Get To Know
In the record collecting world, attorney Rachel Atchison is what you could call a “lifer.” As a music-obsessed kid, Rachel saved up her allowance to buy her first album, Guns N’ Roses’ seminal Appetite for Destruction, at age nine and hasn’t looked back since. Through high school and undergrad at Western Washington University, she continued to explore music and develop her tastes, falling in love with punk, metal, rock, and their many subgenres.
After college, Rachel moved to Portland in the mid-aughts to immerse herself in its celebrated music scene. She met her now husband through the scene, and he helped her get a job that any melomaniac would covet – working first at Portland’s flagship Everyday Music store on Burnside and later at its Sandy location. During her five years at the store, Rachel built up a niche position as a vintage record curator, researching and purchasing vintage and rare imprints, and writing detailed histories and reviews for the store’s dedicated clientele. Though CDs were the dominant format in the ‘90s and ‘00s, Rachel always made a concerted effort to promote the vinyl format. “I’ve always been primarily a vinyl fan,” she shared. “I made sure the store’s collection was in top shape because during my time at the store, demand for vinyl creeped upward, and it’s really becoming popular again.”
During her time with Everyday Music, Rachel built her vinyl collection in earnest, enjoying the enviable perks of first dibs and employee discounts. “Because my husband and I both worked for Everyday Music, our collections became pretty impressive. We had some overlap but also a lot of differences, which makes our library eclectic. As music lovers, combining our collection and getting rid of the duplicates was one of our biggest relationship milestones, maybe even bigger than our wedding!”
Rachel enjoys being steeped in music, but eventually decided to end her journey at the record store to enroll at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2013. Now, as a Tonkon Torp partner with a thriving business law practice, and a mom with a busy young son, Rachel is more of a listener than a crate digger. Although not obsessively focused on adding albums to her family collection of over 2,500 records, she does still maintain a long want list. Currently near the top is Peilitalossa (In the House of Mirrors), a 1983 release by Finnish post-punk/goth band, Musta Paraati (“Black Parade” in English). The album has been reissued by specialty label Svart, but Rachel is waiting to get her hands on the original vinyl pressing.
Online music communities such as Discogs give Rachel avenues to search for obscure records, but she still loves the in-person hunt, observing that, “record stores are more like thrifting, and online lets me take more of a surgical approach. Visiting record stores is so fun, and, when there’s not a pandemic, we travel to shop at different stores and attend record shows. There is nothing like getting to see our friends in the community, and holding a record in person to make sure it’s fit for our collection.”
Rachel and her husband spend a lot of family time serving as DJ for their son, who, like his parents, has had an ear for music since his earliest days. And while letting him handle records is still in the future, they enjoy helping him soak up their catalog of music that has brought them so much joy.
After college, Rachel moved to Portland in the mid-aughts to immerse herself in its celebrated music scene. She met her now husband through the scene, and he helped her get a job that any melomaniac would covet – working first at Portland’s flagship Everyday Music store on Burnside and later at its Sandy location. During her five years at the store, Rachel built up a niche position as a vintage record curator, researching and purchasing vintage and rare imprints, and writing detailed histories and reviews for the store’s dedicated clientele. Though CDs were the dominant format in the ‘90s and ‘00s, Rachel always made a concerted effort to promote the vinyl format. “I’ve always been primarily a vinyl fan,” she shared. “I made sure the store’s collection was in top shape because during my time at the store, demand for vinyl creeped upward, and it’s really becoming popular again.”
During her time with Everyday Music, Rachel built her vinyl collection in earnest, enjoying the enviable perks of first dibs and employee discounts. “Because my husband and I both worked for Everyday Music, our collections became pretty impressive. We had some overlap but also a lot of differences, which makes our library eclectic. As music lovers, combining our collection and getting rid of the duplicates was one of our biggest relationship milestones, maybe even bigger than our wedding!”
Rachel enjoys being steeped in music, but eventually decided to end her journey at the record store to enroll at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2013. Now, as a Tonkon Torp partner with a thriving business law practice, and a mom with a busy young son, Rachel is more of a listener than a crate digger. Although not obsessively focused on adding albums to her family collection of over 2,500 records, she does still maintain a long want list. Currently near the top is Peilitalossa (In the House of Mirrors), a 1983 release by Finnish post-punk/goth band, Musta Paraati (“Black Parade” in English). The album has been reissued by specialty label Svart, but Rachel is waiting to get her hands on the original vinyl pressing.
Online music communities such as Discogs give Rachel avenues to search for obscure records, but she still loves the in-person hunt, observing that, “record stores are more like thrifting, and online lets me take more of a surgical approach. Visiting record stores is so fun, and, when there’s not a pandemic, we travel to shop at different stores and attend record shows. There is nothing like getting to see our friends in the community, and holding a record in person to make sure it’s fit for our collection.”
Rachel and her husband spend a lot of family time serving as DJ for their son, who, like his parents, has had an ear for music since his earliest days. And while letting him handle records is still in the future, they enjoy helping him soak up their catalog of music that has brought them so much joy.