More Than A Taco Bell Commercial

I know you’ve seen it. The boy running from his girlfriends parents house, taco gripped in one hand, jacket in the other, terrified look on his face as you see an angry dad chasing him down the street. There’s one thing you may have not noticed, besides the fact that the Grilled Stuft Nacho is not actually that big, and that is the song playing.  That song is “Evil Friends” by Portugal. The Man off of their latest album Evil Friends. 

Evil Friends was released June 4th, 2013 and is the 7th studio album from Portugal. The Man. The album was produced with Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) as the band was searching for a bolder, different sound from their previous albums and that they definitely achieved. The album is more sinister than previous albums while still being colorful and fun. Although “Evil Friends” starts out dark and slow it takes pulsing turn-around at the minute mark. The song becomes almost unrecognizable as the same song in the Taco Bell commercial. The video, however, never loses its eeriness.

Officially forming in 2004, Portugal. The Man didn’t appear on the alternative music scene until their 4th album in 2009. They made a name for themselves with their first single “People Say” which peaked at 25 on U.S. Adult Alternative Album charts and is their highest charting single to this day. The song takes a political stand against war and displays how meaningless lives are to the citizens that know nothing about war past the censored media coverage. The lyrics paint a sad picture of how ignorant the rest of the country is to the war going on overseas.

“All the soldiers say, “It’ll be alright. We may make it through the war if we make it through the night.” All the people, they say “What a lovely day that we won the war. May have lost a million men, but we got a million more.” All the people, they say” 

Portugal’s music has evolved tremendously since lead singer, Gourley, and bass player, Carothers, first starting playing music together in high school in the town of Wasilla, Alaska. Take and adventure through the bands evolution and from 2004 through now on this playlist.

Then, if you are really digging it, you can buy tickets to their show at Mercy Lounge on May 16th.

http://mercylounge.com/calendar/venue/cannery/2014/05/16/portugal-the-man/

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