Portugal. The Man presents ‘American Ghetto’

So when songs for a new album presented themselves to him almost overnight, he eschewed naysayers’ warnings not to release an album so close behind the July 2009 release of “Satanic Satanist,” drew the band together, and recorded “American Ghetto.”

“I wrote the songs on top of each other, much as I did with ‘Satanic Satanist,'” Gourley said. “I just wanted to do something spontaneous and fun. I just felt like we should go for it. I knew the ideas were there right then.”

The result is perhaps one of the best rock albums in recent memory. Although its sound is born of heavy drum machine beats, synthesizers and auto-tuned vocals, the soulful artistry of the music is undeniable. Think Velvet Underground, Iron Butterfly and the Beatles with contemporary, hip-hop flavorings and you have a sense of this sound.

The album was recorded in just about two weeks, a record time in this age of months-long sessions. Perhaps that breakneck pace is what kept the songs about childhood reminiscences so fresh and spontaneous.

“It’s just all a big part of my life, of who I am today,” Gourley said of his childhood remembrances. “We talked about it and we just went in and made the music. It really was that simple.”

Interesting when you consider that at the time Portugal. The Man released “Church Mouth” in 2007, Gourley reflected on how moving away from Alaska has sparked his musical creativity. Not that his family wasn’t adventuresome.

While his parents homesteaded and joined in the Iditarod, Gourley taught himself to play guitar and sing. But it wasn’t until he truly connected with his peers — especially musical kindred spirit and high school classmate Zachary Scott Carothers — that he felt his creativity bloom.

“Everything came out of me after I left my roots and everything behind,” Gourley said after “Church Mouth” was released. “I had been brought up kind of odd, to be living so far away from everything.”

It wasn’t long until Gourley and Carothers formed the popular “Anatomy of a Ghost.” Within months of the band’s 2002 debut, it had built a huge regional following in its home base of Portland, Ore. The unconventional rock/pop/punk music also caught the ears of music execs, which signed the group.

But the duo felt the band’s music lacked a spark, so they scrapped it and formed Portugal. The Man. The band, which now includes drummer Jason Sechrist and keyboardist Ryan Neighbors, is poised for the major leagues, but still maintains its passion to make music more accessible.

“The reason we play music is we like it. But we understand the business,” Gourley said about reasons others caution the band not to release albums within short time frames. “I know exactly what I want and where I want this music to go.”