Portugal. The Man – Dummy

24th June 2023 · 2020s, 2023, Music

This is surely the first film of any kind – not just music videos – whose end credits include someone listed as a “balls volunteer.” You’ll find out why in the first few seconds.

Filmed mostly in snowbound Alaska, apart from an incongruous final section in Colombia, it also boasts an absurdly catchy tune that you’ll find yourself humming for the rest of the day.

I have to say I was not familiar with Jeff Gourley or his strangely named (and punctuated) group – Portugal. The Man. Which is odd as I now learn that they’ve made one of the most successful songs of all time.

After forming his group in his native Alaska around the turn of the millennium, Gourley released eight albums to general indifference before, for reasons I still don’t understand, suddenly having a hit record out of nowhere.

Since its release in 2017 a perfectly pleasant tune called Feel It Still not only brought the group their first hit single but has acquired 1.2 billion streams so far, appeared in numerous films, and earned its makers $25 million in royalties.

Then it all went wrong.

Since then Gourley has spent a year unable to sing or perform with a badly broken jaw, and learned that his daughter – with bandmate Zoe Manville – has a rare neurodegenerative genetic disease known as DHDDS, which shares symptoms with both dementia and Parkinson’s.

Meanwhile, the other three band members all went through rehab for three different addictions.

Despite that they’re back with a new album and this is the single, Dummy, with Noel Paul’s rather marvellous video, shot mostly on the ancestral lands of the Knik, Qutekcak and Mokana peoples.

Watch to the end and you’ll find that the aforementioned “balls volunteer” – Gannon Clarkson – gets the reward for his painful cameo.