“My Mind“
from the album Church Mouth
2007
iTunes
Portugal. The Man (which, to keep things really confusing, is not a man, but a band) is an Alaska-based group that has gotten some nice buzz for its offbeat, prog-rock meets punk rock sort of sound. Much of the band’s appealing weirdness comes from singer John Baldwin Gourley, the son of Alaskan dog sled mushers whose bizarre lyrics and mutable stage show makes one wonder if he spent a little too much time in the blazing Arctic sun.
Pinning the trio down genre-wise is about as frustrating as figuring out why there’s a period in the middle of its name. One minute it’s trawling the post-Zeppelin blues swamp, the next it’s haunting the shadows with psych-pop, then it’s getting its dance groove on with fatback drums and call-and-response vocals. Sometimes in the same song.
All of which might suggest a lack of cohesion, but no. Whatever notion it pursues, Portugal. The Man plays solid rock that sacrifices neither hooks nor power. It all hangs together with an accessibility one wouldn’t suspect from its punctuation.
Sweet Song