When I meet Gary Bahen, owner of Portland’s Accident Prone Records, he’s clad in black, sitting behind the register of Green Noise Records at its newish home on Northeast Killingsworth.
Bahen bought the record shop and punk institution this past spring from longtime Portlander (and Dirtnap Records owner) Ken Cheppaikode, although the 37-year-old has been running Accident Prone since he was a senior in high school.
“It’s been hard to keep going at times,” Bahen admits. And while there have been lulls in production over the years, the label has cranked up its output since Bahen took over Green Noise in March. “I was working on five releases simultaneously while in the middle of buying the shop and finding a new location,” he says.