Fourteen years after it debuted and seven years after its final episode, Portlandia is back … sort of.
The beloved series’ duo of Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen have embarked on a tour that turns the spotlight back on their version of the Pacific Northwest and everything that went into creating it. Every stop — including this Sunday’s appearance at the Pabst Theater — is another chance to share what fans didn’t see and even more beyond the show itself.
Prior to his visit to Milwaukee, Armisen spoke with our Jon Adler about Portlandia and another curious project that just came out today: his new album, 100 Sound Effects.
Fred Armisen interview highlights
The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
On Jonathan Crystal’s (and Jeff Tweedy’s) role in Portlandia:
John is a real co-creator of the show. Even though me and Carrie started it, John really opened up the possibilities. He really turned it into something realistic, meaning the realism of it all, he really knew how to implement it.
One thing he would do is make moves that were unexpected, and you just didn't know what the fruits of it were gonna be. Like, for example, we love hanging out with Jeff Tweedy from Wilco. And John thought, “Why don't we, instead of just being like, ‘Hey, do you wanna be a guest on the show?’ let's get him in the writer's room. Let's just bring him in.”
It was brilliant. It brings out the best in Jeff Tweedy but also in us because we wanna impress him, and we want to be funny in the room, and the chemistry of everything is sort of renewed.
On his new single, “Car Rental Door Closing,” from 100 Sound Effects:
It's the way that we close them. We're all very sort of overly careful, cautious. Because we're like, “How do I slam? I wanna be careful with this car. It's not mine.” So there's a sort of … we're sort of gentle. “Let me try to close it.” You wanna be careful 'cause you don't know where they're at in life, but you wanna be cordial. There's an air of care.
What format do you have it in?
Jon Adler: Uh, CD. It's a CD that was sent to us. Does that matter?
Oh, it matters a lot. I sent that as an email, as a half joke. I was like, “What we should do, put out a CD single?” Because I just missed those. Remember CD singles? At the record store, you'd be like, “Whoa, here's two songs, and here's a remix” or something. So the label kind of went, “Wait a minute. Why not? Let's try it.” So we actually made one, and I'm jealous that you have it 'cause I don't have mine yet.