As if the show wasn’t cool enough already, Rolling Stone reports that Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock and incredible – yet massively underrated – songstress Joanna Newsom are set to appear as guests on the upcoming second season of the IFC sketch comedy show “Portlandia”.
Set to premiere January 6th, we’ll see plenty of new faces in the second season of the quirky satire co-created by SNL’s Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of the band Wild Flag (ex Sleater Kinney). Season one of Portlandia featured musical guests including Aimee Mann, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists and James Mercer of the Shins.
Set in Portland, Oregon, the show’s immersion into bizarre narratives aren’t the tiresome spoofs we’re familiar with from SNL (Armisen’s main gig). Armisen is in a terrific element with full command over his onscreen character development, and somewhat surprisingly to newcomers to her style, Brownstein has a broad comedic range, with convincing immersion into characters and solid timing in delivery.
A more fleshed-out extension of the Armisen & Brownstein’s videos under the name ThunderAnt, the sketches lampoon the hippie/hipster phenomenon surrounding Portland, an alt-lifestyle-idealist kid brother to Seattle’s post-90s overly conscious cool. Their theme song is a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek declaration that “the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland” and celebrating a return to a time when people were encouraged to be weird. Check it out:
Read our review of “Portlandia”s first episode.
