New Portishead is the shiznit.

I decided to drop in on the right place at the right time last Friday - that is, Rasputin's in Berkeley during an in-store preview of Portishead's new album Third. Is it too early to deem it the best album of 2008? Well, I'll tack on a "so far" for now, but I'm pretty sure my premature prediction will still ring true Dec. 31. How long has Portishead been working on Third again? Who cares. Awesomeness is always worth the wait (unless your name is Chinese Democracy). To tide us over just a couple more weeks until the official April 29 release, Portishead performed seven songs off the record last week in their namesake hometown studio. The full set, aka 40 minutes that'll make you kill yourself because you're not going to Coachella, is posted at Current TV. Here's a snippet of "Silence"