We all know that the dream of the ’90s is alive in Portland, where young people go to retire. But sometimes, in Portland or Brooklyn or Austin, all the DIY pickling and knitting and beard-growing starts to become reminiscent of another ’90s entirely — the 1890s. In the seemingly too-good-to-be-true follow-up to last year’s blockbuster musical number, Portlandia’s Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have brought us “Dream of the 1890s.” Microbrew or die, bitches!
Portlandia is a show that works almost as a series of inside jokes. The sketches are all knowing winks to the audience about the culture they presumably know all about, in which your friend has begun pickling everything and people can “put a bird on anything and call it art.” But it also works because Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are the kind of people who you’d like to share an inside joke with. Both are unquestionably cool in their own right, but it’s their friendship, both on and off television, that’s an equally compelling force behind their television success. In interviews and on the show, they seem like two BFFs having fun as much as professionals with a television show, riffing off each other and cracking wise. But not all twosomes translate as well off the HDTV screen, so it’s a relief that the Portlandia live show, which wrapped up its first leg in New York this weekend, shows the friends to be every bit as fun as they seem. After the jump, the best moments from the show at The Bowery Ballroom, plus what Armisen and Brownstein had to say about spirit animals, overanalyzing text messages, and a possible Portlandia movie.
“It’s not just regular science fiction,” says Fred Armisen’s character in the latest Portlandia Season 2 clip to emerge. ”It’s actually good.” And that’s how he, Carrie Brownstein, and so many of us get sucked into Battlestar Galactica. What follows will be familiar to anyone who’s skipped out on normal human interaction in favor of an entire evening (or day… or weekend…) glued to all available episodes of any given addictive TV series. We won’t ruin the sketch by saying anymore, but, as usual, Fred and Carrie totally get us. Feel understood (or, you know, terribly ashamed) after the jump. Read More »
After playing in bands for her entire adult life, Carrie Brownstein is no stranger to the road. But we’re betting she’s never done a tour quite like the one she’s planning for next month. Brownstein and her Portlandia co-star Fred Armisen have announced Portlandia: The Tour, a seven-date mini-jaunt that will take them to such hipster capitols as Seattle, San Francisco, New York, LA, Chicago, and — of course — Portland between late December and mid-January. The live show will see the duo performing music, previewing footage from the sketch show (whose second season premieres January 6th), and offering behind-the-scenes stories. Tickets go on sale tomorrow; check out the dates after the jump.
It’s official: We want to be Carrie Brownstein when we grow up. Over the weekend, we watched her rock out, guitar heroine-style, with her new band, Wild Flag. And today brings a new preview clip for Season 2 of Portlandia. Although we’ve been assured that many of our favorite characters will be back when the show returns in January, the video introduces us to Brownstein and Fred Armisen’s newest creations — the Sanitation Twins. Together, they host an informational video about the latest recycling initiative in Portland, which, of course, turns out to be impossibly complicated. Learn how to separate your regular coffee lids from your lipstick-stained coffee lids for the good of the environment after the jump.
One of the great advantages to being a culture nerd in the era of the internet is its ability to provide context for your obsessions. Learning about an artist’s life and interests outside of the field for which they are known can change your perception of their work and allows you to discover more awesome art in the process. We all know how wrong this can go when huge stars try to capitalize on their fame in every possible market (see: celebrity perfume lines). Thankfully, today, with the ease of self-release and DIY art, smaller and more interesting musicians are broadening their creative horizons with fabulous results. With that in mind, here are a few artists whose musical work we love, but who have other creative projects that deserve more attention. As always, please leave your own additions to the list in the comments.
For those of us who love TV, this time of year is a dead zone. Your favorite series are either running reruns or not returning for months to come. But here’s some exciting news: 2011 is bringing in more exciting changes than we usually see — and we’re not just talking about the fact that American Idol is moving to a new night for the first time in a decade. From a handful of promising looking British imports to a new HBO series that’s being referred to as “The Sopranos with swords,” after the jump we’ve rounded up 10 of the most interesting new shows that we could find. Add anything that we’ve missed in the comments.