Some memorable moment at Ozone Records.
• When the huge dude from Poison Idea got arrested for stealing vinyl and trying to sell it across the street at Django’s.
• John Fahey called up late one evening and was playing guitar over the phone at me for several minutes before getting on the line saying: “Can I talk to the manager there? I can’t remember her name but I heard that I’m getting married and I want to know who to.”
• The time a raging junkie (who’d been kicked out by force several times for getting on the listening station and then singing “Smoke on the Water” real loud while listening to whatever) hours later he kicked the door down after the store closed because he thought he forgot his sun glasses. Monty from Rollerball told him calmly, “Dude you gotta leave, the cops are on their way.”
• The time Brandon (Pseudo Six) told his “creamed jeans” story at an employee meeting.
Jamie Rich has some good ones here as well:
http://confessions123.blogspot.com/
so sad. but this will be a great party.
between this and chantelle moving i feel like portland is having a serious “end of an era” moment. i know, it’ll pass and change is constant, but yeah. ozone (when it was across from powell’s and afterwards) was a major introductory moment for me as far as portland and music in portland goes. i still remember walking up to the counter and asking the guy who released music under the name Eternal Golden Void (can’t remember his name) if there were any good “IDM nights” in town (or something similarly nerdy). i was probably like 19 or 20. i think eric (before i knew him) told me about the old jasmine tree shows. speaking of which, there will never be an electronic section in this town as good as the one you maintained man. i could go on for much longer, but i’ll stop. well done, everyone. many fond memories.
between this and chantelle moving i feel like portland is having a serious “end of an era” moment. i know, it’ll pass and change is constant, but yeah. ozone (when it was across from powell’s and afterwards) was a major introductory moment for me as far as portland and music in portland goes. i still remember walking up to the counter and asking the guy who released music under the name Eternal Golden Void (can’t remember his name) if there were any good “IDM nights” in town (or something similarly nerdy). i was probably like 19 or 20. i think eric (before i knew him) told me about the old jasmine tree shows. speaking of which, there will never be an electronic section in this town as good as the one you maintained man. i could go on for much longer, but i’ll stop. well done, everyone. many fond memories.
Before I moved away I spent a lot of money and a lot of saturdays just chillin at Ozone. One time I think Jason B. explained the entire plot of Jodorowsky’s “Holy Mountain” to me, point-by-point, with quotes and animal noises. It took eight hours. I spent like $500 on Techno-Hop records that day.
As an aside, do you remember the old Eagle strip club down Burnside, across from Powells, whose sign read “14 OZ BONER” for like a year straight?! That was awesome. Please regale us with more tales and anecdotes.
“14 OZ BONER,” total classic that one!
Eternal Golden Void was Mike Grenz, who got Ozone selling spray caps and markers in about 2000 and was soon after arrested a few blocks away when police jumped through the hatch on a rooftop with guns drawn to nab him while he was tagging!
This is from Jamie Rich’s blog:
“I remember once an old man came in and asked, “Is this store like the one in High Fidelity? Are you going to make fun of me now?” I replied, “No, not to your face. We’ll wait until you leave.” There was probably a reason every employee meeting begin with a request that we tone down our attitudes. The owners said they had friend who were scared to come in the store lest they leave in tears. Honestly, such admonishments probably only made it worse. It was probably around then that they had to take the remote control fart machine away from E*Rock and me because we kept hiding it around the store and surprising customers with a long-distance raspberry. Or when we got in trouble for triggering the fake security system when our friends or particularly gullible regulars would walk out of the store, forcing them to question why they would trigger a magnetic alarm.”
I forgot about the fake alarm, that was great as well. “Excuse me miss I’m going to have to search you.”
Omigod that explains it–when I moved to PDX in 1999 I was tERRIFIED of all Ozone employees… no farts for me but it was just a feeling I got – I would not make eye contact with anyone – even still, I had a customer-crush on like everyone who worked there, including Mike Grenz, who I think wears only black hoodies and adidas shelltoes? Anyway, when I met everyone by like, ’01, you were all so nice and I thought I must have just been tripping – but now I know you all really needed an attitude adjustment. hahah. You rivaled Other Music and Kim’s Mondo Video in NYC, I swear. Be proud.
before ozone was ooze on upper burnside a small cave were noise and electronic heads converged. a teeny store front around 22nd. (it became a hair salon.) ooze was always super dark and there was one turntable to preview stuff on. i remember finding out about survival research laboratories and other great art collectives in there. then jannell took over when charlie was going to just focus on his record label. then came ozone in that huge space.
that was fun!
I have been living under a rock since I worked at ozone in 1997-98. I have very fond memories of working with Mike Grenz, Eric Mast, Monty, Christine, Bruce and Janel. I’m sad I missed the part but cheers to Eric and Brice for keeping Ozone going or as long as they did (Damn, the internet!) Eric has done an amazing job keeping people curious about truly “alternative” music up to date on the latest and greatest. Ozone is an institute that will be truly missed. Good luck to Eric and Bruce. To the future!
I remember one night at closing, I was working with a girl named Rebecca and Thurston Moore was shopping in the “spooky” section. Rebecca who was a manager was ready to close up and wanted him out, not realizing who he was. I informed her that he was Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and she said out loud, “That’s not Thurston Moore!” He looked up and smiled. He came up to the counter with a dozen disc, whipped out his gold card, with his name printed on it and Rebecca said, Oh, you are Thurston Moore. I unlocked the door for him, told him how great I thought he was and apologized for Rebecca. I always like that story.
Hey, when’s the last day that Ozone’s open?
I think Ozone’s last day is this coming Saturday.
I actually left the store the other day after grabbing a few CD’s at the 60% off with tears in my eyes. I was a fairly recent customer just finally starting to “get” all of the strange and wonderous sounds from Ozone.
There’s really no other store like it that I know of. You can get all the mainstream stuff you want at those other guys, and you’ll never get in-store music plays that make you just go “what the hell is this? must have!”
End of an era.