James Mercer (musician)

E842032

guitarist human musician singer-songwriter

James Mercer is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist best known as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the indie rock band The Shins.

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All labels observed (2)

Label	Occurrences
James Mercer	13
James Mercer (musician) canonical	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10107717 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: James Mercer (musician)
Context triple: [Mercer, hasNotableBearer, James Mercer (musician)]

A. Ben Gibbard
Ben Gibbard is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie and as a member of The Postal Service.
B. Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Weezer.
C. Nicholas Vedder
Nicholas Vedder is a minor character in Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle," known as the patriarchal village innkeeper and habitual sitter by the tavern door.
D. David Pirner
David Pirner is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Soul Asylum.
E. James Shannon Murphy
James Shannon Murphy is an individual known primarily as the child of Pamela Archer.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: James Mercer (musician)
Target entity description: James Mercer is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist best known as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the indie rock band The Shins.

A. Ben Gibbard
Ben Gibbard is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie and as a member of The Postal Service.
B. Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Weezer.
C. Nicholas Vedder
Nicholas Vedder is a minor character in Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle," known as the patriarchal village innkeeper and habitual sitter by the tavern door.
D. David Pirner
David Pirner is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Soul Asylum.
E. James Shannon Murphy
James Shannon Murphy is an individual known primarily as the child of Pamela Archer.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (46)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	guitarist ⓘ human ⓘ musician ⓘ singer-songwriter ⓘ
activeIn	music industry ⓘ
associatedAct	Broken Bells ⓘ The Shins ⓘ
basedIn	Portland, Oregon ⓘ linked to: Portland
collaboratesWith	Danger Mouse ⓘ
countryOfCitizenship	United States ⓘ linked to: United States of America
creativeRole	composer ⓘ songwriter ⓘ
familyName	Mercer ⓘ
fieldOfWork	music performance ⓘ songwriting ⓘ
founded	The Shins ⓘ
genre	alternative rock ⓘ indie rock ⓘ
givenName	James ⓘ
language	English ⓘ
memberOf	The Shins ⓘ
name	James Mercer ⓘ linked to: James Mercer (musician)
nationality	American ⓘ
notableSong	Australia ⓘ Caring Is Creepy ⓘ New Slang ⓘ Phantom Limb ⓘ Simple Song ⓘ Sleeping Lessons ⓘ
notableWork	Chutes Too Narrow ⓘ Heartworms ⓘ Oh, Inverted World ⓘ Port of Morrow ⓘ The Shins ⓘ Wincing the Night Away ⓘ
occupation	guitarist ⓘ musician ⓘ record producer ⓘ singer-songwriter ⓘ
playsInstrument	guitar ⓘ
positionHeld	lead vocalist of The Shins ⓘ primary songwriter of The Shins ⓘ
recordLabel	Aural Apothecary ⓘ Columbia Records ⓘ Sub Pop ⓘ
vocalType	tenor ⓘ

How these facts were elicited