Portugal. The Man — whose founding members are from Wasilla — is back with a new single. The R&B-flavored protest song "Feel It Still" from the upcoming album "Woodstock" hit number one on Billboard's Adult Alternative chart in April.
The track is a bit of a musical departure from the group's progressive rock sound. The video follows a hedonistic rebel wandering through a post-apocalyptic world full of clickable surprises.
Thirty resistance-themed "Easter eggs" are embedded in the video. When clicked, they lead to what the band calls "tools for resistance," including links to Planned Parenthood, videos outlining the rights of protesters, and ways to contact the White House. The full interactive video can be seen at feelitstill.com.
In a story on noisey.vice.com, Portugal co-founder and former Wasilla High School student Jon Gourley said that while working on "Feel It Still" and the other "Woodstock" tracks, he and his band mates, Wasilla's Zach Carothers, and Portland, Oregon's Kyle O'Quinn and Jason Sechrist, were "trying to write music that would help people feel they're not alone, even if they're angry or feeling lost. This video is our way of saying that we're all in this together."
The band is also in the midst of a five-month tour that has already brought them to national venues including New York City's Studio 5, Tennessee's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. It will soon whisk them to western Europe where they'll play such places as Paris' Bataclan, Manchester's Gorilla club and Hamburg, Germany's Reeperbahn Festival.
Portugal. The Man singer tends his Alaska roots
If you still don't know the backstory of the band's strange name, here's an explanation from Gourley published in a 2012 Alaska Dispatch News story:
"The name is an alter ego … We all love David Bowie and James Brown and Elvis. Things like that. And we wanted to create this alter ego much like Ziggy Stardust or Sgt. Pepper. And in doing that, we wanted to find something that was representative of our band, and our group," Gourley said.
"We just were talking about it at the time, we just said, 'A country is an individual within the world that is a group of people, with it's own voice.' And I think it just came down to Portugal being the guy's name… The period is there so you know that, that's the name. And 'The Man,' just lets you know, he's the man. Keeps it cool."