Seattle’s Easy Street Records loses thousands of records to flood

SEATTLE – Seattle’s flagship record store took a hit last week when a burst pipe flooded Easy Street Records overnight.

When a pipe burst in an apartment above the West Seattle shop late Thursday night, water streamed down into the store through early Friday morning. Around 6,000 records and other merchandise were lost or damaged in the flood, owner Matt Vaughan wrote Friday in an Instagram post.

Vaughn wrote that patrons at the neighboring Corner Pocket bar called the Seattle Fire Department when they noticed water running from Easy Street and into the billiards lounge. SFD managed to get inside and helped mitigate the damage by shutting off the water and covering much of the record store with tarps.

The flood left several inches of standing water on Easy Street’s floor, wrote Vaughan, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He told KIRO over the weekend that the flooding caused roughly $200,000 in damages.

“Our alarm company did all the right things, we were all asleep and didn’t get the messages til early a.m.,” Vaughan wrote on Instagram. “Way to go Team Easy Street. We open! Get ready for some killer deals!”

The resilient West Seattle record store and cafe, which has been a steward of the Seattle music community for decades, remained open throughout the weekend. It even hosted a record release show with local garage rockers Naked Giants on Friday.

Hometown rock hero Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains has an in-store signing around his latest solo effort, “I Want Blood,” on Oct. 20.