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13,000 Records Lovingly Washed and Saved


Sound of the City: Last Night 13,000 Norton Records Were Lovingly Washed and Saved By Adoring Fans of the Label

Here’s a great story about a small record label in Brooklyn that was flooded by Hurricane Sandy. They decided to save their rare vinyl inventory with an army of volunteer record lovers, rubber gloves, and lots of dish soap.

The pollution-filled salt water from a nearby canal rose over 10 feet and made easy work of album covers and the rest of their warehouse. Everything electronic was ruined. Everything organic-based was rotted and stained.

Vinyl albums can hold out a bit longer, but mold and mildew will eventually grow in the grooves so it was decided if they were going to save the records, they needed to act fast.

Well done, Norton. So many things a storm destroys can be replaced and some of it wasn’t loved much in the first place. But in this case seeing thousands of rare and obscure pressings lay to rot would have been a sad event, given the wonders of dish soap on records.