Lifesavas

Portland's Lifesavas return to the time of bell-bottoms with Gutterfly, a concept album and homage to the blaxploitation films of the '70s. The story's heroes, Sleep Floyd and Bumpy Johnson, strut through the fictional "Razorblade City," alternately wrestling and embracing the seedy world that surrounds them. The production harkens back to classic blaxploitation soundtracks from Willie Hutch and Roy Ayers, and employs a funky hodgepodge of live instrumentation and samples, while Gutterfly's characters also allow the normally serious group to loosen up.