Portland Rocks - Updated! - PDX Pop Now!, Portland City Hall Team on Outdoor Show

There is a lot of wonderfull art and music in our great city. It should not take a reality show to shine a light on it. We can, within our own community, come together to shine a light bright enough to be worthy of Portland's amazing talent pool. That being said, Storm rules! AudioCinema is at the communities disposal in any way that will facilitate a more nurturing environment for Portland's talent. Let us know how we can help. Thank you for this forum, possibly the seed needed to head us in the right direction, toward a brighter future in Portland. Gotta wear shades.

Is there or has there ever been a neighborhood specific talent contest in portland? Have the different parts of town band together for a competition to find the best talent living in the area like they have in San Antonio, TX-- but add in a nice little end-of-competition festival at the end of things. That'd be fun, and would start out as a fun little "idol-show" type karaoke funfest and move into something more exciting and professional

1. I have been watching this amazing entity transform since I put nails in the Bar at Dante's with Frank in 2000. Here's what I see, I tried to keep it short...

The immediate future of the Portland music scene is going to be an increase in attention from the west coast major/indie labels who are ready to invest in some of the bands who have been working hard for the past five years. Not a "Signing Frenzy" our obscurity is keeping that at bay for now. More advertising and film work for bands. This already started months ago...Stars of Track and Field, The Nice Boys. These acts and more will become underground ambassadors for Portland by the end of summer. The second wave will be more press nationally directed at Portland than we have already seen. I was in Williamsburg last Halloween and everyone was all like..."You're from Portland? Cool." It was pretty weird. Who knows, maybe we'll get a star on the cartoon maps of the west coast you see on TV soon...

After those acts have gone off on long tours the folowing contingency of artists will step into their place and everthing will shift again. Right now there are 20 kids in our warehouse playing Pink Floyd and The Who in Paul Greens School of Rock. They have been nailing the tunes since day one and average about 13 years old. So we will have wave after wave of this for some time to come. Portland band leaders like Carl Hinds of Black Heart White Noise, are teaching the next generation of musicians to represent Portland as we speak.

2. The risk takers are the leaders. Sure, Decemberists and Dandies are getting loads of attention from the press but that flow is already way past changed. From Richmond Fontaine to Man of The Year, heck even my band are made up of people who take major risks financially and as artists to be overseas representing Portland in print, on the radio and onstage. Here's to all the musicians who work their fingers to the bone serving drinks to all the designers from Nike with expense accounts bigger than their paychecks! And to the Nike designers who support their careers!

Portland's music scene is a mega-mutant virus changing so fast and already so diverse to begin with that there is no "scene". I've spoken to label reps who say "What the (bleep) is going on in Portland, every band is so different, I don't know where to begin." I think that diversity and our nature to transform so quickly (short attention span) is what's keeping the city from going through what happened in Seattle. It is however, inevitable as things happen like Storm going on CBS. That's why the streets are widening -this town is ready to give birth to a major city.

3. Roadblocks? The OLCC has quelled many an ingenious event idea that would have made for more great shows, festivals, more opportunity for artists and more activity in the arts scene in Portland. You can't have a rock show without beer and you can't have beer without their permission. Do the math. Are they the liquor police, or the dream police? They wanted AudioCinema to follow the same guidelines as "The Bite" to serve alcohol at a rock show in our warehouse. They wanted me to provide activities for underage attendees or they weren't going to permit the event. Who sends their teenager to a warehouse party in downtown at midnight on a Sunday??? They basically wanted to force us to allow minors...I think some basic discussion with them about permitting and updating the policies to address the current situation and it's speedy evolution could fix the problem for all parties involved.

The Fire Department is cool. We have been working with them a great deal this year to permit events safely. However, there needs to be an "alternative venue code" for the arts community to have access to space. The Assembly venues in town will not suit the expanding needs of the arts community nor facilitate their major economic contributions to Portland.

4. Again, the diversity of Portland is the sound. The sound is "don't expect a sound-expect good." Is that too long in comparison to be-bop, grunge or hip-hop? Let the press decide what to call it...there are great country bands here, great deconstructionists, great straight rock bands, great Jazz players, singer-songwriters abound. That's before the producers get their hands on them. With the proper funding and a good ear, you could have a 25 artist label after one weekend out at the clubs. But no, I don't believe in a Portland "Sound" and refuse to for it's own sake.

5. Finally, Storm. I am personally biased because I want her back onstage with my band and to be able to continue writing for The Balls. But I think the best thing that could happen for her and Portland subsequently, would be to come in second, be on CBS 9 more weeks and get to do whatever the heck she wants after teh show without the likes of Tommy Lee and his "Crue" indelibly tainting her hard earned name...-Adam Mackintosh AudioCinema LLC

I caught wind of this thread on Blogtown and was excited to pop on over and say a few words about what Portland really needs to create a fully thriving music community, based on my observations as a musician in a band, and as one of the organizers of PDX Pop Now! Also, to back up for a moment, I want to congratulate the Mercury and Willy Week for launching sites dedicated to local music, as well as for dedicating the time and energy that is required to sustain them. This is a hole that has needed filling for quite a while in town, and it is gratifying to see people take a stab at it. Also, City Hall with Quasi and the Minders is pretty darn cool, if I do say so myself. Thanks, guys!

The biggest barrier standing between Portland today and a totally healthy musical community is the OLCC, or at least its current policies. I'm sure the organization must do some good, but I frankly can't figure out what it is. And this is coming from someone who drinks only rarely. Allow me to explain. I'll do it briefly in the next paragraph, and then allow myself the indulgence of some personal reflection and polemic.

Briefly - The OLCC makes it fiscally impossible for all-ages clubs to be successful. Venues have to choose between staying in business and letting kids in to shows. People under 21 are an absolutely essential part of a healthy and functioning music community and economy. Only when kids, teenagers and college students are allowed into all shows, and without being physically barred from the rest of the audience, will Portland's music communities, cultures and businesses really take off. More people will come to shows. More music-related businesses will make more money providing goods and services to more people. This seems obvious, but Oregon's vestigial blue laws and the entrenched economic self-interest of the OLCC bureaucracy keep this from happening. Let's be reasonable and allow venues to admit patrons of all ages, alcohol on the premises or no.

PDX Pop Now! was founded in the wake of a soul-searching discussion on the pdx-pop listserv. The gist of the conversation is worth remembering:
1) We have great bands in Portland.
2) Many of them get more attention and generate better attendance nationally than here at home.
3) We see the same faces night after night at concerts all over town. These are the faces of fellow musicians supporting each other, which is a key element to a sustainable community, but not enough. We need fans, the merely curious and, well, non-musicians, too.
4) Portland's artistic community - to be fair, like all artistic communities - can be fractious and petty at times, letting territorialism get in the way of collegiality and building something bigger.
5) Some of the hubs of the community - yes, venues, promoters, t-shirt makers, sticker makers, music retailers etc. play a key role here too - had closed recently making things seem even more in shambles than usual.
5) We should and can do something about this.

Portland is really the only place I can imagine something like this happening, because the event is predicated on a few facts. Portland is small enough to make the logistics possible. To some extent, everybody knows everybody, or at least half of everybody, who in turn know the other half, and that made getting the word out and generating a sense of comfort with the festival and compilation easier. Portland is also big enough to have enough going on creatively to populate an annual event, in terms of musicians, in perpetuity and with a high level of quality, broadly speaking. Lastly, let's remember that this is a navel-gazing town - and I mean that in a mostly good, non-musical way. We like things that are local. We are proudly provincial in many ways. Local businesses put their money where our mouths were and really stepped up to finance the whole thing. We do have a great creative community on the services end - CD duplicators, retailers, web services, mastering engineers, studios, labels etc.

Those of us who went on to from the core group that put on the first PDX Pop Now! festival were working with a good deal of good will from the community, resurrecting and developing the idea of a local music festival that had been previously manifested in things like AIMFest (admittedly before my time, but I believe the stories). We wanted to facilitate an event that removed the usual obstacles that keep people from shows; make it free, all-ages, and try to include people from as many musical sub-cultures as possible. We are still working towards really achieving the last goal, but I think we have improved.

The key effect that we hope this ethic of attendance-road-block-removal is getting people out to shows that don't ordinarily come to them. Having a large number of bands play at one time, in one place, for free frees the casually interested from having to way costs and benefits, it frees them from having to decide which of a thousand shows played by bands they've never or barely heard of to go to on any given night, and - here's what I've been moving towards, and where I start to get negative - KIDS CAN COME. AND TEENAGERS. AND COLLEGE STUDENTS.

We do an unconscionably bad job in this city of making concert attendance viable for people under the age of 21. This goes equally for 9 year-olds that parents might want to bring to an at the Doug Fir as it does for 19 year-old college students who, in an alternate, sane reality, would be the heart of a concert-going community. It's no accident that "college radio" has long been the bastion of the kind of DIY music that makes up the heart of a successful local music scene. How odd then that we make it impossible for college-age people to fully participate in our musical culture.

I grew up in LA. With a few exceptions, I could go to any club to see and concert I wanted. The venues with alcohol simply did or didn't stamp your hand, and that was it. It wasn't an issue. As a teenager I never tried to get alcohol illegally at a show. That was beside the point. I didn't care. I was there to listen to MUSIC.

I remember very clearly the first time I went to a venue that served alcohol and allowed people under 21, but segregated them in the bizarre, physical fashion we do here in Oregon. It was as a college student in Connecticut, another state with illogical vestiges of blue laws. I saw Sunny Day Real Estate at a venue in which a floor-to-ceiling chain-link fence, running, literally up to and through the stage, separated me from those in the audience over 21. The few places in Oregon that have been blessed by the OLCC to serve alcohol and host all-ages events don't barricade in quite so dramatic a fashion, but a physical barrier in the middle of the audience is not exactly a winning metaphor for community.

Kids - and, again, I mean that broadly, from elementary schoolers to college students - make a local musical community fiscally viable. They go to shows. They buy CDs. They also add a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and, as performers, creative content. On the other hand, they don't buy alcohol and, unfortunately, that has spelled the doom of many an all-ages club here in Portland. Music venues should not have to choose between serving kids music and serving adults alcohol. The logic of survival dictates that venue owners will make the latter choice. This decision, fait au compli, allows clubs to remain in businesses, but ironically eliminates the possibility of a truly inclusive, vibrant, musical community that makes having the venues to begin with worthwhile. This is classic shooting-yourself-in-the-foot.

The handful of all-ages venues in Portland, in my experience, don't often bring all-ages attendees. I applaud them for flying the all-ages flag, as someone has to keep that torch lit, but there's not a whole lot they can do about this. The concert-going culture of Portland has cut kids out. One or two welcoming venues are not enough to make kids feel invested in local music and local culture, generally. This is why they don't show up the few places they can, I believe. If kids could open up a weekly and go to any show they saw, on a whim, they would. Not every day, but they would. I did. You probably did, too.

We are too stingy, collectively, to properly fund after-school programs, as the recent SUN cutbacks prove. Wouldn't the corresponding, fiscally conservative response, then, be to pass on to the private sector the expense of keeping kids out of trouble by providing them with activities and events in which they are interested? Allow venues to let kids into their shows. I guarantee that this will generate revenue for a broad array of businesses, from the venues, to the bands, to the promoters, to the duplicators, to the engineers and on and on. Plus, it's the reasonable thing to do.

Underage music fans should be able to see every show that happens in this town. They ought to be able to do it without being cordoned off by a fence. And, yes, they ought to be able to PLAY these venues too. Let's invite them into our musical community. It is rightfully theirs as much as ours.

It seems to me that whatever the outcome of the Storm-fest, win or lose, it will not reflect on Portland's music community that much; after all Storm is appearing on some reality TV show I believe that is not Portland-based nor does Storm pretend to represent Portland I would guess. Storm is a great performer who has carved out her niche and good luck to her on the show. It's good for her career.
As for looking at the music industry as an economic driver for Portland, well yes of course it is. I have made many presentations recently to people in the private and public sectors about how everyone wins when music and the arts as a whole are supported. Many, many Portlanders are employed because of the music industry. My company currently supports six people directly and two contractors, plus we have four bands making decent incomes from performing and recording.
One also has to think local, act global these days as the internet has opened the doors to everyone and is especially effective for artists and labels and extends Portland's reach well beyond the city's borders. One example is our biggest selling band, Dirty Martini, who are extremely popular in the Northwest and yet have sold thousands of albums via the internet to fans in almost every part of the world. And the blog that we run on Pampelmoose.com receives more than 150,000 visits a month of which about 40% of that traffic is foreign. So we are flying the flag for PDX as we are based here but our business and impact is global. Portland's music community, not it's industry or business, is the key to Portland's global reach I believe.
Dave Allen, Pampelmoose.com

Unfortunately, on second thought perhaps fortunately, I have to be very brief, for now. Being a passionate fan of PDX music changed my life. I found love and a new career simply by following that passion. I believe. My faith was once again rewarded last night as I watched Wade McCollum give a Quasar like performance as Hedwig at the Artist Repertory Theatre. From the Blues Festival to a March Fourth blowout at Doug Fir and back around again to some quiet songwriting gathering I treasure this town's music, those that make it, and those that make it happen. As to leaders? A couple of them have posted here already. But I of course have a personal favorite, Lisa Lepine.

Tom Hale
www.TomHale.net

The Portland Music Scene is stronger than it has been since the 70's when every club seemed to be filled with live music and fans everynight of the week. Portland has a diversified music community that is is stong in many genres:Rock, blues, hip-hop and jazz especially. A major element missing in this equation today is enough support from music fans in our community for our local artists. There are a core of people that consistantly support the local music scene but it's not enough to support all the great talent. There is a big disparity between the support and CD sales of Pink Martini in the community to anyones call on what the #2 artist would have. A couple Oregon artist a week may hit any of the local stores top 50 selling albums versus up to half the chart of say Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas can be Texas artists or former Texas artists. The help of the City (and the state) to help in elevating the presense of the music arts of Portland (and the state of Oregon) could go a long way to helping the success (and making a living) of the artist here. It could also help those involved in other areas in the field of music such as managers, bookers, sound people, etc. As Dave Allen mentions, it is an international landscape and artists do have opportunities to sell elsewhere with modern technologies...however, if we can help the artist on their homebase, it will give them a better opportunity to take their arts to the world.

I'm excited to see that people have been reading, writing, and thinking about these questions. Taking them to perform a little "State of the Union" mental diagnostic can be very helpful I think.

I wanted to briefly mention one other economic and political factor that has a strong impact on Portland's creative community. The fact that Oregon guarantees a non-tip-adjusted minimum wage to servers may be the single most important element in explaining why so many musicians and artists congregate here. Of course, there are many issues at play, but the fact that a musician or artist can reasonably live off of a few nights' work as a waiter each week makes Oregon an extremely feasible place for someone wanting to keep their creative endeavor primary in their lives. This, combined with all of the larger cultural proclivities of Portland, and the area's long tradition of DIY culture, go a long way to explaining This would obviously change if the miminum wage for servers were ever reduced to the non-liveable levels it is at in many other states.

It's simple, wristbands or stamps for those who show ID at the door who are 21+. Bartenders check every ID at concerts which have under 21'ers. OLCC makes better use of staff and volunteers who can do frequent checks during the events and if need be, fine the crap out of venues who get caught serving to minors.

I am in total agrement with the above folks who state the importance of involving Portland's under 21 group in the music scene. Every show I have attended in Portland which allowed under 21 crowd has good attendance from this group. Look at the show at City Hall yesterday, I would estimate a good 10% + of the attendees were under 21. Number guessing aside, point being, it was well attended by the under 21 crowd and all had a good time despite little marketing and a very non-hip spot for young folks.

They have bring a certain freshness to the music scene and who better to involve in the consumption of LOCAL prodcuts than energetic, plastic minded youth. I tried to embrace local music when I was younger but it was impossible.

However, for it to work, OLCC must allow more venues to serve alcohol AND allow anyone to attend.

* Is there are distinct Portland sound that’s coalescing?

Sorta -- creative, eclectic and fresh music. Whether that includes rock, jazz, pop, hip-hop or otherwise. In terms of marketing this sound, I haven't really seen an effective ploy other than pushing the music for what it is and stands for.

BTW -- Thanks Sam (and Tom, PDX Pop Now! folks..etc) for the concert yesterday. Great idea, great bands, and a great time!

MikeD

More shows outside City Hall please! What a great way to get more people to interact with our local city government!!

This is great! I knew you all had some legit. concerns still there are some keynote spekers who have not stepped up to the mic yet! Keep passing this on to people in the music community... Power of County! Yeah!

And here's a question I'd like people to kick around. What if there were some kind of State or City run fund for Portland resident/artists of 5 years + who meet a certain criteria in the way of accomplishment. Kind of like programs in The Netherlands where the State supports the artist as a sort of Ambassador of Culture? 5 artists a year, maybe it pays their utilities or rent for a year + fringe bene's? Something to offset the slanted artist income Dave was speaking to concerning working artists. Give them a year to focus their efforts...
Is that way too liberal of a concept? It would sure be progressive for the states...and put some honor back into representing a region.

-Adam M

It's great to see this dialogue taking place, and we would love to see music become a solid, economic driver in Portland. We are home to so many gifted musicians and an industry future with unlimited possibilities.

At the Musicians Union, Local 99, we obviously place great importance on the ability of musicians to make a living at their art/craft. There are many reasons why it is more difficult now than ever. I certainly agree that the OLCC is part of it, though not a new component. They have never been, and never will be, a friend to live music. Short of their demise, it will be very difficult to change their operational guidelines (Though not impossible, with the right efforts). Looking back to their decision a few years ago to disallow minor musicians the right to perform in licensed premises, and the obvious failure of the intended policy outcome, it still took us a year and a half to overturn that decision and return to the previous system that had worked since their inception. That clearly shows their mindset, and they are a definite problem.

I was very pleased to see both Terry Currier and Dave Allen point out the need for musicians to be supported, financially and otherwise, in their home town. To be the best artist/musician you can be, you need to be able to focus all your attention on your music, while surviving financially. Dare I say, "livable wage". While there could be much discussion on the econmics of clubs and whether they could pay more at this juncture, whether musicians need to starve for their art, or the myriad other issues, Local 99's main focus has been on exposure. Not the kind you get by playing for free. The kind you get from radio.

We challenged the FCC license renewals of 3 Portland Radio stations for, among other things, not fullfilling their obligation to serve in the "Public interest, convenience and necessity". Read "localism". Or more clearly, not enough local bands on local radio. While there are ever more options for showcasing your music, radio is still, for now, the top dog. Our goal is to create what are called "Citizen Agreements" that would require radio to adhere to certain community standards. An example of what could be mandated, in theory, is a defined percentage of local music broadcast on local radio. Canada has requirements like this for Canadian music. This is not telling radio what to play, just that they have to be responsive to the community. It's my understanding that Austin has more local talent and diversity on their local radio. Could that be playing a role in that successful scene?

KINK and KNRK should be applauded for at least airing some local music, but it could be more, and it should be all stations. Imagine local radio with enough first hand knowledge of the scene, that they could/would champion a hot band to the great masses that don't regularly frequent the clubs, but listen to radio.

So, our desired results for these efforts--the more exposure/airplay a band gets, the larger the audiences, the more the club cash register rings, the more the band gets paid, and the musicians can say goodbye to the barista job.

I also wanted to pay homage to the "starving musican" comment above. While this is a very insecure industry, and there is certainly no guarantee of success, it is never completely the musicians responsibility to pack the club. I have certainly played in a town with multiple clubs where I could draw a crowd in one and not the other. Was that because I didn't market myself right, or was it that the club wasn't the place to be (club marketing?). I think club owners, bookers, etc. may be too eager to lay it all on the musicians. Everyone plays a role in a successful club or scene.

Which leads me to what I think is the real question. Can the entire music community work together to create a "Portland Scene" that is a true economic driver? We have some great people already working together in this town, it's time to spread that reach and become even more inclusive. The "Music Biz" is very diverse and competitive, and because AFM members include everyone from the Symphony, to Bruce Springsteen, to Built to Spill, we are well versed in the challenges of working across stylistic boundries. That said, if the Portland music community can sussessfully cross those boundries, we can strengthen our overall ability to create the changes needed to grow the music scene.

Local 99 is readily available to participate in the continueing dialogue and actions required to move Portland towards becoming an ever more thriving music city.

Seems like everyone else has said something about the OLCC, but I do want to make sure that whoever reads this understands the negative impact that this commission has on Portland culture. Orginally from Portland, I went to school for a while in Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe, keep in mind, is really, really boring. So boring, in fact, that I would drive an hour to Albuquerque often and 6 hours to Denver once in a while for a good concert. I was 19 or 20 years old, and if Colorado or New Mexico had policies like Portland's I never would have made those trips.

Back in Oregon, I saw a free record store gig by the band Franz Ferdinand. After their perfomance, I spoke to the guitarist briefly. When I told him I couldn't attend his concert that night at a bar, he literally laughed at our state. I mean I had a freaking beard and I couldn't be trusted to watch him play. I'm SURE Portland wants the dollars and enthusiasm and vitality of visitors and young people generally. As a musician and a music fan, I think that Portland needs to make good on it's stated desire to attract and encourage creative types by loosening the draconian regulations of the OLCC.

THE MUSIC BIZ IN PORTLAND THAT NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:

THE MUSIC BIZ IN PORTLAND IS THRIVING!!!...but realatively invisible to the general public. My company Rumblefish, is just one piece of the local Portland music biz that is making a national impact, putting money in local indie artists pockets and becoming a significant local econimic force:

- www.CDBaby.com - 2nd largest online CD retailer (amazon is first)

- www.MusicMillennium.com - Recognized year after year as one of the best indie record stores in the country

- www.dougfirlounge.com - We need more venues like this!

- www.allegro-music.com - The largest indie CD/DVD distributor in North America and they're right in our backyard (actually right next to the airport)

- www.UmpquaMusic.com - The Umpqua Bank Discover Local Music Project is focused SOLELY on supporting local music & is all about paying local artists. This community bank has stepped up and really doing good things for local artists.

- Many many other bands, lawyers, booking agents, smart venues, podcasters, technology firms, etc., are doing great things and they're all based in P-Town.

SUPPORTING LOCAL MUSIC IS A NO-BRAINER:
When you buy records & SWAG from local artists & go to their shows, the entire community wins because:
1 - Those artists buy coffee, groceries & pay rent to LOCAL BUSINESSES with that money. Supporting locally owned companies creates immediate results - jobs / revenue / etc.

2 - Our communities are rewarded with GREAT MUSICAL ART! Music that attracts & retains the Creative Class that Portland is becoming so well known for. There's a reason why there are more ad agencies in Portland than Seattle! Smart interesting people come to cities that keep them engaged and enriched with great art. Let's make it easier for local artists to make music full time.

3 - How much of the $16 you spent on that last U2 album came back into Portland?

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN:
- Portland music biz leaders, artists and city representatives need to gather on a regular basis, get a dialog going and develop a plan that achieves the following goals:
1. Raise awareness of local music & how to support it
2. Enable the community to support local music with their hard earned $'s
3. Develop a better infrastructure for local artists and music companies that provides them with the tools they need to thrive
4. Learn from Austin, TX. They're doing a great job with ALL OF THIS.

My company Rumblefish, it's employees, our recording console & fish car are all ready to help make Portland a better place for indie artists & music lovers. Anyone who is also interested can contact me directly to collab at:
paul@rumblefish.com

Portland Rocks!

Paul Anthony - Rumblefish
www.Rumblefish.com

LUMBERJAX LOOKING FOR LOCAL JAMS
Team Taps into Local Music Scene for 2007

PORTLAND, July 27, 2006 – The Portland LumberJax are searching for local music talent to become part of their 2007 campaign and season. Ideally, the music selected would be used in the arena, TV/radio commercials, in-game features, highlight videos and more.

The Jax are not looking for a specific genre or stereotype, instead they are seeking songs that will get audiences excited for the games and the hard, hitting action of lacrosse. Each artist or band will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to decide if the music fits the available situations.

“With the talent in Portland, it just makes sense for us to tap into the music scene,” said Jax Managing Partner Angela Batinovich. “We’re going to give credit where it’s due. There are no boundaries for how we plan to use the music either; the sky is the limit for us.”

As of now, there isn’t a set compensation for the artists or bands that will work for the LumberJax this season. By partnering with the team, their music will be heard and seen by numerous people who attend games and view the website on a regular basis.

“We’re focusing on the promotional side of things and other ways to market the bands aside from in-game and website usage,” Batinovich said. “We’ve looked into selling CDs on our website and tying their music into our public appearances as well.”

The search for Portland’s latest and greatest musical talent has just begun. Anyone interested in working with the LumberJax should email a digital copy (.mp3 or .wav) of their music and/or send a link to their website (where the music can be heard) to Marketing Manager Trent Nielsen at trent.nielsen@portlandjax.com.

It is great to see this discussion regarding Portland's music community, especially in light of the changes in the music & record industries. I appreciate the perspective both Dave Allen and Terry Currier have shared.

As an individual who has worked with a number of local musicians, and also having traveled to other cities in the nation Portland has a strong reputation nationally, which I feel the city doesn't realize. There are many talented musicians who live and perform here who have toured or tour with nationally recognized artists. There are also a number of bands creating a buzz regionally and nationally. I feel it is important to embrace our music community at all levels of success, and realize that it starts at the local level and will progress to the global level. We should want to grow with the success of these musicians and bands. By supporting and investing in them early on in their careers it will benefit our community in many ways.

Our community should want our local musicians to be successful and to make a living with their art. We should also continue to build our creative culture and keep the musicians working and producing in our city instead of relocating elsewhere. There is no reason with technology the way it is today, why Portland shouldn't have a healthy, large and profitable music industry, and this starts locally and grows globally.

I am excited for Storm's success and maybe this will help draw some attention to other aspects of our music community. The real question is what will Portland do with the national attention, and how will the city use it to champion other talented musicians from this area?

to me, music is just another form of artistic expression, and being that i am a pretty 'experimental' (the most over-used term in describing music) artist/musician, it will come as no surprise when i say that i don't really like the way this discussion is framed around the cash that comes from music. sure, people make some money catering to musicians. art supply stores make money suppling artists with what they need as well. but to me, art supply stores, guitar shops, cd duplicators, etc etc, those things that make up the brick and mortar faction of the art world do NOT a culture make.
i think its always problematic and eventually fruitless to talk about music, musicians and how they can create a sustainable living from their art. we are all ignoring the real hard numbers on this. 99.9 percent of people playing music in this city, in this country, in this world are never going to make a living doing it. music is an art form. we see it as a commodity more than, say, sculpture in that the recording industry has made billions over the last 60 years or so since it started to mass market and produce recordings of music.
any armchair music biz dude knows that paradigm is shifting BIG TIME right now towards a less mass cultural beatles style market to 'the long tail' type of economy. everyone making music stands a chance to make a couple of dollars, and those dollars add up to way more than the dollars made by one huge label/artist. the money has been spread thin as it starts to be more evenly distributed. and although this is a really inspiring thing in concept, in hard numbers it mostly means that it is harder than ever to make a living making or selling music in today's world.

all this to say, maybe a healthier and more progressive and pragmatic way to look at music culture is to take it completely OUT of the framework of commerce. sure, letting kids under 21+ to local shows will be a HUGE benefit to the culture of local music. and those kids have the sorts of spending cash that people in their 20's 30's and 40's generally dont have, and they can spend it on music culture. on cd's and guitars and everything else. but its ridiculous to think of that as a cure-all that will suddenly make music culture 'economically sustainable'. more than anything, musicians do it for the love, not the money, or they would have left this 'business' a looong time ago.

so if we focus on ways to sustain this culture without the dollar-signs it would be rad.
like - grants for musicians (this has already been mentioned and i think it is absolutely and totally needed. what's wrong with the 'art' world that it sees music as this separate thing? open up musicians to RACC grants and all the rest of the art funding out there..
and of course there should be more public funding for the arts in general. the judgement of artistic expression to how much money it makes is deeply ingrained in our society. its a systemic problem as we see things like the NEA and public radio and television lose all but a little funding in our country. and its an absolute SHAME. we should be ASHAMED and change our ways. but still we fall back into the old rut of trying to figure out how we can make a system in which cultural economy can bring financial rewards. and this is just a terribly one-sided, lopsided way of looking at culture and the arts that has been proven to be unhealthy over and over and over again.

so i say, if you want thriving arts culture, then you need to realize that the arts are never going to be a sound financial investment, EVER. in america that spells death. but it does not have to. we need to focus on re-awakening people's appreciation of music and art QUA music and art. it has as much, perhaps even MORE value in our lives, personally and as a society at large, as money.

so the mayor and commissioner's office should focus on these things:

public and private funding for arts and music education at all levels of schools
more public funding (perhaps like RACC) for musicians and music venues and festivals of local music
raising an awareness and appreciation of 'cultural economy' as well as financial economy for our region
real work (like, beyond blogging) with local music culture and businesses to solve issues like the problem with creating a sustainable model for music venues not tied to the sale of alcohol. or the problem of local music oriented manufactures and shops having to compete against big national and multi-national corporations... stuff like that

i'm not saying its impossible for people to make money making music or doing art. it is. but it's about the most unstable way to try to make a living in this country that there is. that's because for every person trying to do it for a living as well as for the love of creating art, there are 100 others that would do it just for the love of it. economically, the demand will never be as overwhelming as the HUGE supply. just look around you, doesn't it seem like everyone in this town has a band with a myspace page? last time i tried to check, it said there were over 7000 bands on myspace in a 5 mile radius from my zip code of 97214....a good percentage would kill to play a concert at a local venue for little or no money, and i'm sure most of them have had the dream of living off of their music at some point in their creative lives.

another more grand conceptual question, does the commercialization of a local music culture always lead to the stagnation of creative integrity of the local music culture?