Formed in 2005 around the talents of
Van Pierszalowski,
Cambria Goodwin,
Caleb Nichols, and
Joshua Barnhart, California's
Port O'Brien occupy the same idiosyncratic alternative folk/indie rock landscape as
Jason Molina,
Will Oldham, and
Pavement. The various bandmembers have day jobs that find them working long hours in bakeries, as well as the fishing boats and salmon canneries in and around Kodiak Island, Alaska; the group's debut album for the American Dust label (
The Wind and the Swell) was therefore aptly named, drawing on influences as disparate as
Neil Young and
Bright Eyes. The similarly themed
Threadbare arrived in 2009. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide