Port O'Brien

Photo by Joshua Caine

Each week our good friends over at The Owl Mag share all the goodies they get in their inbox (think free MP3s, new videos and the general low-down on Bay Area artists) in an effort to spread the local music gospel. Now you're about to get it here with our new weekly feature, The Inbox. Here's what we've got this week:

Port O'Brien:

Joshua Caine

Folk wonders, Port O’Brien, never forget their roots. Their name itself is a tribute to a now abandoned cannery on Kodiak Island, Alaska where singer/guitarist Van Pierszalowski’s parents met in the late 60s. It’s also a little reminder of their summers spent working on fishing boats and in canneries.

Port O'Brien

Photo courtesy of the band

'Tis the season for "best of" music lists around the web. We've got one of our own to add to the mix - our roundup of what we think are the seven best songs to come out of the Bay Area this year. So listen up, and then go out and support these bands immediately. (Read: catch them before they're playing mega tours and you're paying stupid ticket prices to support things like light shows, pyrotechnics and RVs).

Here's the list.

Misha Vladimirskiy

The nautical backdrop was appropriate for Bay Area locals Port O'Brien, who split their time between Oakland and commercial fishing boats in Kodiak, Alaska. The band lived up to its comparisons to Arcade Fire, playing "I Woke Up Today" with a similar vocal exuberance. Check out the beginning of their set below.