Their recent set featured:

And I
People Say
Do You?
The Sun

Listen to WOXY here.

Visit Portugal The Man at their official site.

MP3: Portugal The Man – Live On WOXY

Okay. So I’m back with some more comments on what I thought might have been some good music from last year. You will probably disagree. In fact, I hope you do! So there! Go and listen to your Portugal. The Man. records, see if I care!

Mercury Rev – Secret for a Song (yousendit)

I loved The Secret Migration, another wonderful, ethereal experience from Mercury Rev. I have the same kind of otherworldly sensation from these guys that I do from Sigur Ros; and while this record may not hold up to the giddy heights of All is Dream, and there may be no standout track like Goddess on a Highway, this is certainly, to my mind, a more coherent whole than Deserter’s Songs. The first record I bought in ’05, and certainly one of the most well-played.

King Creosote – 678 (yousendit)

No, not a folk-rock-bastard-cut-down-cover-version of Steps’ 5-6-7-8, but a rather wonderful, plaintive melody from the King’s awesometacular, witty, whimsical, and thoroughly beautiful KC Rules OK! Another Fifer, King Creosote (aka Kenny) used to run (The Best) music store in town, before it went, erm, bust, because the music he sold was much better than the numpties in this town (who’d rather go to the cheap CDs in Tesco) realised. Now leader of the mighty Fence Collective, you wouldn’t go wrong in acquainting yourself with his work.

The Go! Team – Junior Kickstart (yousendit)

Maybe it’s just been a great year in British music, or maybe I’m just a nationalistic twat. But today I’m posting this Brighton band’s homage to 80′s kid’s motorbike-timetrial show Junior Kickstart (presented, fact fans, by Peter Purves, companion to the original Doctor Who, that silver haired devil, William Hartnell!). But I love Thunder, Lightning, Strike; I love the title, I love the big cat on the cover, I love the fun, and most of all, I love the music. It’s a tremendous, life-affirming, big-trumpets-and-bigger-ideas example of everything that’s good about music.

Did I say I like this band?

Megaupload links (in case the yousendit ones have expired):

Mercury Rev – Secret for a Song
King Creosote – 678
The Go! Team – Junior Kickstart
Low – Cue the Strings

The Music Slut likes free things. Anyone who wants to send us free things is more than welcome to. Here’s a lovely man, who deserves better than to have me editing the email he sent us:

Hey,
This is a very nice man, giving the Music Slut free stuff, Creative Director over at Fearless Records/Public
Music in California. That’s nice. I bask in your reflected glory.

I regularly read your blog because I share your musical tastes and you occasionally write funny things that make my work day go by faster. Everyone shares our musical tastes. We’re sluts. We like everything. But we like you, because you say nice things about us. What’s a ‘work day‘?

I wanted to share some stuff with you from an album that we’re releasing in January from a band called Portugal The Man. Hey! According to your press stuff, they’re called Portugal. The Man. Is.the.period.really.that.unimportant.?

Its Grammar: ‘They’re’, but we’ll let that pass a quirky indie rock band with some electronic oomph and soul power. Quirky. Yes. From the tracks (downloads below, slut fans!) I’d say I agree about the oomph and power, though maybe I’d say electronic power (‘leccy, natch) and soul oomph.

They also have a myspace page. I’m so excited about that I just wet myself.

Let me know what you think. I love them! I love them! I want their Babies!
Keep up the good work! Thanks, hon, you too. Mwah.

Anyway. I gave the tracks a quick listen (in between Belle and Sebastian tracks), and they’re pretty good; musically they’re a pretty interesting band and I’d be keen to hear the album. I don’t know much about them (although most of them are from Alaska!). Certainly, I like them, and the guy who’s in the office with me right now thinks they’re A.O.K. Maybe a little whiny, but I think high pitched can be good – just listen to Belle and Sebastian! (I am Not Obsessed).

Portugal. The Man – Stables And Chairs

Portugal. The Man – AKA M80 the Wolf

Portugal. The Man – Marching With Six

Maybe it’s just the relief from the Belle and Sebastian; but I think these are pretty good. Of course, they’ll probably disappear into my iTunes, only to be heard when I hit shuffle. However, they’re definitely not going into the recycle bin. When these tracks come on, I’ll probably think – “oh man, that was the time that I pissed off the record company so much that they wouldn’t send us any more free stuff.”

Album: Waiter: You Vultures! is out on January 24th, 2006.

(Hey look! My Old Kentucky Blog also features Portugal. The Man! What are the odds on that happening??!)