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So I just turned today into a depressive Portishead day. This song is by far the most abrasive track from their most recent album Third. It was the album’s first single, and it heralded the return of one of my favorite bands back in ’08. “Machine Gun” kills me every time.
Portishead – Machine Gun
According to the new @PortisheadClub Twitter account, there’s a possibility of Portishead playing at the 2011 edition of Coachella! This is too much for me to handle. The triple knockout of Kraftwerk, Portishead, and Prince in 2008 comprises what I consider to be the best night of music I’ve ever experienced.
Update: So whoever is running that account is claiming to have confirmed that No Doubt, The Strokes, and Soundgarden are also playing Coachella this year. This sounds like a long-shot in my opinion.
It’s that time of the year again! The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will be held from April 25-27, and after months of speculation, the official lineup has been released. Just as I did last year in preparation for Coachella, I will be reviewing some artists that will be at Coachella. Some of these artists I will be very familiar with, and others I will review after listening to them for the first time. To kick things off, here’s Portishead!
Hailing from Bristol, England, Portishead (pronounced with a hard “s”) has been pioneering the genre of trip-hop since the mid-90s when they released their first album “Dummy.” While comparisons of artists can sometimes degrade one’s opinion of them, I think that Portishead is a mashup of Massive Attack and Everything But the Girl (both of which I love).
Portishead’s most recent release, 1998’s Roseland NYC Live was published with a VHS (the DVD came in 2002). The video was (obviously) a live recording of material from “Dummy” and “Portishead” (their sophomore release) played by a massive orchestral enseamble plus drums, a turntable (possibly Geoff Barrow), and a Beth Gibbons. The shear size of the total number of musicians was astounding and created a sonic quality completely different than Portishead’s LPs.
While I love Portishead and am avidly awaiting their third album (titled “Third”), I can’t help but be apprehensive of their live performance. I doubt that they will put a full orchestra onstage, and downtempo probably don’t make for the best shows. Regardless, the sound will undoubtedly be incredible, and I fully plan on seeing them closing Saturday.