Norton Records vs Hurricane Sandy

As many of you know, Brooklyn-based label Norton Records was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The warehouse was decimated, much of the stock ruined. Miriam Linna and Billy Miller are still asking for volunteers to help with the cleanup-and restoration effort. Just a year ago the label celebrated its 25th anniversary. There's something poignant about a label zealously devoted to restoring and archiving a forgotten past faced with the task of saving its own stock. Help if you can.

Here's a video, with contact info:

Saving Norton Records after Hurricane Sandy from Dust & Grooves on Vimeo.

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A grim update from The Brooklyn College's Kingsman:

Not only were nearly a quarter of a million record titles soaked and scattered throughout the expansive warehouse space, but countless archival materials of American rock and roll history. Photos, original fanzines, rare paperbacks and memorabilia, all destroyed, all irreplaceable. In addition, Kicks Books, the neophyte paperback publishing division of Norton, lost nearly their entire stock of brand new books.

“You open the doors and can’t even begin to think of what happened there,” Linna claimed. “It was like an earthquake or a hurricane! We opened the door and saw all the records, then we were like, oh my god, the brand new printed books! Oh my god the paperbacks!”

“The thing that got whacked the most was our 45s,” Miller explained. “Because we had tons and tons of picture sleeves for every release… we were able to keep them in print because we had extra sleeves for them.”

“Last November at this time we were having a big festivity about having a great label and 30 years of struggle and success and hard work and happiness and here it is, one year later, and we’re looking a total destruction of the mind,” Linna added.

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Remember,