Studio 415

Cindy Lindahl hadn't been to 415 SW 13th Ave. since she was 10 and her father brought her and her sister into his recording studio to blast the master recording of the Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie." An FBI obscenity investigation into the indecipherable lyrics of the song had made it a hit, and made the producer, Bob Lindahl of Northwestern Incorporated, nervous, so he thought fresh ears could make sure he wasn't missing anything.

Like everyone else, his daughters couldn't make any sense of Kingsmen vocalist Jack Ely's mumblings. Shortly after Mr. Lindahl's experiment, Northwestern Incorporated relocated and Cindy Lindahl never saw the inside of the studio again. Until June 18, 2006—Father's Day—when, after a dinner with her husband and children downtown, she noticed that the door to 415 SW 13th Ave. was open.

"Of course the place looked totally different," she recalls, "but it was interesting walking in there, and it was emotional because my father had died in January of this year. It was almost uncanny that we happened to be across the street from his first studio on Father's Day."

It's also uncanny that the building, which spent much of the past four decades vacant and at other times enjoyed stints as a sex club for men as well as an auto garage and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting hall, was undergoing renovation to once again become a recording studio.

Jim and Carol Meyers began hosting live music in the space they've renamed Studio 415 this summer, and plan to roll tape once again in the room where the Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders both recorded "Louie, Louie." When I stopped by the Studio's office to get the story from Meyers, the place was filled with rock history books and photocopies of historical documents, including a decree declaring July 28, 1985, to be "Louie, Louie" Day in Portland.

Jim Meyers urged Lindahl to bring any photos she had of her father in the studio so that he could mount them on the wall, and Lindahl shared more of the studio's history with him. Apparently the studio was the location of various now-collectible rockabilly recordings and the work of Bonnie Guitar, who would later become one of the first successful female rock producers.

"Louie, Louie" was always a mixed blessing for Lindahl because, although it was a huge success, tales of poor recording techniques—including mikes hanging from the ceiling—are part of the lore of the song. Lindahl frequently cited the crystal-clear Raiders version as evidence that he knew what he was doing. Vancouver, Wash., rare-vinyl collector and dealer Jim Blatt attributes part of the roughness to the fact that Ely wore braces, and that he had been up all night partying before the session.

Blatt also stopped by Studio 415 to take a look around, and discovered that the Meyerses were already working on something not too far from what he'd hoped: "I always thought it would be great if somebody would take that building and turn it into something...like the Hard Rock Café only local—all Northwest rock."

WWeek 2015