RECORD STORE REVIEW: Music Millennium, Portland, Oregon

'New release’ days, like so many things in the music industry, have gone the way of the dodo. Thinking back on my teenage years, I remember them fondly; they were on Tuesdays. I would wait, counting down the days, until Tuesday would arrive. Then I would go to the record store, carrying all my saved allowance, to purchase an album that I had been hearing about for weeks on the radio, or in magazines or on posters stapled to telephone poles. I would hang out, socialize and chat about music with other music lovers. Record stores were like bars without liquor and Tuesdays were all day Happy Hour.

Over the past decade, streaming, the .99cent download, the advent and descent of the CD, Napster and a host of other factors have caused record stores to remain in an epic battle for their lives. Many perform balancing acts between selling new and used, cheap and collector, modern or retro merchandise. While others have successfully (and unsuccessfully) chased the elusive rainbow of the ever changing music industry, Music Millennium, ‘a place where music and people still matter’, has not only survived, but thrived, since 1969, making it the oldest record store in existence in the Pacific Northwest. When you make it to Portland, it is a must stop and shop.

This homegrown store is located at 3158 E. Burnside, nestled among trees and greenery, as if you just chanced upon a garden during a morning stroll. The first thing you will notice is how terrific the staff is. Dain and Patrick, the lovely gents who made me feel like I had walked into someone’s personal music space, were helpful, knowledgeable and genuinely interested; something ‘corporatized’ stores seem to have lost along the way. These music heads know music; not only who the song is by or who wrote it; but why and how. Then they invite you to sit down at their ‘listening station’, which is a vintage barber chair, headphones attached, to turn you onto a new artist, band or something they think you’ll dig.

There are rooms chock full of CD’s, however, I passed through them to vinyl records. From floor to ceiling, from obscure to sublime, you are bound to find your next great record here. For the adventurous in spirit, there is the $5.00 ‘Mystery/Grab’ bags, followed by rows and rows of records, with varying price points, all mixed together. You can just as easily find a $5.00 Beatles album, as a newly minted $50.00 reprint of the same title.

If ever there was a community record store, Music Millennium, has got to be it. In 2014, they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, in 2015 they were named the best Portland record store by the Willamette Week, they’ve been mentioned in The Rolling Stone and owner Terry Currier continues to take an active role in shaping the Portland music scene, by hosting free live music and autograph sessions. A huge supporter of local talent, Music Millennium also attracts national acts to their space; and yes, they do sell the ‘Keep Portland Weird’ mementos.

As vinyl enthusiasts, our tribe tends to be very loyal to our favorite record store—(no small secret that I shed tears at the soon to be closing of Streetlight Records in The Castro—thank God, Frank at Green Apple on Clement, is a pillar I can count on). We know our local shops, we know the music head who can direct us to our ‘yacht rock’ or ‘long-haired boy bands’, with no judgement, who understands fully when you claim that The Red Hot Chili Peppers are ‘my Beatles’ or that Motely Crue was the best Christian Rock band….ever. It’s the store you will drive out of your way to visit, that you find yourself wandering through on some random Tuesday afternoon, for no other reason than the desire to connect over music. In Portland, Music Millennium is, ‘that’ store.

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