Blind Pilot: "We Are the Tide"

Juke Box Hero brings us Blind Spot -- er, Blind Pilot, who will be performing Friday at 3:30 p.m. on the Google Play stage.

If the city of Portland, Oregon, had its own theme-background music – music playing in the arrivals hall at the airport, reverberating through the trees in the parks, and pissing off all the super hard street punks – it would definitely be Portland’s own indie-folksters, Blind Pilot. I’ve only visited the fair, hipster-riddled city, but with its impression of relaxed creativity and general spiritual creaminess firmly planted in my braincicles, BP sounds like Portland coming out of speakers. They're similar to Arcade Fire in musical identity and multi-instrumentalist personnel (Letterman goes off on the trumpet/organ player), but it's like if you gave Win and Régine both an Ambien before putting them on stage.

Not that there’s anything wrong with their mellow-yellow approach to indie. The group’s 2008 debut 3 Rounds and a Sound is a great mood-setter for a totally chill afternoon or evening soiree. It’s full of sweet major and minor harmonies, rounded out with laid-back guitar, ukulele, string bass, etc. Lead singer/guitarist Israel Nebeker’s velvety tenor cruises along; the man has an extremely pretty voice in the vein of Beirut’s Zach Condon, but maybe less forced-sounding. If that’s possible? It just sounds so dern effortless.

BP made indie headlines in ’08 by touring the West Coast on bicycles fitted with custom instrument-toting trailers – could they be more Portland? Needless to say, the gimmick worked, and their stock started to soar. Before they knew it, they were touring Europe alongside headliners the Hold Steady and the Counting Crows.

The group’s sophomore record We Are the Tide came out last September and features a lot more of their characteristic chill melodies. But a number of tracks, including this title cut, pick up the pace, volume, and energy. I love the bigger drums driving throughout the song, bringing more of a sense of urgency to the music.

Okay, so it’s still no match for Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up,” but to be fair, I’d be extra jacked too if David Bowie guest-sang in my band.