Portugal The Man | ChinaShop

Music Country Music: Portugal. The Man Get Up Down South

April 14, 2011 - 10:49 am

Church Mouth: Waiter “You Vultures!”, The Satanic Satanist and its acoustic follow-up, The Majestic Majesty. These are all albums by Portugal. The Man, a group who appears to take just as much pleasure in titling their records as they do making them. Based in Portland but originally from Alaska—most of them, at least—the experimental rockers have released some of the most adventurous music we’ve heard in the last three years in any genre. Now signed to Atlantic Records, they’ve got a new album due out sometime in the late summer, and before that will be performing at Bonnaroo. We caught up with them the day after their big show at Stubb’s, walked ’em down an alley, took some photos and asked some questions.

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interview Portugal. The Man.

by Neil Feineman

August 13, 2009 - 11:48 am

You might as well get used to the odd name, because you’re going to be hearing a lot about Portugal. The Man very soon. They’ve played more than 1000 gigs, some of them at high-profile festivals, over the past four years. The press loves them. And their new album, The Satanic Satanist, their fourth in as many years, may well be a defining sound of summer 2009.

When not in the studio, the band spends most of their time crammed up in a van, moving from town to town. But while the road has broken many bands, John Baldwin Gourley, who plays guitar and sings (winning Alternative Press’s Best Vocalist award in 2009), ain’t complaining. “Once you get used to the restrictions of space and of having less around you, living in a van is “not so far out there “

Portugal. The Man – People Say

But the van is not home. Nor20is Portland, where he lives when not on tour. For Gourley, home was, is and always will be Alaska, where his parents fled to from the east in the 1970s in search of a better life and where he grew up.

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Music Portugal. The Man. Plays Lollapalooza

by Max Herman

August 13, 2009 - 11:47 am

As the sounds of Snoop Dogg laying down his hits like “That’s That” rumbled in the near background, I tried my best to have an audible conversation with the nomadic four-man band known as Portugal. The Man. Distractions or not, I was able to have a good talk with this group that derives from both Portland, Oregon and Alaska. Earlier in the day I was lucky enough to catch Portugal at the Lolla’s PlayStation stage. Here I experienced musicians with a strong influence from late-60s/early-70s rock, pop, and soul, but who are unafraid to step ahead. With a dual guitar, drums, multiple keyboard set-up and almost everyone on vocals, members John Gourley (vocals/guitars), Zach Carothers (bass/vocals), Jason Sechrist (drums), Ryan Neighbors (keys/vocals), and touring player Zoe Manville (keys/vocals) easily glide across a wave of old school-minded harmonic freshness. I spoke to Portugal. The Man about their sonic commonalities, touring, and how home is now a hard place to find.

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