One Liner: Alt. rock psych guys who made a funky new jam of 60's pop that everyone has heard
Poster Position: Headliner
Both Weekends.
Friday.
Thoughts: They were last here in 2017. I 100% did not recall whether I had watched that show, and just went back to read my review from that year. Not the finest of compliments for this band.
- Weekend One, I said: "Not so sure about Portugal. The Man, in the end. I feel like, if I had been further up in the crowd, I might have gotten energized by it and more into the sound, but from the way back where everyone was talking and using their phones, I didn't get much out of it. So, after a few songs, I hooked up with some other friends and went over to the Killers' stage and got ready for their show."
- Weekend Two, I said: "I wanted so badly for Portugal. The Man. to be a great show. After last week went poorly, I was hopeful that this week would be better, but again not good. The sound at the HomeAway stage was complete garbage. The band started the show in a super fun way, rolling out covers of Metallica (instrumental jam, I think from "For Whom the Bell Tolls") and Pink Floyd ("Another Brick in the Wall"), before tearing right into "Purple Yellow Red and Blue." But the sound at the stage was like going to a concert where the band was going to play in a submarine and you had to stand on the shore and see what you could hear through the waves. The conversations around me were much louder than the band. Such a bummer. Several people around me were talking about it, and finally I just decided to roll out and get closer for Gorillaz."
Booooooooooo! Because they have some really fun songs!
First things first, we 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 sense 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 monster hit track, still getting airplay right now on the radio after 6 years of being released to the world, 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. 1,141,903,272 freaking streams. A BILLION.
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. "Feel It Still" won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
So, that track is from their 2017 album, 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.
Wikipedia says that they are originally from Wasilla, Alaska. That town will always be synonymous with that SNL skit where the Tina Fey version of Sarah Palin said that she could see Russia from her doorstep. It is a big group of folks in the band, but the original two members met and started making music at Wasilla High School. They moved to Portland before the band got super serious, and added a bunch of new members. After that, it didn't take long before they were touring with big bands, playing Bonnaroo, and becoming semi-famous.
Prior to that most famous album, they (shockingly to me) had approximately 80 billion other albums. 2006's Waiter: "You Vultures!," 2007's It's Complicated Being a Wizard, 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. That is some damn OUTPUT, y'all! 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 three million streams (and most are way lower than seven figures). But as I mentioned earlier, by now they had already been touring with the Black Keys and other big bands - even before these albums blew up they were moving up. And their first real hit was from that Evil Friends album, the "Purple Yellow Red and Blue." 64 million streams.
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 actually their second-most listened to track on the disc, behind "Modern Jesus" with 69.2 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 16.9 million streams.
When you go back beyond Evil Friends and Woodstock, 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 17 million streams.
I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I discovered all of these several years ago and then just forgot about them. These albums are all pretty damn solid.
The fascinating thing is that after that massive output early in the career, they start making big gaps in between albums. The next one after 2017's Woodstock (and likely huge fame now!) is 2021's live album Oregon City Sessions, and then nothing until 2023's Chris Black Changed My Life. I seriously wonder if they just got famous and kinda rich and were like screw this noise...
The new disc is actually pretty good too - the second song ("Grim Generation") feels like they went back to the well of the 60's groooooovy baby sound to see if they could tap back into that zone. And then the most streamed song is one that I have already heard a good number of times (in part because it was on a Taco Bell commercial that played during sports things this year) but also because it interpolates Coolio's "1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New) (which he could have stolen from something else, I dunno) and at least one line follows the same vocal patterns as Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" (about 1:00 in). 8.6 million streams.
And if you are wondering about the album name, I did too: "We lost a very dear friend of ours on May 19, 2019. It shook us to our core. Chris was one of those people who was like glue; he brought everyone together. His passing really messed with us. The band was in shambles and this record is the first time I feel I made a complete record; a complete thought about our world crumbling around us and the journey back. While it is a very personal journey, I feel like everyone has a Chris Black in their life; at least I hope that everyone has a Chris Black in their life. That one friend who has a way of making everything right and making everything fun. The one who keeps you in check when you go off course and is always there to celebrate the good times and to support you in the bad times. Chris Black Changed My Life." So, that might explain some of the gap in their output.
I'd definitely like to go see them jam it out in the Fall, hoping that whatever issues they had with their sound last time will be rectified by now.
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