"We worked with so many rad people on this album, but ended up with just the four of us in a basement at 4:00 am trying to say something that mattered. Trying to write music that would help people feel they’re not alone, even if they’re angry or feeling lost. This video is our way of saying that we’re all in this together.”
John Gourley, Radio.com
If you expected Trump's America to coincide with the rise in the number of protest-themed songs, you would be right. What you probably did not expect, is Portland-via-Alaska indie rock band Portugal. The Man's "Feel It Still", which blends in irresistible funk influences (horns and an energetic bass) to create a groovy psych-pop track anchored in John Baldwin Gourley's mellifluous vocals:
'Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, nowI been feeling it since 1966, nowMight've had your fill, but you feel it stillOoh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, nowLet me kick it like it's 1986, nowMight be over now, but I feel it stillWe could fight a war for peace(Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now)Give in to that easy livingGoodbye to my hopes and dreamsStop flipping for my enemiesWe could wave until the walls come down(Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now)It's time to give a little tipKids in the middle, move over 'til it fallsDon't bother me'
Lyrics: Genius
1966 doesn't just rhyme with 'kicks', it is also the year in which Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) announced plans for the Chicago Freedom Movement, the year race riots occurred in Chicago, Cleveland and Lansing, and the year US Senator Robert F. Kennedy's condemned Apartheid during his visit of South Africa. "Feel It Still" offers a playful, quirky take on activism, with lines like 'Am I coming out of left field?' and 'Your love is an abyss for my heart to eclipse, now'. The track's electic and groovy mix of rock, pop, psychedelia, and electronica makes it easy to forget the gravity of the song's subject matter - in a way that's reminiscent of Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks".
If you look closely at the video, however, you will notice the subtle nods towards contemporary social justice issues: the topless Barbie in camo pants, straddling the cannon of a tank; the raised fist poster on the wall of the bar; the streetwear-clad black woman that lipsyncs to the song in the car junkyard; the Sikh man burning a newspaper labeled “Info Wars.” If you're longing for more engagement, there's also an interactive version of the music video, courtesy of creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, which presents "a real, practical laundry list of ways you can get out there and fight injustice" via embedded Easter eggs ().
