Port O'Brien
When you read about Port O’Brien, you might think you’ve stumbled on a plot summary of the latest indie darling flick to hit art house theatres. Or maybe these characters were developed for a moody and gripping piece of fiction writing. Since the band formed in 2005, their anything-but-mundane story has inspired a flurry of media applause. To put it nautically, Port O’Brien has been making waves.
The band’s core duo, Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin, might be some of the hardest working folks both in and out of the music business. While spending the majority of the year living in Oakland, during the summers they relocate to Kodiak Island in Alaska where Van works 20 hours a day with his father on a commercial salmon fishing boat, and Cambria puts in similar long hours as the town’s baker on a remote part of the island.
Port O’Brien’s music is not a collection of sea shanties and work songs, but the themes of struggle and loneliness that bubble up throughout the lyrics come from a deep understanding of what those things actually mean. Their more recent songs take a previously folk tinged, indie rock sound and infuse it with the rowdy choral exuberance of (it’s hard to avoid this comparison) Arcade Fire. Port O’Brien manage to avoid sounding like all the other bands you’ve heard this year, and might even make you wish you'd discovered them sooner.
Even though they’d been playing as a full band for several years, it wasn’t until 2008 that Port O’Brien released their official debut album, All We Could Do Was Sing. It has been met with high praise from even the snarkiest critics, and M. Ward called Port O’Brien his favorite new band in February 2008. JOELLE JAFFE
