After a disappointing “Celery” episode last week, IFC’s Portlandia bounces back with the not-so-subtly titled, “Pull Out King.” The episode brings back the rock stars, harkening back to Season 1 episodes that featured Aimee Mann, Colin Meloy, James Mercer, among others. Reading like a Lollapalooza lineup, “Pull Out King” includes appearances by Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses) and Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth). And while none of them should give up their day jobs, it’s still fun to watch the rockers acting out of their element.
The episode’s best sketch showcases the majority of the non-actors as they try to stage an intervention—with a twist. The scene opens with Carrie arriving at a nondescript office building to meet with Sean Davis (Mark Proksch), who’s on the phone. “This could take awhile,” he mouths to her. In the next shot, they’re making out at his desk while he’s still on the phone. Turns out that Carrie has a new guy who’s neither a musician or a hipster: He’s a tax lawyer.
Carrie’s turned on by his passion for adding machines, numbers and tax forms as well as his dinner suggestions for places like the Hard Rock Cafe in Portland. But their relationship hits a snag when Sean surprises Carrie one morning by donning a fedora and wielding a bass guitar. She thinks about dumping him: “This is a slippery slope. A bass is a gateway instrument.”
Fred and Carrie assemble their musician friends together to talk sense into Sean. Clark steals this scene when she explains that she loved Lauryn Hill when she was a kid. “Where is she right now?” she asks. “In jail. For tax evasion. You think she had a good tax lawyer? … He’s probably playing bass in her band right now.” The Freaky Friday-esque premise of turning tax stars into rock stars was both fresh and surprising. (Now we can’t wait to see Portandia take on the companion segment—rockers going corporate.)