Music news, views and plain ol' bad attitudes.

[September 5th, 2001]

PREVIEW
Jealous Butcher: How to Succeed in the Music Business

On billboards advertising the Oregon Lottery, there's a small disclaimer that declares "the Lottery is not to be played for investment purposes."

A similar caveat should be handed out on little fortune-cookie-sized slips to every aspiring musician. This beast we call the Music Industry is really a lottery in Babylon, distributing small scraps of success and great gobs of disappointment with godlike randomness. Bet on "making it big"? You'd get better odds playing Russian roulette with five loaded chambers.

There is another way to Succeed in the Music Business, though. Rob Jones, CEO of the Portland label Jealous Butcher, could give the seminar. Jones started Jealous Butcher in 1992, releasing work by his pals in Kind of Like Spitting. And, lo, nearly 10 years later....

Jealous Butcher bands Heart Beats Red, Urban Legends, Captain vs. Crew, Rally Boy and Made for TV Movie take over Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom this Thursday. The show is a release party for Rally Boy's new EP, a warm-up for the label's showcase at the College Music Journal convention in New York next month and a celebration of how far JB has come.

"Things have really blossomed in the last year and a half," says Jones. "I'm getting steady checks, so my credit-card debt is finally going down. I'm finally able to spend money on promotion, and the response has been great."

In addition to well-received recordings and national tours by JB artists like Made for TV Movie, Kind of Like Spitting and Wow & Flutter, the label staged a packed showcase at last year's CMJ Festival. The recently released 10-band, 20-song label compilation Compact takes you through the mutinous guitar fury of Jones' own Captain vs. Crew, the creepy folk sociology of Sarah Dougher's "Secret Porno Collector" and Made for TV Movie's brooding noise, among other treats.

Compact (available at local stores in a limited, deluxe-packaged $20 edition and a minimalist $5 version) serves as a manifesto for a label just hitting its stride. Jealous Butcher's burgeoning success, for its part, testifies to hard work in the small village that is Portland's indie scene.

"It's all based on friendship, and friends of friends," says Jones. "I've had the good fortune to work with amazing bands. They work their asses off, I work my ass off, and pretty soon no one has any ass left." Zach Dundas

Heart Beats Red, Urban Legends, Rally Boy, Captain vs. Crew and Made For TV Movie play Thursday, Sept. 6, in Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-5555 ext. 8811. 8:30 pm. $5. 21+.

MUSIC SCENE NEWSNEIGHBORHOOD BITCHING INSPIRES JEZEBELS SHUTDOWN
Hiss & Vinegar

Score one for the busy-bodies. Jezebels , a club on Southeast Clay Street notable for its eye-burning pink paint job, put an end to its popular DJ sets last week. Long an oasis for Portland funk, soul and hip-hop fans, the sets by such premium PDX wax-spinners as DJ Wicked did not prove quite so popular with the club's neighbors in residential Ladd's Addition.

"I've had a hell of a lot of noise complaints ever since I started here," says owner Mike Nichols, the 53-year-old ex-Houstonian who transformed bluesy Parchment Farm into bump'licious Jezebels three years back. "I did a $12,000 noise-proofing job on the place, so there were no more complaints about music. But they started complaining about patron noise outside. They've been raising holy hell."

Though Nichols says most noise complaints have been directed to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, he also notes that ending DJ nights at the club was his decision, not the dictate of the state's booze commissars. An OLCC spokesman says that though Jezebels is operating under a temporary license, the club faces no formal sanctions.

"It just got to the point where I said, 'I give,'" Nichols says. "I've got some great DJs spinning in here and great, loyal customers. But there is the 10-percent moron factor you have to deal with. And there are people who live around here who dial up OLCC every time someone farts as they walk down the street."

The sudden silence at the club left regulars in mourning. "This was people's sanctuary," says one Jezebels habitué. "There's nothing like it in Portland, and there never will be again."

Nichols says he's considering turning the place into a sports bar--and switching to a more sedate paint job.

"They really hate this color," he says of the neighbors.

COP RAMS BAR, OWNER FEARS 'WITCH HUNT'

Off-duty Portland cop Kent Scott drove his pickup truck into the kitchen of Northeast Sandy Boulevard indie-rock haunt the Blackbird early last Tuesday morning. No one was hurt, and neither the cops who showed up to investigate nor the bar staffers who witnessed the mishap reported signs of intoxication on Scott's part.

Nonetheless, Scott's affiliation with the Man sparked a wavelet of media attention.

"I'm worried it's becoming a witch hunt," said Blackbird owner Patrick Kenneally last Tuesday, after fielding the latest in a series of reporters' calls regarding the incident. "If this guy wasn't a cop, there's no story here, in my opinion."

Kenneally notes that the Blackbird's flatiron-style building, located at the notoriously evil intersection of Sandy and Northeast Halsey Street, has been hit by cars at least four times. "Seemed like an honest mistake to me," he said. "No one got hurt, and we didn't even have to close down."

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS.

Wristbands for Musicfest Northwest, the 130-band homegrown musical uprising in Portland Sept. 20-22, are now on sale at Music Millennium and Fastixx locations for $20.

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