Portugal. The Man

Number eight was one of the perennials. Number seven, by contrast, is a newcomer to this list and a band I’ve only just discovered in 2010. There are many reasons I love living in the Pacific Northwest and one of the big ones is the ease of accessibility to new music. On just about any given night I can open the Willamette Week and pick a show at one of the local venues to attend and very rarely will I be disappointed. Portugal. The Man is a band I haven’t yet witnessed in the live setting, but they’re a band that gets much publicity in this region. Originally hailing from Sarah Palin’s own Wasilla, Alaska, they made the wise decision to distance themselves from her and ventured south to Portland. Hardly a new act, American Ghetto is the band’s fifth full-length release. While I am eager to explore their back catalog, I can only comment on this current album and also highly recommend the previous one, The Satanic Satanist.

American Ghetto has a spaced-out, electric vibe, replete with synthesizers and produced effects. At their core, however, these guys are just great songwriters and produce irresistible hook after irresistible hook. There’s not a bad track in the bunch, but a few highlights for me include the urgent 1000 Years, the sinister The Pusher’s Party (I love the Paul’s Boutique-esque drum breakdown at 3:38 [I know the B Boy’s swiped this from someone else, but I’m too lazy to track down the rightful owner]), the regretful and mellow Just A Fool and the peppy, sitar-laced closer When the War Ends. This is an album catchy enough to be satisfying from the first listen, yet deeply layered enough to get better with each subsequent listen until it ends up on heavy rotation on your portable media player and well-placed on your year-end list. Not surprisingly, this album, which was part of the mid-year swap, has drawn favorable opinion from PD. He will be happy to know that P.TM spent much of this last year working on their next release, due out in 2011, which is described as having a more prog rock feel and draws comparison to Pink Floyd.

I had the pleasure of seeing the next band on the list perform last month at one of my favorite Portland venues, Berbati’s Pan. Alas, that great show would be my last as Bertati’s closed its doors for the last time on New Year’s Eve. No more knocking back tall boy PBR’s waiting for the show to start. No more feeling weird about whether to tip the bathroom cologne guy. No more prime positioning right in front of the stage. No more post-show VooDoo Doughnuts. Berbati’s you will be missed.