news

The band you hear the most about from tastemakers lately, Portugal. The Man, is releasing a new album entitled The Satanic Satanist.  They recorded the album across the river from Boston at Camp Street Studios.

Guitarist and singer John Gourley has created a beautiful and innovative fold out packaging for the CD.

For a sneak peek at the album, they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve been unveiling 30 second trailers to each song on their website.

http://portugaltheman.net/

Also on their website is a blog written by John regarding the recent leak of their album.

It is such a great piece of writing that I couldn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t hold back from chiming in myself:

Every time I read something by John Gourley
I like,
I don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t know.
I just feel a better connection with him
not only as a musician
a fan
but as a writer or commentator of the music industry.

Not that any one who sees the world differently than us is wrong
but the guy just GETS IT

In my first conversation with the band,

(not the first time I met them, that was in 2006 on their tour with Gatsbys American Dream when I took a break from chain smoking cloves inside a dingy Detroit bar and drunkenly yelled Fuck Alaska! during a break in their set when John mentioned how crappy the malls are in Southeast Michigan....he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s right though, the malls really suck.  Hopefully I\'ve grown up a little bit since then, too!)

we talked a lot about a sense of community that seems to be missing in the US.  For the music world, where friends family and business partners are usually the one in the same, community means almost everything (at least from my perspective).

Now, he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s older and vastly more experienced than me so it feels weird to say this

but I really see a lot of myself in John and the guys from Portugal.

growin up on cartoons and video games
doodling
mind always running
great and innovative ideas
bad haircut
same taste in hollow bodied guitars...

Growing up in Alaska, perhaps they just had a different womb for development than me. It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s sad to see that both our hometowns and states are struggling significantly
I wish I had the same type of support or even braveness to live the lifestyle they do.

Here\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s to you John.  And I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m sure you\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ll get a text from me soon, Zach.  Thanks for being who you are.

- Andrew

Editor\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s note: Andrew Phan is the Content Director of Tastemakers and \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Guest Host DJ Short Round\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" on our iTunes Podcast, Tastemakers Radio.  He is the author of our cover story from November 08 featuring Portugal. The Man as well as subsequent interviews with the band throughout their visits to Boston in the year 2009.  Aided by a childhood and development in Detroit and his family of Vietnamese born-Australian immigrants his music \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"tastes\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" and connections reach from LA, The Midwest, Boston, and plenty of places in between.

      Tastemakers recently sat down with Justincredible and Zak Broman (coordinators of the TRUST parties as well as the DJ duo known as Roguewaves) to talk about their recent success in the Boston party scene.  If you havent heard about TRUST yet, then let me fill in the blanks for you.  DJs, VJs, dancing, ladies, fellas, booze, and more dancing are boundless at these underground events.  Attendants of the parties are often given multiple fake addresses a few days before the actual party, and not many people, even the DJs, have any idea where the true location is until just before the music starts.  This is for two reasons: it keeps the hype of the party up since its a race to find out the location before it gets busted by the Cops (which happens all the time), and because the usual prospective guest list tops 400 people (no joke). 

      The tricks are only put up with by the fans because these parties truly are out of control and some of the best underground parties Boston has seen in a while.  The guys from Roguewaves don NOT mess around, and with Justin’s audiophile-esque collection of music and hard-beat-and-melody style matched with Zak’s more upbeat and lighter taste for French electro, the duo takes the typical club music to a new level.  The VJs usually hold it down pretty tight, too, which really helps round the party out and just put every attendee into “dance mode.”  The parties attract all different crowds.  From the hipsters to the punks to the frat boys, nobody wants to miss one of these, and neither should you. 

      Thus far, the events have been held at house parties and rented out spaces, with no professional venues in the mix…until this Friday.  Banger is a notoriously well known dance party in the Boston area, and it’s about to go up against the undeniable underground known as TRUST.  The matchup is sure to bring a crowd, and damned sure going to impress, but the real question is: do the guys from Banger have what it takes to dethrone the kings of the underground scene?  I doubt it, but we’ll see how it goes.

      What are YOU doing Friday night?  Unless your answer is something like, “Going to see TRUST vs. Banger at the Paradise,” then you’re a damn fool…and Mr. T pities you.

Editor\'s Note: TRUST vs Banger is Friday at The Middle East Downstairs with the aforementioned Roguewaves in addition to Jay K (So Dope), DJ Ryan Durkin, and unannounced special guests.

Vincent Tursi, also known as VJ, is a Staff Writer and co-host of our iTunes podcast, Tastemakers Radio.  This VJ is not to be confused with the emerging artistry known as VJ, or Video DJ.

So it\\\'s been way too long since we\\\'ve come back on to say hello on this here website.  So here\\\'s an update:

    - There\\\'s been LOTS of behind-the-scenes work going on here at Tastemakers.  We\\\'re excited to shed this temporary website (as cute and fun as it is, we\\\'re not even going to try to hide the fact that the text is all jumbled). We\\\'ve been designing and coding a sexy new homepage for Tastemakers to be released in September.

    - ALSO being released in September is Issue 15...and let me tell you, it\\\'s going to be the best issue yet.

   - accompanying the release of our next issue is our next tastemakers presents... concert, which we\'re currently booking and planning. Soulive, Passion Pit, and Portugal. The Man can serve as indications from our past acts...we are gearing up to kick off the new school year with a legen...wait for it...and maybe step away from the computer if you\'re lactose intolerant because the next part of the word is: dary evening, tastemakers style (with a little bit of help from NPH/Barney Stinson, look at me ramble)

    - What can you look forward to from Tastemakers for the rest of the summer?

     wellllllll we just taped the final episode of the summer season of our podcast, Tastemakers Radio.  We\\\'ve unfortunately run into some server issues in re-designing the website, but if you\\\'re a subscriber and want the episodes before we fix our server PLEASE email us at tastemakersradio@gmail.com and we\\\'ll send you to a stream.

     we\\\'re gonna have exclusive interview and feature updates to the iTunes feed so don\\\'t give up on your subscription yet!

just a taste of features yet to be uploaded to iTunes:

 - Katie Price\'s ROCKammend interview with Nashville rockers Oblio
 - a review of the new Elvis Costello album by Jackson Connor (who else?)
 - a couple of interviews with LA songstresses featuring Stacy*Clark and the you know who...
 - a conversation between VJ and Boston party animals TRUST/Roguewaves
- and plenty plenty more to come

     We\\\'ve also got a fun new approach to our show reviews this summer using text updates to twitter...what should we call them, tweet reviews? that sounds like porn....twitter+highlights = twilights? no...Katie Price and those vampire loving tweenie girls would get the wrong idea....we\\\'ll figure out something

regardlesss, look out for our updates in the show reviews section by the end of this month including COLDPLAY, ISIS, and PASSION PIT

as always, if you\\\'d like to get involved in tastemakers, be it getting your photos from bonnaroo or sasquatch in the next issue, YOUR roadtrip playlist from the summer, an article, a request for show tickets, a request for the new As Tall As Lions or Phoenix album, ANYTHING at all, (seriously, send us some cake!)

EMAIL US at tastemakersmag@gmail.com

Here\\\'s to havin a great summer (I\\\'m holding up my iced tall one pump peppermint iced coffee)

Phanny, Short Round, Content Director, loudest of loudmouths

- Andrew

Even though it’s heating up outside, we at Tastemakers have kicking it into high gear- reviewing mad albums, laying out the news (and our hot bods), and even making catchphrases.  Shamwow, anyone?  Little did we know, all of our hardwork and quirks would catch on... 

We all love pitchfork and apparently, they love us too.   A lot.  Last weekend, the indie music site released their extensive Guide to Summer Festivals, oddly resembling our Summer Festival spread format... (insert twilight zone theme) Coincidence or not? See for yourself at http://tinyurl.com/lu7o6s .

AND, Doug Benson of Best Week Ever on VH1 picked up on the new slang that’s somehow...er, sweeping the nation?  Shamwow!  You’ve got to hear this to believe it: http://tinyurl.com/pe63eq  (it’s about two and a half minutes in)

Now you know where you heard it first... Keep checkin back here to be the coolest kid on your street.  Also look out for the next podcast, featuring interviews with different leaders from the philanthropic side of the music scene. 

Muah,
KP

Yo what\\\'s up, hope everyone\\\'s weekend is getting off to a great start, but if you need some extra momentum, definitely hit up some of this Tastemakers Radio that we just pulled out of the oven

Making a big splash is our old friend from Philly, Mr. Kyle Risley, who teamed up with Short Round (aka Benedict Phan) to try and punk VJ and myself.

Also this week the gang talks to a real live screamo front man, David Stephens, whose band We Came As Romans just hopped on the Equal Vision bus with the likes of Chiodos, Circa Survive, and Portugal. The Man. We discuss the appeal (or lack thereof) of the ZuneHD, we officially quit RiRi//Breezy fiasco (we\\\'re letting KanYe\\\'s people take care of that matter).

  Don\\\'t forget we\\\'re featuring a sip, a gulp, a thirst quencher of the new Phoenix album by our go-to reviewer, Jackson Connor

Oh and uh...good look, One-Eyed Dog, but I\\\'m still champ. Come get at THIS!

- Old School Mel