PDX Underground Art 1990-2000: Recent Forum Posts

Great to see this. A note on that generation of Portlander:

A transitional culture in an economically transitional time and place. Why did young cultural producers move to Portland between 1990 to 2000? A combination of factors and incidents, no doubt. Generalizations might include the low cost of living, the films of Gus Van Saint, low-tuition colleges and liberal universities, a chance to get away from more culturally reified places like LA and Seattle, or other economically ravaged cities (that weren't as exciting as Portland for some reason). Of course the culture that came before (X ray) and the feeling in the air (give a nod to Fugazi, people).

Also, Portland neighborhoods of low rent houses allowed for bands to play with little complaint from neighbors who either didn't mind the arrival of happy young people, or who for some reason or another didn't want to call the police.

The phenomenon of the "Punk House" as well as the institution of the college kid house must be considered instrumental.

I myself moved here to get out of Seattle, which was full of emotionally isolated, superficial, and for the most part uninspired young people. Plus there was the cold hearted "real world" economy there – which offered college I couldn't pay for, depressing job prospects and high rent. I moved to Portland to live in a closet for free with a girl that I was into (we both lived in the closet).

Thank you for putting this up on the web. I'm going to contribute as much as I can.

When did you move to Portland, and why?

Best,
Avalon

I've created a pdf zine of every place I have lived in Portland, including houses that regularly put on shows like the Powerhouse and Clubhouse at http://avalonkalin.blogspot.com/2007/11/places-i-used-to-live-in-portland.html

This wiki has been started in response to a posting on a Portland music list by local musican Adam Forkner looking for assistance/input in a project to document and chronicle the Portland arts scene from the 1990's. Here's an excerpt from Adam's message:

been thinking a lot about the under-documented 90's diy/underground scenes. a lot has come out recently documenting the late 70's thru the 80's diy portland scene..a prime motivator in thinking about the development after that, which not so far past but is nevertheless fading from memory……. before the internet starting cataloging stuff, but after, say, 1990 or so….

been talking with others, lots of deep brain clouds of memory and things and people and bands and venues and houses and art and ideas and specific shows and everything…

we are just beginning to collect data, the use of which will maybe be a big thick book and/ or maybe some sort of online wiki-type open source knowledge base and/or a series of lectures/panels

at this point just collecting data

unlike other scene retrospectives i want to go from the bottom up (the most weird and obscure up to the most popular/well-known/well-documented) giving as much space and room as needed for as much data (verbal accounts, photos, videos, audio?, flyers and hand bills, interviews, discographies etc) as possible. EXTENSIVE and ALL-INCLUSIVE, but with the core being the diy/underground/punk/weird/noise/etc spirit

This wiki is an attempt to provide a central workspace for this project. Currently things are pretty bare-bones. I am putting up the information from Adam's original list, though and should be adding some more names and content as I have time.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

- Michael
(michael at meaningliberation dot org)

PDX Underground Art 1990-2000

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