holy shite! welcome to portugal.

before i do anything else today in the office (yes, i get into the office at 11 am, but only on fridays when there's no southside pride to put out) i need to let you know about portugal. the man. and yes, that's the ridiculous name of the band. the ridiculous name of their album is waiter: "you vultures!" when and if they ever make it to town for a show, i'm going to have a hell of a time copy editing the piece. so, they're from alaska originally. i got their disc earlier this week and threw it in a couple times and knew that it sounded good, but didn't really get to it in terms of really listening until this morning. and man it's good. if you like the mars volta or the dismemberment plan, you should get it immediately when it comes out on tuesday. the singer's a dead ringer for cedric from mars volta in many ways, but the music's different. a lot of times, you get bands that are like another band, but just off a little bit and so inevitably not as good as the original. cf. the mars volta and that band with the song that goes "j'ai un ame ... solitaire." can't remember their name. anyways, portugal. the man is shifted just far enough away to make it new and interesting, but still close enough to fit into the same kind of sound. they've got the waltz-time creepy track ("stables & chairs") and the outright rocker ("marching with 6") but they've also got more poppy moments than the mars volta and leadoff track "how the leopard got its spots" has this completely brain-burrowing ascending keyboard bit in the chorus that sticks with you.

so it's like 3 parts mars volta, 1 part dismemberment plan and 1 part rogue wave. if you find mars volta too abrasive, i'd try these guys because they're a damn sight more melodic, and if you do like mars volta, let me suggest this as makeout music.