Portland Rocks

From yesterday’s Oregonian (front page):

Chris Walla spent a month in Portland, walking to work at a church-turned-recording studio in Northeast and to Wild Oats for meals.

It was the first time in his adult life that Walla, a member of indie darlings Death Cab For Cutie, didn’t need a car to get around.

Then he returned to his band in Seattle. Stuck in traffic, Walla felt “held hostage” by a city so enticing and yet so incapable of unsnarling rush hour.

So two years ago, he joined the stream of rising and big-name alternative rockers moving to Portland. Though Seattle gave birth to the independent music scene, Portland is the latest hub of chart-topping talent.

Modest Mouse — including British indie giant Johnny Marr — crafted its newest album at band member Isaac Brock’s Southeast Portland home. Released in March, it went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Walla’s band peaked at No. 4 on the same chart last year with “Plans,” and the Shins’ “Wincing the Night Away” debuted at No. 2 this year. The Shins moved here from Albuquerque, N.M.

The full piece is on the Oregonian website.

In addition to being an awesome look at Portland through the lens of indie rock, I got a special kick out of it because my friend Randy Rapaport is quoted. Randy’s a developer, whose Belmont Lofts I live in with my family, but also an indie rock fan of the highest sort.

Here’s what he had to say:

I’m really interested in indie rock as an art form, like what jazz was in the ’20s and ’30s. My intention is to welcome them,” says Randy Rapaport, the Belmont Lofts developer who’s courting Johnny Marr for a spot in his upcoming Clinton Condominiums.

Yes, welcome to the new arrivals but also thanks to all of the music talent, known and unknown, that have been here for years and years and is making Portland such a sweet place to live.