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"Once upon a decade ago, Carrie Brownstein was an icon of the indie music scene, back when there was such a thing as \"the indie music scene.\" Brownstein was the guitarist in the critically adored, Seattle-based punk band Sleater-Kinney, at a moment when the Pacific Northwest was the nerve center of American rock music. The all-female trio was tough, uncompromising and ferociously non-commercial. They were also, to put it mildly, not known for being a funny bunch. Which is why the newest chapter of Brownstein's career is so mind-blowing for those of us who adored Sleater-Kinney: she's starring in a sketch comedy series alongside her old friend Fred Armisen. (Yes, the guy who plays Obama on Saturday Night Live.) Portlandia, a sardonic\u2014and yes, very funny\u2014ode to the two stars' adopted hometown, shot entirely on location, premieres tonight on IFC. The pilot episode features cameos by Kyle MacLachlan (who plays Portland's mayor; Portland's actual mayor plays his assistant) and Aubrey Plaza. But the revelation here is Brownstein, the former riot girl turned laugh riot. She spoke with GQ about her transition to comedy, the peculiar people of her home city, and the Portland in all of us.\n\n I don't know how to say this without it sounding insulting, but here goes: I was really surprised that you're funny. I was a big fan of Sleater-Kinney, and that was not a funny band. And now here you are doing a sketch comedy show with the guy from SNL! So how have you been handling conversations with people like me who say, \"Wow, I had no idea you were funny\"? \n\n Um, the best I can! You know, I wish Sleater-Kinney had been a joke band\u2014then we would be fine. Like, if we were Ween, then no one would be surprised. But I think I've always had a sort of fearlessness when it comes to performance. When I was a kid, I was always putting on neighborhood plays and doing these living room performances. I never took a ballet lesson in my life, but that didn't stop me from borrowing a kid's tutu and ballet shoes and doing an entire ballet performance in front of a lot of neighbors.\n\n A lot of people say to me now, \"I'm so sorry, I've never heard of your band.\" And I always say, \"That's fine!\" Actually, at this point, it's a compliment\u2014that without any context, someone would believe that I've just been in improv school all this time. So I don't really know how to answer your question except to say that I'm not insulted by people being surprised. In this day and age it's pretty hard to surprise people.\n\n It's wild to think lots of people will only know you as a sketch comedy performer, and only later will they perhaps discover that you used to be in this critically adored punk band.\n\n It's strange to me, too. Also, I have a new band, and even though my bandmates haven't said it, I know they secretly fear people will come to our show because of Portlandia. Then I'm like that actor who's in a band, which is the worst.\n\n You have a long history of collaborating with Fred Armisen, and it sounds like this show did not remotely begin as a show. It sounds like it began as two friends messing around with a camera.\n\n It started out with Fred and I in 2005 making these short videos called Thunderant, which were for nobody but us. We weren't even putting them on the web. We were just sending them to friends. We weren't even trying to be funny. We were just trying to capture these awkward moments and be strange. And then five years later, after we had built up this arsenal of videos, that's when we brought in Lorne Michaels and IFC. But even at that point, it remained very organic. IFC encouraged us to shoot in Portland, where I live. They didn't really want to change much of the show, except to obviously elevate it into something worthy of being on TV.\n\n By landing at IFC, it's as if you've moved from the indie music world to the indie television world. Are there parallels? \n\n Oh, certainly. When we pitched the show to IFC we felt an immediate kinship with them. They were okay with the show not appealing to everyone. They knew it wouldn't. As long as it reaches the audience it was intended for. Lorne has said the same thing. He's aware that this is not going to be a massive hit. But I think the people who get it will feel it on a visceral level. And that's what happens with a good indie label, too.\n\n Obviously, you are spoofing a very specific place, one that often seems like a country of its own. But how do you make sure the humor on the show isn't TOO Portland for folks (like me) who have never been there? \n\n Well, for one, I think there are Portlands all over this country. You know, Williamsburg, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco. The spirit of Portland is definitely nearly universal at this point. Even the states or cities that don't have a Portland\u2014there's a huge population of people wishing they did. But I also think there's this strange paradox in that the more specific and nuanced you get\u2014and I think this show has a lot of specificity\u2014the more that somebody on the other side of the country will be able to relate to it. They'll say, 'Oh, that's me, or that's someone I know'. The barometer is just to aim for something that feels real. Then you know that someone, somewhere, will connect with it.\n\n In the pilot episode, there's a great sketch that's essentially a '90s tribute video\u2014the idea is that Portland is where the '90s are still alive\u2014and you show up and Fred tells you you're \"a little too San Francisco.\" For someone from Portland, what is a little too San Francisco?\n\n There's a little more of a modern primitive thing going on in SF, but also mid with the kind of cosmopolitan nature that Seattle has too. Portland kind of fancies itself as the gritty underdog compared to nearest West Coast cities. But that's me being elitist in a Portland way. That's the conundrum with all these liberal, progressive cities: we're constantly battling back and forth with these inferiority comples.\n\n One theme that runs through the show is the way cities like Portland are almost tyrannically tolerant and oppressively liberal. It can have the odd effect of pushing liberal people to the right, just out of irritation.\n\n I think you're exactly hitting the nail on the head there. In these liberal cities, you have these people who espouse to be very inclusive, but in order to be included, you have to follow these rules. And then the rules are really hard to follow. The rules are really esoteric. So you're trying to feel included and to be good, but all of a sudden you're so frustrated by it that you turn into a contrarian. I feel that way all the time here, where it's like, of course I want to shop at your local business\u2014but I can go to Target and buy everything. I think that's an internal conflict that a lot of these characters feel. They're really trying to walk the walk, but they hit these stumbling blocks and they're so mad at themselves for not being able to be the person they thought they were going to be.\n\n I assume a lot of the sketches on Portlandia are based on real people\u2014but the show made me wonder if the real people of Portland are often stranger than anything you guys could invent.\n\n Certainly. In one of the later episodes, there are characters who are basically dumpster divers, or 'freegans'. And while we were filming the sketch, one of our crew members said, \"Oh yeah, I used to be a dumpster diver. I made my own internet.\" And I was just like, \"What are you talking about?\" Like, he literally found a way of assembling his own, like, wireless internet signal.\n\n From some stuff he found in a dumpster?\n\n Yeah. So I was just like, \"Okay, there's nothing we can do at this point that is beyond the pale.\" In some ways, you want reality to be a little stranger."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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