It seems like I’ve been here before
Note: This first ran on this day in 2024. It was well received, but let’s be real; I’ll take any excuse I can get to yap about New Order.
If you’re looking for this week’s playlists, fear not! They’re at the bottom of the page. There’s even a New Order track on there.
P.S. My coworkers had an awesome trip.
The well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions edition.
Earlier this week, Noah Kalina asked the following:
How many years do you need to live somewhere before you are considered a local?
It’s an interesting thought exercise: if you ask 10 people, you‘re likely to get 11 answers. In fact, that’s exactly what happened, with people responding with things like:
- In New England, the rule is simple. You are considered a local as soon as you have three grandparents who were born in the town where you live.
- You have to be born there. That’s the rules.
and
- If you’ve integrated into a place, accepted it, love it and committed to it in any way, you’re a local.
It is a nuanced subject indeed. I was born and raised in Portland, but I have now lived in Wisconsin almost as long as I did in Oregon (with Washington and Tennessee rounding out the numbers). The last time I had a 503 area code, George W. Bush was president. So why does it still feel like home?
I love Wisconsin and have lived here since… GW Bush was president. I also talk about home as more of a state of mind than anything. I have raised a family here, yet I still feel like an expat.
What gives?
I’ve made this joke before, but how can you tell if someone is from Oregon? The answer, of course, is to wait 5 seconds, and they’ll tell you. I’m no exception. What can I say? I love my home state. I still talk about PDX as if I live there. It’s only a little hyperbolic when I say it’s the city that raised me.
A lot can change quickly in a place like Rose City. The clock never stops, and neither does urban renewal/development. I can still tell you how to get just about anywhere in the metro area, even if I don’t recognize a single thing along the way. But two of my coworkers are visiting tomorrow, and it didn’t stop them from asking where I thought they should go. How do you handle a question like that? Do you give them a list of must-hit places? An “insider” tour?
How do you ensure it isn’t just a punch list of places you wish you could still hit?
Do they want to see the places I used to hang out? The bars I misspent my youth in? The record stores I more or less lived in? Really, I coulda had my mail delivered to a couple of them.
The bars I hung out in have either been bulldozed or have been converted sanitized into “sports pubs.” My favorite used to have Off-track betting in the basement, and a group of surly dudes straight out of Central Casting would come/go with regularity. Now it’s all shiplap, vinyl flooring, and big screens. Hard pass.
Back when it was still known as “Northwest Portland,” the Pearl District was just sketchy enough to be interesting, filled with a lovable cast of characters who gave Portland a flavor all its own. It was long on personality but short on cachet. Many of them are long gone, too, either because of time—everyone ages out eventually—or because of gentrification.
Most of the stores and restaurants met the same fate. The Greek deli with brothers who would yell at you for reading magazines while making you the best sandwich you ever had. Nights out that ended at Quality Pie as the sun came up (IYKYK). And a few record places where I bought some of my first CDs, including New Order’s Substance, which just happens to be turning 37 39 today1.
How do you know Kevin likes New Order? Give it 5 minutes, and he’ll tell you.
By 1987, New Order had fully risen from the ashes of Joy Division. Along the way, they’d shed the post-punk sound and become arguably the leading synth-pop band in the world.
They’d already released four studio albums, but their fascination with disco & (then) new technology had left them with a habit of reworking and remixing album tracks into 12” singles.
It was time to put together Substance, a collection optimized for filling the dancefloor (the CD release has a second disc of B-sides and extended instrumental remixes). Serving almost as a de facto greatest hits record (future hit “True Faith” debuted here), each of the 12 tracks showcases the band’s masterful ability to marry gorgeous pop melodies, frontman Bernard Sumner’s endearing vocals, and thunderous beats.
There can be a fine line between an insider’s tour and a list from TripAdvisor. The same goes for greatest hits and compilation albums. The former can be a lazy way for a band to make some easy money. The latter can be a tidy place to house B-sides, remixes, etc. Both can be gateways to a band—an on-ramp for new fans, as it was for me.
It’s not hyperbolic to say this is a record that changed everything for me.
Released on vinyl, Double CD (which I initially had), and double cassette, the first “side” had A-side singles, while the second had their respective B-sides. This is not a hard and fast rule, as there are a few exceptions. There are also a few other variants depending on your listening format and edition. Ask me how I know this.
The result was a sound that sounded as good coming out of a car coming down the block as it did in the club. Though very much a product of its time, the music is timeless and is a testament to the band’s outsized influence on the rave & house music world.
It is an excellent two-and-a-half-hour ride. And there probably isn’t an inch of real estate in that town that didn’t see me playing it at least once, whether on my Walkman, in my car, through an iPod, or on my phone.
I listened to it when walking by PGE Park. It’s Providence Park now, but it was Civic Stadium before that, and even now, sometimes I catch myself thinking about it. Old habits die hard.
I listened to it on the way to Powell’s to buy books about the band in the Orange Room. Later, I would hit the Rose Room for airplane books. You can see how that ended up.
I’d listen to it while waiting for a sub at the Greek deli, but just quietly enough so that I could hear one of the old men announce that my food was ready. Maybe I didn’t need to worry because they usually just yelled.
Quality Pie had its own soundtrack. No New Order required.
I’d listen on the way to Dudley’s—another record store lost to time and high rent—where I’d buy even more New Order records and merch.
Sometimes, I’d sit in the park blocks on the Portland State campus and people-watch, daydreaming about someday joining them. Which I eventually did… for, like, three weeks.
Voodoo Donuts didn’t exist yet, but the X-Ray Cafe around the corner did. I didn’t listen to it on the way to our show there. Or maybe I did; I was in too much of a state to remember.
New Order—or rather their graphic designer Peter Saville—also habitually released records with beautiful covers. Every release was a marriage of sight and sound. Saville wasn’t picky, either; he was at home tapping into Bauhaus or Constructivist influences as much as he was classic art.
This time, though, he opted for a simple white cover with black type, not unlike a generic label.
There’s not much substance to it (sorrynotsorry) there, but in this case, there needn’t be; the music was the message.
Today, the record has sold well over a million copies and remains one of the band’s most popular and critically acclaimed releases.
Even the usually churlish Robert Christgau was effusive (by his standards, anyway), saying,
…Pure rhythm machine with an ironically mysterious overlay of schlocky melody to help it go down, this album is a case study in sensationalist art, and I say the world is better for it,” and issuing the record a rare “A.”
He’s right; the world is better for it.
As for my friends, I think I’ve given them an outline that shows both the bright & shiny side of PDX and the must-see parts Yelp doesn’t cover. I even included a couple of record stores. Whatever they wind up doing (or playing), I hope they have as much as I always did.
KA—
The Playlist:
Other sources: | Apple | Qobuz | YouTube Music| Tidal (NEW) |
I’m trying Tidal out after getting a couple of requests for it. We’ll see how it goes! Mostly, I’d like to slowly move away from Spotify and make sure we’ve got as many bases covered as possible.
Extra: Here’s a playlist of New Order’s closing tracks I did as part of a guest series at The Runout Grooves.
Now it’s your turn.
What’s been exciting you lately? Any shows you’re looking forward to? Maybe one with an early start? Whatcha got? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Kevin Sent 