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Chris Portka was originally going to release his latest effort, The Album Everyone Wants (TAEW), exclusively on vinyl. There’s some sort of irony about releasing an album hyped up as “the one that everyone desires” on such an intentional media like wax, but maybe that’s the point. Chris Portka does whatever the fuck he wants – evidenced by his previous effort, the noisy and experimental Trash Music (that we reviewed here), and further bolstered by the not-quite-180-degree turn taken on TAEW. Portka leans harder into the American songbook here on TAEW, never eschewing his noisy indie rocker tendencies, but instead, mashing them together with gentler folk rock backbones; sighing pedal steel guitars; and delightfully weird psychedelia.   While the vinyl of Trash Music ramped up feelings of nostalgia and anxiety, it has a different outcome when listening to the broader, “songwriter” appeal of an album like TAEW. Chris’ left-field shenanigans feel like the flourishes that make this[...]

A few months ago, we reviewed Chris Portka‘s Trash Music (you can read our original review here) – as a creative, challenging, and utterly unique work of art, Trash Music goes down, at least in our annals, as one of the most left-field recordings we’ve ever had the pleasure of diving in to… Needless to say, when the opportunity came to get our hands on a vinyl copy of Trash Music, we couldn’t say no. Here’s a bit about our experiences revisiting Trash Music in a different medium – via the warm, comforting wash of analog vinyl. First, there’s something to be said about receiving and unwrapping a vinyl – seeing the uniquely colored wax, enjoying the “case candy,” and experiencing the art in a physical sense before diving into the aural aspect of the album. My copy of Trash Music came in a surfy, mint green (a personal favorite hue). It also came with a[...]

California bay area-based artist Chris Portka has always dreamt of being a musician. With his roots dating back to the dirty, blistering grunge of the ’90s, a young portka followed his heart… He fought past crippling stage fright; anxiety attacks during Elliot Smith covers; and a voice that sounds like a “Rhinoceros fighting to befriend an Elephant” (his words not ours) to get where he is today. It’s safe to say that portka has devoted a fair amount of blood, sweat, and tears to make this whole music thing work. And while he makes himself at home in any jam session (whether it be on an acoustic guitar or a synth or a piano), there’s a deeper, stranger fire burning within him. As he puts it: “my roots burrow in this impressionistic improv that reflects a fierce internal conflict.” Enter trash music, portka’s latest offering. It’s a twelve song album[...]