Entry No. 68 — the Portland file — filed under: record shop
Little Axe Records
Warren Hill split off from Mississippi Records in 2011 and took the internationalist half of that sensibility with him, and Little Axe has been running as shop and imprint ever since — small pressings of mostly non-Anglophone music, issued in runs short enough that the bins here are often the only bins holding them. The store started in a garage in 2010, moved a few times, and has held the Sandy Boulevard room since 2017, two doors down from the Hollywood Theatre's marquee. The house cassette line has a stranger pedigree than the vinyl: it descends from a Montreal magazine Hill ran from 2002 to 2006 that shipped a mixtape with every issue, and the tapes today are usually built around a place rather than an artist. They buy records and tapes daily and say so loudly, which is why the used stock turns over fast enough to reward a second visit in the same month.
→ Three more vintage, record & maker shops in Portland — never the same twice
The story
Warren Hill co-founded Mississippi Records with Eric Isaacson and spent years there building a catalog out of gospel, blues and cheap mixtapes. When the label split in 2011 he took the internationalist half with him and called it Little Axe. The shop actually predates the label: Hill and co-owner Jed Bindeman started it in a garage on Beech Street in 2010, moved it more than once, and settled into the Sandy Boulevard room in May 2017, two doors from the Hollywood Theatre's marquee.
The label issues small pressings of mostly non-Anglophone music — Nigerian gospel, Iranian classical, Trinidadian dance records, compilations assembled around a place rather than a scene. The LP series is past its twentieth release and the numbered cassette series past its sixtieth, and the tapes are the cheapest thing in the building at $4 apiece, less than the sandwich you would buy on the same block. They also carry the stranger pedigree: they descend from a self-published magazine Hill ran in Montreal from 2002 to 2006 that shipped a mixtape with every issue. New ones still appear periodically, usually built around a geography.
The store buys records and tapes over the counter daily and says so loudly, which is why the used bins turn over fast enough to reward a return trip inside the same month, and why the short-run label pressings do not come back once they are gone. Hill opened a second Little Axe on Main Street in Springfield, Oregon in 2019. The neighbors matter too: the Hollywood Theatre opened on July 17, 1926, turned 100 this year, runs as a nonprofit, and is the last house in Oregon that can project 70mm. Two doors is a short distance between two operations built on refusing to let things go out of print.
What it's like
It is one small room and you work it standing up: flip, pull, read the back, put it back. There is no browse-with-headphones ritual here, so budget an hour rather than fifteen minutes, and expect to ask — the staff know what came in this week and the bins do not label themselves. The house cassettes sit cheap enough that buying three unheard is a reasonable decision, and that is the correct way to use the place. If you are selling, come mid-afternoon rather than at 6:55. Then walk two doors down and check what the Hollywood Theatre is running; the store closes at 7 and most showtimes start after that, which is not a coincidence anyone had to arrange.
The move: Check what the Hollywood Theatre is showing tonight, then get to Little Axe by 6 — an hour before it closes — and give yourselves one rule: each of you picks a geographically themed house cassette for the other, sight unheard, no vetoing. Pay the few dollars they cost, walk the two doors down for the film, and play both tapes in the car on the way home to find out who chose worse.
📍 Before you go Open every day, 12–7. It's a small room — this is a flip-the-bins shop, not a browse-with-headphones one, so budget an hour, not fifteen minutes. They are always buying records and tapes and advertise top prices, so if you're clearing a shelf at home, bring it during the day rather than at 6:55. The cassettes are the cheapest thing in the store and the most likely to be gone next month; the short-run label pressings do not get repressed. There's a second Little Axe on Main Street in Springfield, Oregon, opened 2019, if you're ever down that way. Street parking on Sandy is metered and the Hollywood Theatre crowd takes it before showtimes.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 4142 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97212
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Laurelthirst Public House — About a mile southwest and open since 1988, it books an early set around 6 and a late one around 9, most of them free — the cheapest possible way to hear music right after buying it.
- Hale Pele — A mile west on NE Broadway, a rum bar that erupts a volcano every twenty minutes: maximum sensory noise as the counterweight to an hour of quiet bin-flipping.
- Clinton Street Record & Stereo — Across the river on SE Clinton and the opposite pole of record buying — house, techno, italo and boogie picked by a working DJ, where Little Axe is Nigerian gospel and Iranian classical.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
How do I get there and where do I park?
4142 NE Sandy Blvd in the Hollywood District. Street parking on Sandy is metered and the Hollywood Theatre crowd takes it before showtimes, so arrive well ahead of a screening. The Hollywood/NE 42nd Ave Transit Center on the MAX Red and Blue lines is a short walk north.
When are they open?
Every day, noon to seven. Worth confirming before a special trip, but the daily schedule is the point — this is not a weekends-only operation, and the 7pm close is the constraint to plan around.
What will I actually spend?
Less than you expect. The house cassettes run $4 and the label's own LPs sit roughly in the $10 to $13 range; used stock varies. The expensive risk is walking out with eight things instead of two.
Can I sell them my records?
Yes — they buy records and tapes daily and advertise top prices. Bring your boxes during the afternoon, not five minutes before close, and expect them to be selective rather than to take the whole shelf.
Is there another location?
One, on Main Street in Springfield, Oregon, opened in 2019, if you are ever heading down the valley toward Eugene.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Instagram · littleaxerecords.bandcamp.com · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26