An Introduction...

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I finally did it! After years of complaining, thinking out loud (sometimes even talking out loud), wondering what it would be like, I can now safely say it has happened to me…

I’m unemployed.

Oh, it’s not the first time. Not  really. It’s the second time. Well, actually, it could be the third time, but sometimes the reality gets fuzzy between being laid off, and being told you can’t work here or there anymore, and that you will no longer be receiving a paycheck, and to please get your lily-lippered white ass off the premises. So, maybe it’s three. I just want to be accurate.

Hopefully, that strive for accuracy will be employed outside of determining the subtle level my unemployment status occupies, and is applied inside the cogs of this blog, Blackout Bin. Take the name how you want to – for my part, I tend to feel a little intoxicated by the sight of rows of record bins, which seems at least esoterically referenced in the title. To be plain, I want Blackout Bin to be a destination where music junkies can read (hopefully) insightful features on bands and artists from around the country, with a focus on, but certainly not limited to, bands in the Pacific Northwest. Other areas I’ll likely focus on are album reviews, opinion polls, random long-form essays on possibly seriously culturally deficient subjects, pictures of vinyl scores, trying not to write about my friends’ bands too much, lamenting the fact that I don’t have a band, and many more patently entertaining tidbits for the discerning audiophile.

Ryan J. Prado - Admirer of Pistols

Details on your humble Blackout Bin blog MESSIAH:

Age: 31

Occupation: Writer for the Portland Mercury, Submerge Magazine, Oregon Music News, Music Scene PDX; former staff writer for Just Out Newsmagazine; former Managing Editor of Synthesis Weekly; former Associate Editor of The Deli Portland; former Lots of other Editing Jobs

Favorite Musician: Elvis Costello

Pets: In the household: three, a 13-year-old blind mini dachshund, and a seven-year-old Calico cat that looks and behaves precisely like Yoda; that I own: one, a mutt cat named Ms. Queen Fitzgerald who has never let me down, except for the time she burrowed into the walls of the building I lived in – a theater venue – and likely smoked bowls with Snoop Dogg in his dressing room one evening.

Where I’m working from: My basement office in Southeast Portland, Oregon, with a stunning view of the torso of every person ambling down the sidewalk, backdropped by the top floor of a Chinese massage parlor.

Marital Status: My girlfriend has mastered the art of adult hula-hooping in just four months, and is now showboating all over Australia, attempting a crusade to convert the masses into believing that in North America, the hula hoop rotates in the opposite direction. I fully support this.

As is mentioned in the “About” section up yonder, if you’re a band, busker, rapper, satanist, someone in my family, or someone super famous who wants me to review something you recorded, please email materials to blackoutbin@gmail.com. In all seriousness, I’m very excited to now have my own special corner of the playground to ply my wares, spin my yarns, rave and rant on anything I want, and hopefully have a few of you even follow it with some kind of regularity. For me, music isn’t something you can articulate in bite-sized nuggets, as is apparently the consensus of the NOW Generation, judging by the metamorphosis that so many regional and national music media outlets are experimenting with. Don’t bow down to the trend of some shithead editor telling you that you won’t be able to read more than 140 characters (!) on an album that someone toiled over for at least months, and possibly years. Don’t relegate the arts of listening, evaluating, rejoicing, wondering, reading, exploding with hope and relation to someone on a recording to a disposable antiquity for corporate media trends.

Mostly, slow the fuck down and put some process into your life. Read, debate, discern, complain, give me shit for my shortcomings as a music journalist, give me ideas to work from for better coverage, and I promise you I’ll do my best to make this blog more than a speed bump in your daily web pole-position.

Thanks for reading! Share this blog with your equally learned music nerd buddies, who’ll no doubt ceaselessly chastise me for my profound lack of knowledge about bands you’re supposed to care about but secretly don’t because they’re not-so-secretly-awful.