I guess I never thought that carefully about both Jackpot Records and Jackpot! Recording Studio sharing the same name. Turns out both enterprises started around the same time in 1997—the record store by Isaac Slusarenko and the recording studio by Larry Crane—and the similarity in names wasn't intentional. (Jack Potts' Record-Keeping and File Hut, which also opened around the same time in 1997, has long since gone out of business.)

As the press release puts it, "In any other universe, having the similarly monikered Jackpot Records and Jackpot! Recording Studio in the same town might be a concern. But the men behind them instead shrugged their shoulders, supported the hell out of each other, and became close friends." That's a pretty marvelous story, actually, and now both Jackpots are teaming up for a 15-year anniversary party. It's going down on Friday, May 18 at the Bagdad Theater—in the neighborhood of both the studio and the SE Hawthorne record store—from 8 pm to midnight. The lineup's incredible, as you can see:

Quasi
The Minus 5
System and Station
Alialujah Choir
Blue Skies for Black Hearts
Perhapst (John Moen)
Dave Depper

Both Crane and Slusarenko are pillars of the Portland music scene, and the fact that both of their music-related businesses have been around—and been thriving—for 15 years is undoubtedly a cause for celebration.