Portlandia is a new miniseries from IFC, co-created by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney fame. Surprisingly, this song is not by Sleater-Kinney (if we were gonna use one of their songs, I’d go for “Banned from the End of the World.”). Instead, this song is “Feel it All Around” by Washed Out, who is a person and not a band. Here’s the full version:

And here is a song that “Feel it All Around” samples:

Washed Out is described by wikipedia as “chillwave,” which, if you wanted to make up a word to describe the Portland of Portlandia I’d say this is a fair one. It’s really hip and doesn’t rush its way to the end and also uses a piece of an old song because that’s cool too.

I am not from Portland. I was in the city only once, and under those circumstances I ended up having to hide a friend in a hotel bathroom for a matter of hours. I also went to Powell’s! This is all to say that I don’t know the city very well or intimately, but I’d bet that if you are from Portland, the opening images of the show conjure up the same positive feelings in you that this opening sequence does for me, showing me parts of a city I’ve spent considerable time in:

It clearly comes from a place of affection and some good-natured satire. If only How to Make it In America were satire.

Incidentally, here’s what Amelie Gillette of The AV Club (and currently a writer on The Office) had to say about Portlandia:

She’s referring to the opening number of the pilot episode, a great song called “Dream of the 90’s.” Here’s that number (“Stuff White People Like: The Song):