Doodling with "Evil Friends"

Portugal. the Man returns next week with their newest album, Evil Friends, and to get us to ignore the arbitrarily-placed period in their name, the Alaska natives come out with an album cover that looks like someone who went dressed up to Burning Man thinking it was the Gathering of the Juggalos.

Before we plunge into Portugal.'s (do I need to place the period there when using it as a possessive noun?) newest release, let's talk about their past covers.

First we have Waiter! You Vultures – their debut album which features some cool silhouettes and phallic-like drawings.  For a band just establishing itself, no one really had any questions (especially since they're from Alaska.  No one questions people from Alaska).

Next, we have Church Mouth.  Just two dudes screaming while one looks off into the distance.  So Alaska.  Still nothing to lose your shit about though.

Then we have Censored Colors.  Now we start seeing being from Alaska ain't all about polar bears and icebergs.  Nope, it's about guys wearing gorilla masks sitting at a patio table in what looks to be some type of cave.  Ok, now we're getting somewhere.  Finally, Portugal. the Man shows us their true uncensored colors with The Satanic Satanist.

Initial reactions to this cover make us wonder if we're looking at a Max Ernst painting or someone's bad trip after drinking from some dude's water bottle on the third day of Bonnaroo.  We ask ourselves, "what are these three worm creatures with faces?  Why does one have a mustache?  Why does one have a single boob?  Whose baby is that in the lower right hand corner?  Does its parents really love it even though it has three eyes?"  For someone whose only notion of Alaska is based off the semi-biographical documentary on Sarah Palin, Who's Nailin' Paylin, I've got some reservations about these folks.  Their two subsequent releases, American Ghetto and In The Mountain In The Cloud, were nothing to pass off as being normal, yet did not look as if Dr. Seuss threw up from taking too much acid at a Dead show.

If you thought Portugal. the Man lost their ability to question your affiliation with the band judging solely on their album covers, all has been reaffirmed with their newest release, Evil Friends.  Buzz for this album began back in March when the band posted photos of defaced models in magazine advertisements.  Sure, I enjoy doodling on pictures of famous people from time to time.  But this isn't some amateur Hitler-stache-on-Jennifer-Aniston's-GQ-cover kind of doodling.  This is the big leagues.

We're talking Jimmy Page with horns and a flaming pile of shit on his head.  We're talking some blonde bombshell with a skull and crossbones under her boob and "Evil Friends" splooged all over her stomach.

The band replicated this style on the cover of their eighth studio album showing a masked man with horns, two tongues, tear-filled eyes, a third eye in the middle of his forehead, some nice decorative Aztec pattern in his mouth, crying out "Evil."  It's like a hipster's spin on an abu ghraib prisoner.  Musically, this band's sound has stayed consistent over the last  few years.  But visually, gone are the days of getting high off whipits from Cheez-Wiz cans and drawing what you see.  Hello to the coming of serious Alaska-grown magazine-doodling.