Local punk/indie record shop Green Noise Records is moving. It’s also changing ownership, as current owner Ken Cheppaikode is leaving Portland for Wisconsin. This is a bittersweet transition; Cheppaikode has been a fixture on the Portland music scene for years, and Green Noise’s sister business, Cheppaikode's Dirtnap Records, is one of the finest punk labels in the country, home to Portland bands like Mean Jeans, the Estranged, and Guantanamo Baywatch (and an impressive clutch of superb Texas bands like Bad Sports, the Marked Men, and Radioactivity).

This is the fifth location for Green Noise, which originally opened in Eugene all the way back in 1989 and moved to SE Clinton in Portland in 2000. The store relocated to SE Gladstone in 2011, and more recently, SE Foster in 2014. This newest location will be at 720 N Killingsworth—at the corner of Albina, just a couple of blocks north of Mississippi Records and a few blocks west of Turn! Turn! Turn!

Green Noise’s new majordomo will be Gary Bahen, who runs the Accident Prone Records label, home to Vice Device, MAKE, and Cattle Decapitation. The new store will have room for more stock and there are plans to have regular in-store performances at the new place, the first of which will take place during the new location's grand opening on Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7. [UPDATE: Check out the Facebook event page for info on the two-day grand opening celebration, which includes DJs on Saturday and live bands on Sunday.]

Here is Cheppaikode’s statement:

I am beyond excited to announce that effective May 1st, Accident Prone Records (www.accidentprone.com) impresario and screen printing genius Gary Bahen will be taking over as the new owner of Green Noise Records! Accident Prone Records has been around for over 20 years now, so you know Gary knows what he is doing!

Not only that, but the shop will be moving to a sweet new location at 720 N. Killingsworth. The new spot will be better located, have more stock, and more frequent in-store performances. I honestly think the new store is going to be way better than the old one.

Dirtnap Records is definitely going to continue, and Green Noise is still going to be the exclusive mailorder outlet for our color vinyl, and the one-stop-shop for Dirtnap in general. So from a customer’s perspective, very little should change in that department.

As many of you who know me personally already know, life-changes are calling me away from Portland, and I am very grateful that Gary is going to continue the shop in my absence. When I took over Green Noise at the beginning of 2005, I never would have imagined that I would still be here doing this 12+ years later, and I definitely wouldn’t have guessed that the store would wind up outliving my involvement.

So while this is definitely a bittersweet moment, I am quite happy to be moving on to a new chapter in life, while knowing that the store will continue in capable hands. Although no longer the owner, I will remain peripherally involved with Green Noise, including maintaining a monthly “Ken’s Picks” section of the website.

The last day Green Noise will be open on Foster will be April 23rd. The shop will have a grand re-opening on Killingsworth May 6th and 7th, with DJs spinning vinyl on the 6th, and live performances on the 7th.

Thanks for everyone’s support over the years, it really does mean the world!

Ken Cheppaikode
Green Noise Records

This is exciting news for Green Noise and for record buyers, although it’s sad that Portland is losing Cheppaikode and can no longer claim to be the physical home of the excellent Dirtnap. (This is a just a technicality, since Cheppaikode will presumably operate the label just as it ever was, and Green Noise will continue to have an exclusive relationship with it.) We wish Cheppaikode well in his move, and look forward to the spiffy new Green Noise Records in North Portland.