The record release for Mt. Portland happens tomorrow night (Sunday, February 28) at Rontoms with performances from And And And, Joel Magid, Candace, and Boone Howard and Michael Finn; details here.
FOR THE PAST YEAR, local musician Joel Magid has worked tirelessly putting together a vinyl compilation album called Mt. Portland. Now he’s giving away the upcoming release for free. “I think it’s a little shocking to people because it’s so extreme,” he says. “But for me, it felt like the right thing to do.”
Compilations can be pretty boring. But Magid wanted Mt. Portland to be different, to stand tall and distinct from the rest. He decided to make the rock ‘n’ roll compilation last spring, when he felt he was living in a particularly dynamic time for Portland’s music scene. He and Minden vocalist Casey Burge started asking local bands if they’d like to contribute a song—everyone they asked said yes.
Thirteen Portland bands came together with brand-new, unreleased tracks, all recorded at Buzz or Howl Studios by owner Stan Wright. One of Magid’s goals for the compilation was for all of the bands to record in the same studio, bringing a sense of cohesiveness that’s often lacking in disjointed compilation albums. He says recording at Buzz or Howl was a collaborative experience: “Because everybody sort of knows each other, there was sort of a swimming pool of different musicians sitting in on all the sessions… Everybody jumped in when they wanted to.”