Tangie Town is a Los Angeles-Portland based brother duo headed by Sam and Sloan Martin. Their self titled debut album is filled with the warm breezes of tropical island pop, urban and world dance moods, and funk-driven beats and bass grooves. This nine song collection makes the perfect soundtrack for winding road trips, evenings under the stars, or a night out in a neon metropolis. Their name derives from an obscure Doors tune called “Maggie Mc Gill” about a fictional place set in the western part of the United States still full of wild artistic spirit: “She went down, down to Tangie Town, people down there really like to get it on.”
These nine songs were self recorded and co-produced at Sam’s house up in a canyon above the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Sam and Sloan share vocal duties and play the bulk of the instruments on the album, with the help of Joseph Bates on electric guitar and live drums by Riley Geare and Nik Hughes. Sloan headed South from Portland, Oregon on the Amtrak train a few times in 2017, the “slow train” is his preferred mode of travel where you can find him in full immersion gazing out the window with his headphones on, soaking up inspiration and writing lyrics. Half of the album was mixed by Jeff Bond and the other half by Sloan at his home studio in Portland.
Both Sam and Sloan have a heavy musical background and in 2017 the brothers decided to finally create something together for the first time, independent of the expectations and constraints of a record label. Sam was a leading member of the group Iglu and Hartly who signed to Mercury Records in 2008 and scored a #5 single on the UK charts. The band toured 20 different countries and played the Isle of Wight festival for 70 thousand people. Sam was also the lead singer of the band Youngblood Hawke and in 2011 the group signed with Universal Records and scored a #7 spot on the US Alternative charts with “We Come Running.” The song has racked up over 39 million plays on Spotify alone and was supported by heavy touring with worldwide acts such as Pink, Passion Pitt, Walk the Moon and several festival performances including Bunburym Bumbershoot, Firefly and Summerfest. Sloan’s former band Celilo enjoyed a cult following in Portland and Western Europe, where they toured England and the highlands of Scotland. His last project, the dance-y indie disco Beach Fire, their single “Love Junkie” still gets radio play on Portland’s alternative KNRK and was a big hit at Boise’s Tree Fort Festival before quickly disbanding to make room for his full time focus on Tangie Town
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