Another one bites the dust.
Just four months after another Seattle music mini-mecca breathed its last thanks to the encroaching tendrils of Seattle’s real-estate boom, the Queen Anne branch of Easy Street Records closes its doors Friday, January 18.
According to the Seattle Times, Chase Bank acquired the rental rights for the space from landlords Diamond Parking, at a price too exorbitant for store owner Matt Vaughn to realistically pay. (Easy Street’s venerable West Seattle location, thankfully, will remain alive and kicking.)
For twelve years, the Queen Anne Easy Street’s provided me (and other music obsessives in the neighborhood) with literal hours of shelf-combing and happy discovery. And for awhile, the store’s combination of rough-hewn charm, knowledgeable staff, (mostly) reasonable prices, and indie-leaning selection seemed to be surviving the stomping boot of online music services and the dying major-label record industry.
Few local music retailers devoted so much shelf space to homegrown music, and arguably none presented the array of musicians in their in-stores that Easy Street Queen Anne did. Recent months saw rising stars like Macklemore and Allen Stone play the store’s ramshackle environs, adding to a sizeable list of local and international talent who played and signed autographs in the building.
Like a lot of other people who have been haunting the Queen Anne Easy Street since its inception, I’ve got my share of fond memories inexorably tied into the space. But I already recorded my fondest Easy Street story for quasi-posterity three years ago, when I interviewed Exene Cervenka for The SunBreak.
Grade-schoolers shared the floor with punks that night, as the lead singer for one of the most influential punk bands of all time sang stark folk songs and cry-in-your-beer country ballads. My evening culminated in an hour-long chat with Cervenka in the store’s back room as we shared beverages and M&Ms.
I realize with hindsight how much of that experience was made special by the surroundings and their scrappy distinction. As I wrote back then, Easy Street’s bowels felt like an extra-cool (but not too cool) kid’s clubhouse. So did the store, proper. And I’m sad the clubhouse is getting torn down to make room for a Chase Bank.
You still have a few days to pay your respects. In-store sales will be in effect until Queen Anne Easy Street’s Friday closure, and they’re sending themselves out with a bang courtesy of one final in-store by Yo La Tengo that night. If you ain’t there, it’s your loss.
