Portugal. The Man

One Liner: Alt. rock psych guys who made a funky new jam of 60's pop
Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, indie rock, psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop, experimental, progressive rock 
Spotify Says Similar To: Minus the Bear and Cold War Kids
Home: Portland, Oregon

Poster Position: 4
Slot: ?

Thoughts: First things first, I have to figure out what the hell is up with their band name.  A little bit of research later, and here we go:

PTM: It’s an interesting name, I guess. It is kind of an alter ego like Ziggy Stardust and Sgt Pepper. It’s our character to represent us as a band. In picking a country’s name, it was one name that represents a group of people. It made since for a while, but we have regretted it ever since that day (Laughs).
BB: Is there a reason for the pronunciation and spelling of Portugal, period, the Man?
PTM: We did that to state that Portugal was the man’s name and he is the man; he’s the shit.

So there you have it.  Portugal is a person, who is the shit, and he represents the whole band while they make music?  Still not sure I understand.  I think they need to change their name to Foo Tang.  But I honestly appreciate the honesty there, that they fully understand and regret how annoying their name is.

Their new hit track, getting tons of airplay right now on the radio, is a refreshingly sweet blast of 60's girl group pop that sounds like the soundtrack to an Austin Powers dance number in a volcano lair.  Get some of this "Feel It Still" action.

Daayyuuummm!  I want to jump out of my seat and make a run through every embarrassing dance move that the Breakfast Club did in the library, while blowing out the speakers in my office.  LET'S DO THIS SHIT!  So much funkiness.  So much falsetto.  So catchy and ready for my emotive love.

So, that track is from their new album, 2017's Woodstock.  The album has some good stuff on it, but also has some out there things that took me a few listens before I could get behind.  For example, "Keep On" is a good, pretty straight-forward rocker.  On the other hand, "Easy Tiger" is a freaky kaleidoscope of beats and effects and twisting sound that was a turnoff at first, but then it stuck in my brain and I wanted more.

Prior to that new album, they (shockingly to me) had approximately 80 billion other albums. 2006's Waiter: "You Vultures!," 2007's Church Mouth, 2008's Censored Colors, 2009's The Satanic Satanist, 2009's The Majestic Majesty, 2010's American Ghetto, 2011's In the Mountain in the Cloud, and then 2013's Evil Friends.  None of the albums prior to Evil Friends appears to have made much of an impact, at least in the streaming world.  Nothing on their first three albums broke a million streams.  And their first real hit was from that Evil Friends album, the "Purple Yellow Red and Blue."

This album is more of a straight-forward rock disc.  Well, kind of psych and weird, but you know what I mean.  That video is freaky, yo.  This is their second-most listened to track, at 25.7 million streams.  Also on that album, but not nearly as popular, is another song that I heard a few times on the radio and liked quite a bit - "Hip Hop Kids," which has 6.9 million streams.

When you go back beyond those most recent two albums, you get less freaky (in my opinion) and stuff like the Bowie-esque "So American" from In the Mountain in the Cloud or some meandering stuff like on the first three albums. That Mountain/Cloud and American Ghetto albums are both pretty darned good.  I'd never heard them before now, but they are actually really good psych rock alternative stuff.  Just to give you a taste of the old stuff, here is "The Sun," the most popular track from the first few albums, at just over 8 million streams.

I'm kind of disappointed in myself for never having gone deep into their world before, but these albums are all pretty damn solid.  I'd definitely like to go see them jam it out in the Fall, and lobby for their impending name change.