It plays like a loop in my head, the first time I visited Music Millennium. I remember the drive to Portland from Eugene, parking down the hill on East Burnside, the walk up the street and even opening the door. Had I filmed it, it could not be any more clear. I had been in many record stores before— in fact, the guys with me were all denizens of Eugene’s House of Records— but this was different. This was the famed Millennium, the seller of imports, the mecca of what record stores should be as far as many of us were concerned. Tower Records may have had stores open at the time (it was the summer of ’72, though I have been saying ’71 for years and have only recently discovered my mistake) but the Pac Northwest didn’t know it. Why should we have cared? We had the Millennium!
Archive for Terry Currier
Frank Gutch Jr: While Most of Us Talk, Some of Us Do— Grass-Tops Recording; Record Store Day Goodies; Media and Politics— The Hot Topics Are Nothing New; Plus Them Incredible, Edible Notes
Posted in Opinion with tags Al Wilson, Alialujah Choir, CBS Reports, Christoph Bruhn, David Ackles, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Edward R, Frank Gutch Jr., Grass-Tops Recording, Harvest of Shame, Hayden Pedigo, Indie Artists, Indie Music, Jeff Ellis, Kyle Fosburgh, Linda Ronstadt, Murder and The Right to Bear Arms, Murrow, music, Music Millennium, music videos, Record Store Day, Records, robbie basho, Sacri Cuori, See It Now, segarini, Seldom Scene, Steve Young, Terry Currier, The Business of Health, The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson on April 14, 2015 by segariniDon’t look now, kiddies, but in spite of all the mumblings and grumblings of a plethora of naysayers, the music industry is reinventing itself. Not at the top, of course, where one (Universal) or two (are any others left?) keep eating the detritus remaining from the Great Music Holocaust of the late-90s and early-2000s. Rather than change the model, executives at the various major labels would rather go down with the ship, hopefully while clutching that pot of gold in the form of those golden parachutes being handed out by corporations which claim to lose money but which seem to be able to find millions enough to buy out contracts of those leaving the fold. (How do you spell bribery these days?) They hang on, but not because they are competent.
Frank Gutch Jr: Down Under Down Under: Band Picks By My Favorite Aussie Musicians
Posted in Opinion with tags Andrew Winton, Ben Gillespie, bill jackson, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Fink, Frank Gutch Jr., hannah gillespie, Indie Artists, Indie Music, Jeff Lang, Leah Flanagan, Liz Frencham, Mechanical Pterodactyl, Munro Melano, music, Music Millennium, music videos, Ngaiire, Pete Fidler, Raised By Eagles, Records, Shannon Bourne, Snap Happy, Terry Currier, The Snappers, The Stillsons, The Wedded Bliss, The Weeping Willows, Yen Nguyen on March 25, 2014 by segariniGod, but I love Australia. I love the openness and the freedom and the idealism. I love their uniqueness— I mean, what other continents have such cool animals as the duck-billed platypus and kangaroo and koala. What other continent has the history, much of it forgotten outside that country’s boundaries— the penal colonies (Did you know that England sent their undesirables to the soon-to-be United States before diverting them to Australia? Colonies were colonies to those inbred bastards back then, eh?), the rabbit roundups (The newsreel clips are pure science fiction! Check out the little video I found on Youtube which highlights the problems of invasive species down under), the flying doctors, the centralization of schools. The Outback. Uluru (Ayers Rock to those outside Australia), The Great Barrier Reef.
Frank Gutch Jr: The Millennial Kickstart!!!, Life In Proctorville— We The People’s Wayne Proctor Talks Sixties Music Scene in Florida, Plus Notes and Vids!!!!!
Posted in Opinion with tags Bongo Boy Records, David Deacon, DBAWIS, dirtmusic, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Florida, Frank Gutch Jr., Hugo Race, Indie Artists, Indie Music, Jana Peri, jud norman, Kickstarter, Music Millennium, music videos, No Small Children, Portland, Records, Research Turtles, Terry Currier, The Coachmen, The Drifters, The Nation Rocking Shadows, The Trademarks, Wayne Proctor, We the People on March 5, 2014 by segariniWelcome to the new Millennium, ladies and gentlemen, and in this case, the new Music Millennium. I don’t have to go into details to explain the situation with record stores these days (okay— “music” stores, but they will always remain record stores to me). They are struggling, even the biggest of them. Even the best of them. Even Portland, Oregon’s legendary Music Millennium. Sure, they’re hanging on and doing better since the recent vinyl revival, but hanging on is not what owner Terry Currier wants. Hanging on is the least that he wants. And he has never been one to pocket money, either. Most of what Terry has made over the past 45 years he has put either back into his store or used toward something to strengthen the music community. And not just that of Portland. He has stepped beyond that city more than once, mainly in a capacity to organize indie record stores.
Frank Gutch Jr: The Stores Are Alive With The Sound of Music….. plus Notes!
Posted in Opinion with tags Aron's Records, Blue Meanie, Campus Music, Cellophane Square, Chrystalship, DBAWIS, Dean's Golden Oldies, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Frank Gutch Jr., Frank Vignola, Gary Haller, House of Records, Illinois Speed Press, Indie Artists, Indie Music, Intergalactic Trading Company, Jim Swindel, licorice pizza, Longhair Music Faucet, michael fennelly, Monty Rocker, Music Millennium, No Small Children, Pacific Discount Records, Peaches Records, Records, Second Time Around, Stone Darling, Terry Currier, The Arcade, The Sun Shoppe, Thompson's Record Mart, Vinnie Zummo on April 23, 2013 by segariniI still get asked why I love record stores. Still. Older people shrug their shoulders and the young— well, let us just say that rolling of the eyes seems to be part of their DNA. Every time it happens, I think, hey, I wasn’t like that. Well, except for the time that Momma pointed out that Ernie Fields‘ rockin’ In the Mood was a cover of a Glenn Miller song.
Frank Gutch Jr: Norton Records: After the Flood, Music Millennium: Back to the Future (Vinyl)
Posted in Opinion with tags Billy Miller, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Don't Tell Betsy, Frank Gutch Jr., Green Monkey Records, Indie Artists, Indie Music, Jane Gowan, Jubal Lee Young, Millionair Club., Mirriam Linna, Music Millennium, No Small Children, Norton Records, Shade, Sonics, stealing jane, Terry Currier, The Sad Cafe, Wailers, Zantees on December 5, 2012 by segarini“That’s it.” That is the final word in this video Norton Records posted on Vimeo not long ago. Not, “That’s it, we’re done.” More like, “That’s it, there is nothing more to say at this time.” Head Nortonite Billy Miller had just given the rundown on the work being done to salvage as much as possible from the devastation they had incurred from Hurricane Sandy and a heartbroken Mirriam Linna had showed us the warehouse where boxes of vinyl lay piled in heaps like dunes on a beach (wall-to-wall) and, truth be told, that was it for those comments because they and a whole host of volunteers had and have a mountain of work ahead of them.