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No Quiet Hours, an upcoming documentary chronicling the modern history of DIY music history in Oregon, started as a college passion project. As a student at the University of Oregon, director Zachary Neuray Jones saw something special in Eugene’s web of underground house shows and backyard venues, and he set out to chronicle it over his final year at school. But after filming 25 concerts and interviewing dozens of local musicians, he realized the story was bigger than the college scene, bigger than Eugene.
Years in, Neuray Jones’ passion project has expanded into a feature-length film, and he’s organizing a benefit concert to help hurdle the production costs.
The seven Portland bands playing the fundraiser show at the Crystal Ballroom on Aug. 28 give some sense of the doc’s scope. The Kingsmen, of the chart-topping 1963 “Louie Louie” cover, represent some of the earliest history; Kingsmen bassist Dick Peterson is one of many very cool talking heads in the movie. The rest of the night’s lineup is a bit younger, though everybody on the bill can claim at least a decade or so in the scene. The Shivas and power-pop quartet Alien Boy will play, and guitarist Dewey Mahood’s trippy, 20-year project Plankton Wat rounds out the show.
Past cataloging the regional rock scene, what is the movie really about? Neuray Jones tells WW that, in his research, he couldn’t find a catalog of the local scene with the depth he was after. But he also believes DIY music in the Pacific Northwest has made a lasting mark on the country. “Let’s look over 60 years of how Oregon’s music has had a pivotal effect on American culture,” he says, and how music is more than just a “soundtrack to a time in life.”
As the project picked up, Neuray Jones reached out to legends of the Portland scene, like Janet Weiss, of Sleater-Kinney and Quasi, and Larry Crane, the music engineer and longtime collaborator of Elliott Smith who founded Portland’s Jackpot! Recording Studio. Toody Cole (“godmother of DIY,” per Neuray Jones) is also in the film; on camera, she speaks on the Portland music landscape during Dead Moon’s heyday, but she also helped with licensing, including archival concert footage.
Neuray Jones says he hopes to have a Portland premiere of the documentary by early 2027.
GO: No Quiet Hours Fundraiser Concert at McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-384-2511, crystalballroompdx.com. 4:30 pm Friday, Aug. 28. $25. All ages.
