Following the groundbreaking launch last month of PTM Coin, a new community-driven cryptocurrency, critically-acclaimed and Grammy-Award winning band Portugal The Man today announced a FREE stream of the highly coveted “Oregon City Sessions” performance that fans have been clamoring for since 2009. The event is set for Friday, February 26 at 6PM PST and will stream on Portugal The Man’s YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/portugalthemanband) and Twitch channel. In addition, the band will host a “Backstage Hangout” co-viewing and Q&A event on the band’s Discord server exclusively for fans holding 10 or more PTM Coin. The band will simultaneously host the pre-sale to the vinyl and CD editions of Oregon City Sessions which will be released in stores in June 2021. There will be a 24-hour pre-sale and store wide sale. During its first week alone, PTM Coin drove more than $111k USD in total transaction volume and more than $1000 in fan-to-fan transactions.
Portugal The Man had been a band for just over 2 years and in that period, they had released 3 full-lengths, 1 EP, and a couple standalone singles. In that same period, they had also performed just shy of 500 shows. This young band from Alaska was riding a creative wave that is rarely seen coupled with the most hardcore work ethic. Alaskans are tough and this band was tougher.
Driving from city to city, buying bulk bags of rice and a couple times a week splurging with some items with their Feed The Beat bucks, PTM was committed. They ended tour in December of 2008 and instead of taking a much-needed break made the decision that they needed to record the culmination of what their live performance had become. Finding a rare gem of a studio in the suburbs of Portland. They piled into the studio with all their live gear and a handful of friends with handheld cameras. Longtime collaborator and filmmaker Graham (Baclagon) Agcaolli and engineer/mixer Jacob Portrait (who would later join Unknown Mortal Orchestra) would help to document.
Run the full set, one time through. No re-takes. No overdubs. Just the band in its natural form.
What next? In typical PTM fashion they were heading into the studio a couple weeks later to record their next album “The Satanic Satanist” and “Oregon City Sessions” got put on a shelf. Why release old music when you can release new music. There it sat for over a decade. A select few saw the full film. The band, their manager or tour manager would occasionally offer to go over to people’s homes screen it for them. Sometimes in the parking lot the band would screen a handful of songs to the local supporters. They forged friendships but whenever asked the answer would always be “yeah, we will release that at some point”.
2021. The band has been off the road for well over a year, by far the longest break from the road since they started and the time just seems right. Here is “Oregon City Sessions” dug out of the archives. Untouched, unchanged from the day it was finished. It is a time capsule of a band finding its way. A snapshot of young raw talent before they won awards, before they sold millions of records, before they headlined festivals. Just a couple kids from Alaska wanting to travel the world and play music
Fans can now go to Rally.io to buy PTM Coin and join other fans in a just-launched Discord community for PTM Coin holders. For step-by-step instructions click this tutorial video.
In addition to joining the “Backstage Hangout,” PTM Coin holder benefits currently include:
- Fan-Generated Audio Archive: Includes unreleased music, live shows and outtakes from the band’s more than 1,700 show history. The archive will be supplemented by the band and their own recordings of “impossible to get” shows.
- Live video and text chats with the band, tutorials, first access to music, multi-player gaming
- Exclusive merch and vinyl drops (Coming Soon)
