scene profiles

By Rich Wells

photo by Brent Bradley

But year after year, PDX also attracts gaggles of young, smart, goofy weirdos of a more cosmopolitan bent. And when those types gravitate toward an environment that’s not terribly cutthroat culturally or financially, you get forward-thinking artists and musicians that can actually spend time creating (rather than merely existing). You also get entrepreneurs with the incentive to create the kind of unique performance spaces and other businesses that can work with creative types and still maintain a sustainable business environment. In short, you get Portland culture.

VENUES

photo by Rich Wells

Berbati’s Pan is a multi-room facility downtown that features a bar and accompanying Greek restaurant on one side, a pool ‘n’ pinball game room in the middle, and a comfortable, mid-size venue on the far side. This is one of Portland more longstanding music venues, with Berbati (the restaurant) in business since 1987 and Berbati’s Pan (the venue) added in 1995. The Pan has a nice low, wide stage, good sound, and an open atmosphere that rarely feels packed even when the club is at capacity.

photo by Rich Wells

In Portland, there’s a hippie-clan-cum-business-titan called the McMenamin brothers. If you’re in Oregon for more than five minutes you’ll begin to notice the extent to which the McMenamins have infiltrated the city, with bars, hotels, restaurants, and second-run movie theaters with attached bars (handy!). Still other McMenamin business are combinations of the aforementioned, and they exist in a few cities beyond the Portland metro area. Last but not least, the brothers own the Crystal Ballroom, their flagship PDX music venue. Yes, it’s a converted ballroom, one that was originally created in 1914 with an odd marketing gimmick: a spring-loaded dance floor. Near as anyone can tell, this “floating floor,” which has been restored to its original condition, may be the only such floor left in existence. This 1,500 capacity club draws national acts, and has a more intimate venue, Lola’s one floor below. And then there’s the Ringlers Pub on the ground floor (of course), which features food, drinks, and DJs.

Disjecta
230 E. Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97214
503.913.6884
www.disjecta.org

Disjecta has existed in a couple locations, and is just getting comfortable in its new three-story digs. This isn’t just a venue — it’s an “interdisciplinary exhibition space,” a catchall for music, art, and performance. Past musical performances at Disjecta have included Steve Malkmus and the Shins, but there have been plenty of other compelling improv and music/art events. And barbeques, and dance parties, and…

The Doug Fir Lounge is a basement venue (well, actually it’s a converted underground garage) that operates on a start-early, end-early basis. Shows there typically end before midnight, and that fact, combined with the DF’s über-clean, ultra designer-y look, tends to attract a crowd of brand-new leather-jacketed, professionally coiffed and pressed hipsters. Upstairs is the Doug Fir Restaurant, with its jazzed-up diner food, and across the parking lot is the Jupiter Hotel. The Jupiter differentiates itself from almost all other entities in the hospitality industry with its regular outdoor art shows, courtyard film projections, and other atypical amenities. It also recently played host to none other than Jenna Bush (and, presumably, her Secret Service detail).

Holocene
1001 SE Morrison
Portland, OR 97214
503.239.7639
www.holocene.org

Holocene is half dance club, half rock club, and half interior design showcase. Wall projections add to the techy swank of the place. In addition to hosting live music and DJ nights, the venue also features a variety of recurrent queer nights, drag shows, and fashion extravaganzas. Local organic food is served as well.

photo by Rich Wells

Located in the ground floor of a converted funeral home, the Towne Lounge is a small, dark, and casual place to see local and touring bands. It’s also notoriously hard to find for the first-timer — hence the Lounge’s motto, “Look for the green light.” But the bare-bones, low-overhead nature of the venue allows it to be a bit more adventurous in its booking than some of the more traditional nightclubs in PDX. (You only need about 30 people to get a really great show going.) Therefore, on any given night, you can expect anything from IDM to free jazz to fake grunge to absurdist musical comedy. This is one of those places you think is great, but only expect to last six months; happily, the Towne Lounge is still going strong after more than a year.

Like the Crystal Ballroom, the Wonder is a refurbished 1914 building (although the Wonder was originally a meeting hall for the Ancient Order of Hibernians). Go through the main doors, up a wide flight of stairs, and through another set of doors, and you’ll find a beautifully spare main space with a recessed proscenium stage and a 50 x 70 foot dance floor. At the rear of the room is a bar, and up another set of stairs is a tiered balcony with seating and a second bar. The building also houses the semi-underground Wonder Café and two art galleries, the Mark Woolley Gallery and the Guest Room Gallery.

Back to top…

RECORD STORES

Record stores in Portland are numerous, and many are in locations that allow a quick walk to food, coffee, clubs, etc. Almost all have listening stations stocked with the latest releases in a number of styles, and quite a few have CD players set up for customers who wish to test out potential purchases. Try before you buy!

Anthem Records
828 SE 34th Avenue, Suite C
Portland, OR 97214
503.963.9000
www.anthemrecordsinc.com

A very small store, Anthem has limited but extremely well-selected stock customized for hipsters on the go. Located just off the cute and trendy Belmont commercial strip.

Yes, this is a chain, albeit a limited one. Both Portland stores are spacious, and have a sizeable and rapidly changing selection of used discs, making these great resources for budget conscious. Everyday’s downtown location is handily right across the street from the Crystal Ballroom.

Green Noise Records
2615 SE Clinton Street
Portland, OR 97202
Phone: 503.736.0909
www.greennoiserecords.com

Yet another hole-in-the-wall specialty store; garage rock is emphasized here, as are comics. Green Noise also benefits from its location in the popular Clinton Street shopping and dining nexus.

photo by Rich Wells

3736 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214-5146
503.239.7561

www.jackpotrecords.com

Jackpot is a Portland institution, and in a way epitomizes the Portland music scene because its reach extends beyond its store walls. In the stores themselves, you’ll always find new local music being promoted in its stores, and its list of past in-store appearances is a who’s who of the indie scene. But Jackpot has also hosted killer film festivals and other assorted DVD screenings, all free, that focus on obscure footage, showing everything from live footage of ’60s psych bands, or the Bad Brains circa 1982, to Serge Gainsbourg TV appearances, to Lee Hazlewood’s monumentally mean-spirited and gauzy Cowboy in Sweden, etc., etc., etc.

Mississippi Records
4007 North Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227

This vinyl-centric outfit has become a tiny juggernaut for serious record collectors and more casual turntable enthusiasts alike. It happens to be right next door to the Fresh Pot, which can come in handy for those who prefer to do their record flipping while overly caffeinated. Mississippi also sells the occasional used turntable, organ, synthesizer, or other music-making device. You never know what’ll be tucked in a corner somewhere.

Ozone has a little of everything. The store is situated just a short walk from the Doug Fir, making it a good choice for a quick pre-show peek. Or come in for the occasional in-store appearances!

Back to top…

FESTIVALS

Taking its name from a Can song, the Halleluwah Festival occurs September 1 and 2, 2006, at Disjecta. Its centerpiece is the comeback performance of ’60s folk singer Vashti Bunyan, and the lineup also includes Deerhoof, Erase Errata, Tara Jane O’Neil, Trumans Water, Dengue Fever, Sir Richard Bishop (of Sun City Girls fame), Jackie-O Motherfucker, and many more. With admission you’ll also get an art show, assorted vendors and their wares, food from local chefs, and more.

Longbaugh Film Festival
www.longbaugh.com/2006

This annual festival won’t roll around again until March 29, 2007, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for if you’re an art/film/video/documentary/experimental buff.

Held at multiple venues September 7–9, 2006, this year’s MusicfestNW features the likes of the Dandy Warhols, the Black Keys, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Talkdemonic, the Nice Boys, the Mooney Suzuki, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, ***(deep breath)*** , the Silver Jews, Richard Buckner, Kristin Hersh, Jeremy Enigk, Britt Daniel, Helio Sequence, Dead Moon, and the Melvins. And a whole lot more; you’d better just look it up.

Time-Based Arts Festival
www.pica.org/tba/tba06

Also right around the corner is TBA:06, which is a huge citywide event organized by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, or PICA. The festival goes on for eleven days, from September 7–17, 2006. There are both indoor and outdoor performances, workshops, films, digital video, music, installations, visual art, you name it. This is a mammoth event, and can’t be summed up in a few sentences. Check out the PICA website for a more comprehensive picture of this annual event.

Back to top…

FOOD, COFFEE, AND OTHER HANGOUTS

photo by Rich Wells

It’s cheap, it’s good, the portions are huge, and it’s open until 11 p.m. It’s within walking distance of many clubs, record stores, and yes, strip clubs. In fact, if you need to use the facilities while you’re there, you’ll find out about that first hand, because El Grillo’s restroom is shared with the grand old dame of PDX nudie joints, Mary’s Club.

The Fresh Pot
4001 N Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227
503.284.8928

3729 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
503.232.8928

www.thefreshpot.com

The Fresh Pot serves Stumptown coffee and is beloved by Portland’s musicians. Its original Mississippi Avenue cafe is being used as the primary location for an honest-to-goodness “big Hollywood movie” to be released next year (an adaptation of the novel The Feast of Love), but if you want to try to bust in on a shot you’re sadly too late, as filming wrapped a couple weeks ago. The Fresh Pot is next door to Mississippi Records, an example of perfect symbiosis.

Really Good Stuff
1322 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
503.238.1838

I guess this qualifies as a “hangout.” It’s actually a rambling junk shop extraordinaire, with a fair emphasis on music and vinyl “junk.” It’s one of those increasingly rare and great places where there’s stuff everywhere you look, piled haphazardly and possibly even dangerously. There is room after room, and nooks in every corner where even more junk is unexpectedly tucked. And there’s a resident cat, the hallmark of a worthwhile junk shop. For some reason, at any given time you’ll find at least four Hammond organs, a couple Victrolas, and 20 cheap bikes. None of it is in perfect condition, but then again that’s not why you come here.

photo by Rich Wells

Stumptown is a local coffee roaster that supplies cafes, grocery stores, offices, and restaurants around town. They’ve got the awesome beans, friends. Luckily, Stumptown also has several quite comfortable cafes where you can sit, meet up with friends, and generally see and be seen. Incidentally, the baristas who serve you during the day tend to be some of the same people you’ll see onstage in Portland’s music venues by night.

Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny Street
Portland, OR 97204
503.248.1600

Valentine’s, also in Old Town, is a combination sandwich shop/performance space. The food is largely local and organic, and the place is open until 3 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday, making Valentine’s another perfect stop for downtown night owls. Upstairs is a loft space where you’ll find Clouds, a mini-store that carries limited-run cassette tapes, CD-R-only releases, rare vinyl, and other ephemera that you’re not likely to find anywhere else, at least not without looking really, really hard.

Located in Old Town and open “22 hours a day,” Voodoo Doughnut is a mecca for late-night and drunken culinary debauchery. Until such time as the Nyquil Glazed and Pepto-Bismol doughnut returns to the menu (it’s currently “on hold”), Voodoo’s ringer, pun denied, has to be the Bacon Maple Bar. Oh yeah, Voodoo performs fully legal weddings on request — and under a velvet painting of Isaac Hayes, to boot.

Back to top…

BOOKSTORES

On one hand, the title of this section should probably be stated in the singular, because when you’re talking about Portland, only one bookstore needs mentioning: Powell’s. On the other hand, Powell’s has several locations, and a couple of these deal in specialized material. There’s the technical bookstore, and the home and garden outlet. But when most people talk about Powell’s, they’re referring to the City of Books flagship store downtown. And with good reason: there just ain’t nothing else like this behemoth. It’s got its own cafe. And parking garage. It takes up a whole damn city block, for pete’s sake! Powell’s may not always offer the lowest prices to be found, but it boasts arguably the most comprehensive selection of any brick-and-mortar book retailer in existence. The company doesn’t proclaim itself the “largest independent used and new bookstore in the world” for nothing.

Needless to say, the music section at Powell’s is top-notch. Whether it’s sheet music, tomes on instrument building and repair, or a fond reminiscence of ’80s cassette culture with fancy custom die-cut pages, you’ll find it here.

Back to top…

MUSIC STORES

As a West Coast mecca for young musicians, Portland has also cultivated a healthy market for new and used music gear. Apart from the now ubiquitous Portland Craigslist (which has come a looooong way in the last few years), there are plenty of stores and industrious folks dedicated to buying, selling, and repairing music-making equipment.

photo by Rich Wells

A relatively new store with a wink-wink nudge-nudge name, this is kind of a different business model in that it’s three businesses in one. Well, give or take one and a half. You have Centaur Guitar, which sells new and used music equipment. The original Centaur was easy to categorize: It was a used guitar store. Then it expanded a few months back to include a small record store, or at least a selection of albums in the middle of the space, called Infringement Records. Infringement also happens to double as a record label. Now, it seems Infringement hosts in-store appearances, while Centaur hosts “out-of-store” appearances. (Most Saturdays during the summer, Centaur clears the space beside its building and lets bands play the day away.) Oh yeah, they also do repairs. The question is, what won’t they do next?

Old Town Music
40 SW 3rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
503.295.6808
www.myspace.com/oldtownmusic

Old Town Music is a cozy used and vintage guitar store conveniently located right in the heart of the downtown club district. You can always find a one-of-a-kind guitars or crazy new boutique effects pedals here. It’s not a big, multifaceted shop, it’s just a friendly, casual, no-nonsense place to find and try out cool equipment. Old Town also repairs amps, keyboards, effects, and guitars.

photo by Rich Wells

1834 NE Alberta Street
Portland OR, 97211
503.335.8800

Trade Up Music is an east-side success story. When it opened in 2000, it was a scrappy one-room store. Every few months, though, things would be in upheaval for a while, owing to Trade Up’s acquisition of another part of the building they were renting. While at first the focus was guitars and effects, used recording equipment was eventually added — then a drum room went in, then the recording section expanded and moved, and so on, and so on. After several of these metamorphoses, they now have pretty much the whole building. All that expansion apparently didn’t quite satisfy demand, however, because Trade Up just opened an Alberta Street store to complement its original Division Street location.

Back to top…

INSTRUMENT/EQUIPMENT REPAIR

Of course, all gear needs servicing every now and again, and the music stores listed above have in-house or recommended repair services. Here are honorable mentions for a few dedicated repair shops.

Inner Sound
1416 SE Morrison Street
Portland, Oregon 97214
503.238.1955
www.inner-sound.com

Inner Sound, mainly an electronics repair shop, is an authorized service center for many major brands of amps, synths, effects processors, and recording equipment. As of last year, they have added an in-house speaker repair business. Inner Sound also repairs home stereo equipment.

Leighton Audio
3624 North Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227
503.367.5725

This shop, run by musician and tech Jef Brown, specializes in vintage tube amplifier repair, though he also maintains a collection of tubes and assorted parts. This is yet another business on the fashionable Mississippi business strip.

Twelfth Fret Custom Guitar Shop
2402 SE Belmont Street
Portland, OR 97214-2821
503.231.1912

This is a great shop dedicated to guitar setup, repair, and customization.

Back to top…

BANDS

Musicians in Portland continue to come and go. Let’s see, we still have Steve Malkmus, James Mercer from the Shins, and Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. We still have Quasi and the Decemberists. Britt Daniel from Spoon just moved here. But Sleater-Kinney have called it a day, and M. Ward has moved to New Hampshire. Oh well. But apart from the aforementioned big fish, there are a million billion bands here, working hard to ensure that the music scene won’t grind to a halt.

Why so many musicians? Portland rents are still a bit cheaper than other West Coast hot spots. There are venues aplenty, in all shapes, sizes, and budgets. Most houses here have basements, and neighborhoods tend to be fairly tolerant of the traditional basement practice space. As a corollary, there’s a thriving house party scene and loads of bands that love a good basement show. All these aspects act as magnets attracting kids fleeing from pricier coastal burgs, not to mention far-flung cities from Boise to Butte.

Here are a few of the many, many, many bands in PDX worth watching:

Danava

Music by Portland bands
	Glass Candy, Love Love Love
	Jackie-O Motherfucker, Flags of the Sacred Harp
	LKN, Postulate 1
	Menomena, Under an Hour
	Talkdemonic, Beat Romantic
	Tara Jane O'Neil, You Sound, Reflect
	The Thermals, The Body, the Blood, the Machine
	Yellow Swans, Psychic Secession
	Scout Niblett, Kidnapped by Neptune
	Viva Voce, The Heat Can Melt Your Brain

www.myspace.com/danava
Stoner rock central. Riffs ‘n’ riffs. Rockin’. Oh, and some prog. Maybe a little Bowie? Awesome.

Glass Candy

www.myspace.com/glasscandy
This is fucked-up new wave with beeping synths, lacerating guitars, and a taste for the unexpected, all of which serve to back the primary instrument: the voice of Glass Candy frontwoman Ida No.

Jackie-O Motherfucker

www.atpfestival.com/atp-recordings/jackie-o-motherfucker
Jackie-O Motherfucker mix the weird with the wonderful, the songs with the improv, and the ebb with the flow. They’re a main progenitor of the “freak folk” phenomenon of the last few years.

LKN

www.greydayproductions.com/bands/lkn.html
Seriously loud and rocking, LKN on record is Lauren K. Newman singing and playing all instruments. Live, LKN, is a full band that tears the shit up.

Menomena

www.menomena.com
A bouncy pop band that takes a million more chances musically than many a bouncy pop band before it. Group member Brent Knopf created software he calls called Deeler specifically for the composition of Menomena's music. Deeler has, in fact, become the fourth member of the group.

Scout Niblett

www.scoutniblett.com
Scout Niblett is a one-woman band. She pounds the hell out of a kit, she screams her head off, she tours with Shellac, and she likes to wear wigs. What more do you want?

Talkdemonic

www.talkdemonic.com
This is a drum-and-viola, laptop-plus-other-live-instrumentation duo that fittingly describes its music as “folktronic hop.”

Tara Jane O’Neil

www.tarajaneoneil.com
Former Rodan and Sonora Pine member who long ago embarked on a solo career. TJO explores a quieter, prettier side of the rock spectrum.

The Thermals

www.thethermals.com
Recently signed to Sub Pop, the Thermals are kinda pop and kinda punk. And the band's new album, "The Body, the Blood, the Machine" is a pseudo concept album about “a United States governed by a fascist Christian state.” Or is that more correctly labeled a documentary?

Viva Voce

www.vivavoce.com
Wide-ranging husband-and-wife pop with lots of lushness in the overdubs.

www.jyrk.com/yellowswans
Tablecore noisicians mix improv, tape machines, effects processing, and hardcore. Like a friendlier Wolf Eyes!

Back to top…

Posted September 2006

Send to del.icio.us  |