Albums : Portugal. The Man : Evil Friends
Albums : Portugal. The Man : Evil Friends
Listen To Portugal. The Man : Evil Friends
Who Is Portugal. The Man?
It was last spring 2012, and John Gourley—frontman of Portugal. The Man—found himself in New York City about to ring the bell at Danger Mouse’s apartment--a long way from his current home in Portland, and farther still from his real home in Alaska. Six full-length albums in six years, nonstop touring, a stint with The Black Keys and festival stops at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza—up until this moment, Portugal. The Man embodied all dimensions of DIY rock range.
When it came time to begin work on the seventh album, Gourley thought long and hard about the next move and kept coming back to one concept: The most satisfying work is collaborative work. From building houses with his father in Alaska to building a devoted fanbase, he had sought partnerships. So he took a bold step — bold for a proven band, bolder still for its uncertainty of sound — a step up to the apartment of a possible collaborator, Danger Mouse.
“I walked into his place,” Gourley remembers now. “And it wasn’t going to happen. He was like, ‘Hey, man, just so you know, I don’t really want to record a rock band.’ And I was a little relieved. We’d done this by ourselves before, and we knew we could do it by ourselves again.”
But then they got to listening, and to talking about how much Danger Mouse had loved In the Mountain in the Cloud — the 2011 followup to Portugal. The Man’s break out record The Satanic Satanist. “From that very first meeting,” says Danger Mouse, “we were very ambitious about what we could do…otherwise there was no point. So we decided: Let’s try and make something really special.”
So Danger Mouse — aka Brian Burton, the five-time Grammy award winning producer behind everything from Gnarls Barkley and Beck to The Black Keys and now U2 —and the band agreed that they were game for the challenge and began production on what would become Evil Friends, the undaunted re-awakening for Portugal. The Man. As much as their collaborative imaginations melded, to construct songs that lived up to the ambitious visions they had would take some time. After all, here was a band with an evolving lineup — Kyle O’Quin on keyboards, Noah Gersh on guitar/percussion/keyboards, and Kane Ritchotte on drums joined Zach Carothers on bass and vocals and Gourley on lead vocals and guitar — building new songs with a new producer trying to do something neither of them had done before.
They went, together, to Los Angeles and worked through several sessions — at Mondo Studios, Eltro Vox Studios, and Kingsize Soundlabs. The band worked months longer than they ever had on one thing. And somehow — maybe it was the collaboration in the air, or maybe sheer will — they finally stopped searching and started realizing: “What really brought our record together was getting past that period of looking for something, and figuring out how to do something really new, really hard, and really satisfying,” said Gourley.
Each track on Evil Friends is as different from the next as Portugal. The Man’s previous records were from each other, which is to say a piece of a growing mindscape, and wholly a part of the group’s tumbling fever dream. Where the 2009 hit “People Say” was a cheery guitar rally, the new title track is a bells-and-balls ballad emerging from darkness into a pipe-whistling punky thump, albeit with Gourley’s trademark falsetto and thundering guitar. And yet here is Evil Friends swirling, like a tornado that sends a napping child toward Oz, into something of a tale of Portugal. The Man’s arousal from when it decided to make something special to when it actually did: The weighted down questions of “Plastic Soldiers” (Could it be we got lost in the summer? / Well I know you know that it’s over) give way to the confident melodies of “Modern Jesus” (The only rule we need is never giving up / The only faith we have is faith in us) and finally, brazenly, to the anthem “Smile” (We watched the sun come up / But took it down to hide it / Seems like the spring has come and gone / It felt like forever).
It took all year, and Portugal. The Man — a group guaranteed for seven years to pump out a record, to tour and tour and tour, to tuck its fans to bed at night with a community of psychedelic rock — had learned to slow down and transform all-day, all-night recording with Danger Mouse into adrenaline, into words that are at once dark and light, into sounds that are overlapping with danger and charm. The whole “evil friends” thing was just a happy writing accident, by the way, a lyrical coincidence belying a collaborative friendship Burton says taught him, too: “I felt like I was watching them do something special and I wanted to let them do it, so sometimes I was more hands-on, but sometimes more hands-off than I had been with anyone,” says Danger Mouse. “They had done enough albums that I thought it would be fun to shake it up a little bit.”
“In the beginning, I asked Brian why he had wanted to talk about making a record,” recalls Gourley. “And he admitted that he was surprised when he saw us live. ‘I didn’t know you guys could sound like that.’ There had been this perception that we’ve been something else — and I’ve noticed it, at festivals, everywhere — that we were something we were not. But then we got in a room with Danger Mouse, to the place where we could just throw that out, wake up and say, Here we are. We’re this band! Let’s just make it, together.”
Evil Friends Review
Packing plenty of excitement and quirkiness into their dazzling mix of rock, pop, psychedelia, and electronica, Portugal. The Man’s work is as imaginative and catchy as it is immaculate and daring. Overall, Evil Friends is an extremely fun and engrossing record. It’s fair to say that Portugal. The Man is among the most prolific outfits around today, as they’ve essentially released a new album every year since their 2006 debut, Waiter: “You Vultures!” With famed producer Danger Mouse behind the wheel, Evil Friends finds the group continuing to venture into programmed territory (including beats and colorful sound effects), which gives the music a celebratory vibe. Of course, the production would be worthless if there weren’t any hooks or intriguing arrangements, but that’s definitely not an issue since this album is full of them.
Opener “Plastic Soldiers” is probably the most multifaceted creation here, as it contains a few distinct parts. It begins with beautiful melancholy—like a lost Mew piece—before transitioning into an upbeat, folksy number full of poppy elegance and intriguing atmosphere. It concludes as a prophetic commentary with reflective piano chords and triumphant horns. It’s incredible. In contrast is “Creep in a T-shirt”, a free-spirited and joyous affair that oozes eccentricity as it recalls the uniqueness of Super Furry Animals and Gorillaz. There’s also the title track, a quick rocker with pleasant harmonies.
Without a doubt, the most addictive selection here is “Modern Jesus”. Its hypnotic central synthesizer riff is matched by guitar arpeggios, programmed percussion, ingenious sound effects, and warm vocals that invite sing-a-longs.It’s an instant classic. “Atomic Man” is another catchy aggressor that blends computerized, vintage, and modern elements well, while “Sea of Air” is somber and sparse at the start and then becomes more tranquil and idealistic. The fact that it’s so different from its predecessor makes it remarkable; in fact, it shares the same sense of optimism as Of Monsters and Men’s exceptional My Head Is an Animal.
“Waves” continues the discontented vibe, and it’s arguably the best example of it on Evil Friends. A pained ballad, the song features lovely interplay between guitar and piano, as well gripping melodies and an impressive buildup. Afterward, “Holy Roller (Hallelujah)” comes in like a bat out of hell, channeling hip-hop attitude and carefree energy with its distorted vocals and wild tempo changes. Later on, “Purple Yellow Red and Blue” echoes glam rock extravagance, and closer “Smile” is bombastic and varied as it reprises brilliantly elements of “Plastic Soldiers,” sending listeners off with a thoughtful yet bold statement.
Portugal. The Man have created something special with Evil Friends. The core songwriting and performances are top notch, and Danger Mouse’s input adds a plethora of valuable modifications and ideas. Despite the aforementioned comparisons, I’ve never heard anything quite like this, which, in addition to the band’s inventive compositional approach and delivery, is reason enough for me to recommend it. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up ASAP.
Contact Portugal. The Man
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Vimeo | Tumblr | Instagram
Contact PopMatters
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle Edition | Email
Sources : Portugal. The Man Photo | Listen To Evil Friends | Portugal. The Man Biography | Evil Friend Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon (Explicit) | Amazon | Best Buy (Digipak)
Listen To Portugal. The Man : Evil Friends
Who Is Portugal. The Man?
It was last spring 2012, and John Gourley—frontman of Portugal. The Man—found himself in New York City about to ring the bell at Danger Mouse’s apartment--a long way from his current home in Portland, and farther still from his real home in Alaska. Six full-length albums in six years, nonstop touring, a stint with The Black Keys and festival stops at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza—up until this moment, Portugal. The Man embodied all dimensions of DIY rock range.
When it came time to begin work on the seventh album, Gourley thought long and hard about the next move and kept coming back to one concept: The most satisfying work is collaborative work. From building houses with his father in Alaska to building a devoted fanbase, he had sought partnerships. So he took a bold step — bold for a proven band, bolder still for its uncertainty of sound — a step up to the apartment of a possible collaborator, Danger Mouse.
“I walked into his place,” Gourley remembers now. “And it wasn’t going to happen. He was like, ‘Hey, man, just so you know, I don’t really want to record a rock band.’ And I was a little relieved. We’d done this by ourselves before, and we knew we could do it by ourselves again.”
But then they got to listening, and to talking about how much Danger Mouse had loved In the Mountain in the Cloud — the 2011 followup to Portugal. The Man’s break out record The Satanic Satanist. “From that very first meeting,” says Danger Mouse, “we were very ambitious about what we could do…otherwise there was no point. So we decided: Let’s try and make something really special.”
So Danger Mouse — aka Brian Burton, the five-time Grammy award winning producer behind everything from Gnarls Barkley and Beck to The Black Keys and now U2 —and the band agreed that they were game for the challenge and began production on what would become Evil Friends, the undaunted re-awakening for Portugal. The Man. As much as their collaborative imaginations melded, to construct songs that lived up to the ambitious visions they had would take some time. After all, here was a band with an evolving lineup — Kyle O’Quin on keyboards, Noah Gersh on guitar/percussion/keyboards, and Kane Ritchotte on drums joined Zach Carothers on bass and vocals and Gourley on lead vocals and guitar — building new songs with a new producer trying to do something neither of them had done before.
They went, together, to Los Angeles and worked through several sessions — at Mondo Studios, Eltro Vox Studios, and Kingsize Soundlabs. The band worked months longer than they ever had on one thing. And somehow — maybe it was the collaboration in the air, or maybe sheer will — they finally stopped searching and started realizing: “What really brought our record together was getting past that period of looking for something, and figuring out how to do something really new, really hard, and really satisfying,” said Gourley.
Each track on Evil Friends is as different from the next as Portugal. The Man’s previous records were from each other, which is to say a piece of a growing mindscape, and wholly a part of the group’s tumbling fever dream. Where the 2009 hit “People Say” was a cheery guitar rally, the new title track is a bells-and-balls ballad emerging from darkness into a pipe-whistling punky thump, albeit with Gourley’s trademark falsetto and thundering guitar. And yet here is Evil Friends swirling, like a tornado that sends a napping child toward Oz, into something of a tale of Portugal. The Man’s arousal from when it decided to make something special to when it actually did: The weighted down questions of “Plastic Soldiers” (Could it be we got lost in the summer? / Well I know you know that it’s over) give way to the confident melodies of “Modern Jesus” (The only rule we need is never giving up / The only faith we have is faith in us) and finally, brazenly, to the anthem “Smile” (We watched the sun come up / But took it down to hide it / Seems like the spring has come and gone / It felt like forever).
It took all year, and Portugal. The Man — a group guaranteed for seven years to pump out a record, to tour and tour and tour, to tuck its fans to bed at night with a community of psychedelic rock — had learned to slow down and transform all-day, all-night recording with Danger Mouse into adrenaline, into words that are at once dark and light, into sounds that are overlapping with danger and charm. The whole “evil friends” thing was just a happy writing accident, by the way, a lyrical coincidence belying a collaborative friendship Burton says taught him, too: “I felt like I was watching them do something special and I wanted to let them do it, so sometimes I was more hands-on, but sometimes more hands-off than I had been with anyone,” says Danger Mouse. “They had done enough albums that I thought it would be fun to shake it up a little bit.”
“In the beginning, I asked Brian why he had wanted to talk about making a record,” recalls Gourley. “And he admitted that he was surprised when he saw us live. ‘I didn’t know you guys could sound like that.’ There had been this perception that we’ve been something else — and I’ve noticed it, at festivals, everywhere — that we were something we were not. But then we got in a room with Danger Mouse, to the place where we could just throw that out, wake up and say, Here we are. We’re this band! Let’s just make it, together.”
Evil Friends Review
Packing plenty of excitement and quirkiness into their dazzling mix of rock, pop, psychedelia, and electronica, Portugal. The Man’s work is as imaginative and catchy as it is immaculate and daring. Overall, Evil Friends is an extremely fun and engrossing record. It’s fair to say that Portugal. The Man is among the most prolific outfits around today, as they’ve essentially released a new album every year since their 2006 debut, Waiter: “You Vultures!” With famed producer Danger Mouse behind the wheel, Evil Friends finds the group continuing to venture into programmed territory (including beats and colorful sound effects), which gives the music a celebratory vibe. Of course, the production would be worthless if there weren’t any hooks or intriguing arrangements, but that’s definitely not an issue since this album is full of them.
Opener “Plastic Soldiers” is probably the most multifaceted creation here, as it contains a few distinct parts. It begins with beautiful melancholy—like a lost Mew piece—before transitioning into an upbeat, folksy number full of poppy elegance and intriguing atmosphere. It concludes as a prophetic commentary with reflective piano chords and triumphant horns. It’s incredible. In contrast is “Creep in a T-shirt”, a free-spirited and joyous affair that oozes eccentricity as it recalls the uniqueness of Super Furry Animals and Gorillaz. There’s also the title track, a quick rocker with pleasant harmonies.
Without a doubt, the most addictive selection here is “Modern Jesus”. Its hypnotic central synthesizer riff is matched by guitar arpeggios, programmed percussion, ingenious sound effects, and warm vocals that invite sing-a-longs.It’s an instant classic. “Atomic Man” is another catchy aggressor that blends computerized, vintage, and modern elements well, while “Sea of Air” is somber and sparse at the start and then becomes more tranquil and idealistic. The fact that it’s so different from its predecessor makes it remarkable; in fact, it shares the same sense of optimism as Of Monsters and Men’s exceptional My Head Is an Animal.
“Waves” continues the discontented vibe, and it’s arguably the best example of it on Evil Friends. A pained ballad, the song features lovely interplay between guitar and piano, as well gripping melodies and an impressive buildup. Afterward, “Holy Roller (Hallelujah)” comes in like a bat out of hell, channeling hip-hop attitude and carefree energy with its distorted vocals and wild tempo changes. Later on, “Purple Yellow Red and Blue” echoes glam rock extravagance, and closer “Smile” is bombastic and varied as it reprises brilliantly elements of “Plastic Soldiers,” sending listeners off with a thoughtful yet bold statement.
Portugal. The Man have created something special with Evil Friends. The core songwriting and performances are top notch, and Danger Mouse’s input adds a plethora of valuable modifications and ideas. Despite the aforementioned comparisons, I’ve never heard anything quite like this, which, in addition to the band’s inventive compositional approach and delivery, is reason enough for me to recommend it. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up ASAP.
Contact Portugal. The Man
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Vimeo | Tumblr | Instagram
Contact PopMatters
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Kindle Edition | Email
Sources : Portugal. The Man Photo | Listen To Evil Friends | Portugal. The Man Biography | Evil Friend Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon (Explicit) | Amazon | Best Buy (Digipak)
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