to his true passion, hot-air ballooning," it says.

But Langford disagrees that the decision was his.

"What you've heard is a completely different story," he says.

But whatever the tale, Langford says he's happy about the chapter he's in right now.

He's a pilot for Rainbow Riders, a ballooning company, and famous or not, he still gets to travel the world - though now he sees it at dawn instead of through a smoky haze at midnight. He got his pilot's license almost seven years ago.

Back in Albuquerque, when he's on land, he waits tables at Le Chantilly, 8216 Menaul Blvd. N.E. And though the Shins are in his past, music is not.

He formed an experimental band, the Good Goodbyes, with members from all over the country. They send each other samples and ideas, which get built into bigger songs along the way. The Good Goodbyes' self-titled EP has been welcomed warmly by music critics and is available and "selling pretty good," Langford says, on Amazon.com and other music sites.

He says he doesn't plan on touring with the group. "The whole rock life thing wasn't for me. I definitely enjoy getting up early rather than staying up late in a bar." But he's enjoying the project, as well as the rest of the lot fate has handed him.

"Things happen in life that we don't understand," he says. "If I really had to choose, I'm happy with my life and the way things happened is fine . . . in a weird way."