Friday is a day to start the party. The weekend, itself, has become synonymous with the word, “party” and we fully intended to do that with Beak>‘s first show in Los Angeles. Those who were uber fans of Geoff Barrow or just fans of Portishead, in general, slowly filed into The Troubadour last weekend carrying hopes of leaving with new inspirations or at least some favorable musical influences that could make the British three-piece become their new favorite band.

Well, as much as we wanted to party, our adrenaline quickly died as the night went on. Los Angeles based-band, Foot Village, commenced our process of screaming all our worries of the week away but even their unruly sound couldn’t stay with us long enough to crank the atmosphere up to the boisterousness we were hoping to reach.

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After taking what may liberally be referred to as a ‘breather’ between their second and third albums – Portishead was released in 1997, while it’s follow-up, the excellent and appropriately-titled Third, appeared a scant 11 years later – it appears as if Portishead is set to return with a new album only two years (gasp!) after their last LP, according to NME.

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Portishead have released a brand new song, “Chase The Tear,” for Amnesty International. The song, released in conjunction with International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10), is now available as an exclusive download single from 7 digital with all earnings going towards Amnesty’s human rights work.

Buy “Chase The Tear” to support Amnesty International. You can also check below to watch Portishead performing the song live.

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Portishead, the influential experimental band from Bristol, England, have already begun work on the followup to their highly successful 2008 album Third. Geoff Barrow was recently interviewed by NME and it’s clear that this will be a very unconventional release.

According to Barrow, the band is not currently under contract and are now weighing options on how to release their next batch of new songs. Barrow declined to give specifics but he did say Portishead has “big plans” for a new project that will “come from a different angle.”

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Portishead’s contract with Island Records has come to an end. With the release of last year’s much awaited album Third, the band completes its obligations with the label, and is now asking fans for ideas on how to distribute their music in the future. Geoff Barrow writes on the Portishead Myspace blog:

“We spent the day discussing the future of the P, as we are free. If you lot have any bright ideas of how we should sell our music in the future, lets us know, why not!”

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It’s that time of year again! Time for our favorite music magazines to start listing their top picks for 2008. We’ve recently got our hands on Pitchfork’s Top Album and Top Tracks of 2008 as well as Paste’s Top Live Music Acts on 2008.

Who earned top honors this year?

It looks like Cut Copy, Deerhunter, Fleet Foxes, and Portishead all made the top 10 lists for album and track of the year. While Tom Waits and Radiohead took top honors when it came to live performances. You think these lists were right on par or was someone left off you think deserves a space on one of the top picks lists?

Check out videos of Tom Waits and Radiohead after the break:

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Portishead has released a new video for their song “Magic Doors.” The song is the third single off the groups’ newest album “Third” which is expected to be released December 15th by Island Records.

Third is expected to be available in a 12-inch etched vinyl version as well as a digital bundle containing three additional tracks: Silence, Threads, and Mysterons.

Check out the video for yourself after the break:

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