Portugal. The Man

Portugal. The Man releasing "lost" 2008 live sessions (watch "The Devil" video)

It’s been almost four years since Portugal. The Man released their last album Woodstock (the one with their biggest song yet, “Feel It Still”), and while we still haven’t heard any concrete word on a followup, the band are now looking back on their early days by releasing a live-in-studio album that they recorded in Portland at the end of their 2008 tour and shelved. It’s called Oregon City Sessions and it’s due April 16 via Approaching AIRBalloons/Secretly Distribution, with a vinyl/CD release following on June 11. Here’s more background, via press release:

In the first two years of the band’s existence, they released three full-lengths, one EP, and a couple of standalone singles while performing just shy of 500 shows. This young band from Alaska drove from city to city, bought bulk bags of rice, and seldomly splurged with their Taco Bell-Feed The Beat bucks. PTM was committed. They ended the tour in December of 2008 and instead of taking a much-needed break, made the decision to record the culmination of what their live performance had become. They found a rare gem of a studio in the suburbs of Portland, piled in with their live gear and a handful of friends with handheld cameras. Longtime collaborator and filmmaker Graham (Baclagon) Agcaolli and engineer/mixer Jacob Portrait (who would later join Unknown Mortal Orchestra) would help to document.

They performed their full set, one time through — with no re-takes or overdubs — just the band in its natural form.

“The first few years of PTM were whirlwind,” says singer/guitarist John Gourley. “We didn’t have a place to live so we were pretty much either recording or touring. We were so wide-eyed coming out of Alaska that every day was an exciting new adventure. I think you can see it in our playing.”

They were heading into the studio a couple of weeks later to record their next album, The Satanic Satanist, and Oregon City Sessions was put on a shelf. There it sat for over a decade. A select few saw the full film. The band, their manager, or tour manager would occasionally offer to go over to people’s homes and screen it for them. Sometimes in the parking lot, the band would screen a handful of songs to the local supporters. They forged friendships but whenever asked the answer would always be, “yeah, we’ll release that at some point”.

Now the band has been off the road for well over a year, by far the longest break since they started and the time just seems right. Here is Oregon City Sessions dug out of the archives. Untouched, unchanged from the day it was finished. It is a time capsule of a band finding its way. A snapshot of young raw talent before they won awards, before they sold millions of records, before they headlined festivals. Just a couple of kids from Alaska wanting to travel the world and play music.

The first song to be released is “The Devil,” which also comes with a video featuring footage from the sessions. It’s cool stuff, and a nice trip back in time to a much different era of Portugal. The Man. Check it out below.

Band Lineup
John Baldwin Gourley
Zachary Scott Carothers
Ryan Neighbors
Garrett Lunceford

Tracklist
1 – Church Mouth
2 – Horse Warming Party
3 – New Orleans
4 – Bellies Are Full
5 – 1989
6 – My Mind
7 – Lay Me Back Down
8 – Chicago
9 – And I
10 – The Devil
11 – AKA M80 The Wolf
12 – Colors
13 – March With 6
14 – Tommy
15 – Helter Skelter

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