Amoeba Music

Arrangements were made on another clear warm Saturday afternoon two close friends and I decided to meet up at the L.A. base Amoeba.two thirty or three is what it was supposed to be.The plan was sorted out five hours at least with so much to read, observe and love. Got there about three hours late, wrong exit, no map-quest or Navigator. A head rush to get there was making me anxious But with all the excitement time flew by pretty quick and we were finally there. We head towards the back ally of the infamous building to see if there was any parking (no luck) I drove slowly while looking at the pedestrians walk by to see what car they would get into. To my luck this guy gets into his car, right behind my right tail light. Turns his car on & exits out. I didn't think twice so I roll back with a bit of more gas than usual and KAPUFF!!! There goes my freekin front wheels (PUTA MADRE!!! said a voice in my head; then i said it) I hadn't noticed the damn sign on the wall and the gawd damn blades under my nose. I manage to park with no hesitation; Stepped out the vehicle and took a very close inspection. I couldn't believe it, but obviously. It wasn’t my imagination. Trying to control my irate. I walked into the store to find my friend and immediately, the unique exhilarating aroma of vinyl, 8 tracks, cassette, cd's and what not, flashed my face. My mentality changed as quickly as a power violence/grind core jam from the early 90’s. Friends were greeted, and my mission was on !!! For the Record I haven’t had a chance to buy new front tires.

We were in Santa Monica and I asked my mom to drive us to Amoeba in Hollywood so I could pick up some LP's. She said no, but she would go to one that was closer. I whipped out my iPhone and google "record stores in Santa Monica." So we go to the first location, turns out it closed down. Second try, also closed. I admitted defeat and we went home. Yesterday, I finally introduced my mom to Amoeba. She loved it and we ended up buying a lot of LP's and DVD's. Bottom line, don't google for some store that ended up closing down a while ago. Go to the best, go to Amoeba.

Amoeba...what can I say about thee? You truly are a music's nerds dreams, it's hard to explain to others what your store is with out screaming with excitement! When explaining to others how a perfect day would be like for me, going to Amoeba would be in their. It's so hard from going pennyless everytime I enter your store, there is so much to see and do. Downloading from a digital store is cool and all, but there is nothing like using all your six senses when shopping for music! And don't worry I don't taste or smell your records, dvds, etc! I mean that in a figurative sense. I look forward to another 20+ years of you supplying my music habit! Thanks Amoeba for the memories!

I live in LA now, so Amoeba Hollywood is only about a 20 minute drive away, but I used to live about an hour south. That never stopped me from going to Amoeba to fill up my music collection and get some sweet vinyls, though. One time a friend of mine had just scored about 200 bucks of birthday money and he knew exactly which albums he was going to get with it (some St. Vincent, Miike Snow, The Mars Volta, I can't remember the rest). We drove up in some of the worst traffic I'd ever been in, finally made it to Amoeba after a record breaking two hours on the freeway and when we got there we spent a total of 10 minutes as my friend picked up the vinyls he had decided on and checked out. Now normally I can spend a whole afternoon in Amoeba (and often do), but traffic had been so bad, and we had somewhere we had to be later that night, that we had to immediately jump back on the freeway after checking out. Most people would call that a waste of a trip, 2 hours on the road just to spend 10 minutes in the store, but the attitude and general vibe in Amoeba made those 10 minutes well worth the 2 hours it took to get there.

I love Amoeba. My 15 year old took me and I loved the vinyl. She got a shirt and patch. We drive from Santa Barbara and visit as a part of medical appointments in LA. Doctors are not fun but AMOEBA MAKES IT ALL BETTER. Lots of great music comes home on vinyl. Now her ten year old sister likes Amoeba and proudly carries her black Amoeba earth friendly bag with buttons everywhere. LOVE AMOEBA!!!!

A thirty-five minute story about a 40 minute set: Elvis Costello at Amoeba Sitting on the sidewalk waiting for Amoeba to open, I thought of the concrete beneath me and paraphrased Howl: “I’ve seen the best behinds of my generation . . .” It’s been eons since I sat outside a record shop waiting early doors. It would be an hour before the gates opened -- two and a half hours before the purported start of the show. Finally, we're in. I set up behind the sound man. I’d brought work with me (It was a Monday after all), and the folk album section from Vashti Bunyan to Sandy Denny became my desk. Right at noon, out bounded Elvis with a truncated version of his band The Sugarcanes (The Aspartames?) consisting of Jim Lauderdale and Mike Compton. By now, all the space in Amoeba was taken. Elvis is in good humor for someone who has already been on a radio show that morning. Most folks loved it, though I did spy a young woman front and center who turned her back on Elvis, desperately flicking through CDs to pass the time. Forty minutes later we were done, and those of us who were within the first 80 customers to purchase were lined up for Elvis’ audience with his audience. Officials repeatedly announced that Elvis will sign one item only, and only with the purchase of the new album. As for the one item limit, I’d come prepared, but how would my one item be received? On his latest album, Elvis had a bawdy vaudevillian song about his lecherous ways with women of various b-list American cities called "Sulphur to Sugarcane." As one example: "The girls of Poughkeepsie Take their clothes off when they're tipsy But I hear in Ypsilanti, the women don't wear panties." I approached the table as Elvis crunched away on an apple, and started my shpiel: “Elvis, I don’t know if you’re aware, but Ypsilanti was once the Underwear Capital of the US . . .” It’s true. Hay & Todd manufacturing made the full-body one piece union suit which was the rage in the 1890’s. “Never a rip and never a tear in Ypsilanti underwear.” To suggest that the women of Ypsilanti wouldn’t wear panties would be the equivalent of suggesting there’s no coal in Newcastle. “Two artists in Ypsilanti have tried to revitalize the industry with the Ypsipanti, so I’ve brought you a pair and would like you to sign a pair for me.” He thanked me and accepted the gift graciously. Of course, signing any material makes for a challenge, but when he wasn’t pleased with his first attempt, he went back over the letters to make it more legible. He shook my hand, and trying to get in the last word I said, “Wear it in good health.” Not willing to let that pass, Elvis said, “Yeah, on my head.” That night at Amoeba Hollywood addressing a world-wide internet audience after singing Sulphur to Surgarcane, Elvis had this to say: "…We were up at the Amoeba in San Francisco earlier today and someone gave me a gift that I wanted to share with you. In the final verse of the song, Sugarcane, it makes a suggestion that the ladies of Ypsilanti are a little bit… selective about their undergarments. And I have in my hand a pair of (yells come from the crowd as he takes them out of his pocket) Ypsilanti panties. (Laughter.) I kid you not. They go back a long way. There’s an accompanying note with them. (Takes a letter out of his pocket to read it.) This is the historical part of the show. (He reads.) "Never a rip, never a tear, with Ypsilanti underwear." (Laughs.) At a Tom Jones show, the audience throws their underwear on the stage. We like to throw it out, into the audience. "

The first time I went to Amoeba SF I was meeting an online friend there for the first time. My family was with me as well since they were about to send me off to college at that point in time. I didn't tell them I was meeting someone I've never met before because honestly what parent would want to here that? I somehow managed to ditch my parents somewhere on Haight to go meet up with him. I went inside and couldn't find him at first. After some casual browsing, my sister and the rest of the family catch up to me. "OH. She's with someone." was the first thing I hear. At that point in time I was super confused because wasn't with anyone. Lo and behold my friend was browsing merchandise behind me. The fact that he was intently watching me gave him away. Soon the rest of family showed up and things went all awkwardly downhill from there. My parents got all suspicious and started questioning everything. I denied everything in my desperate state of confusion and paranoia. In the end my siblings covered for me and I walked out with an Animal Collective CD. Not much of a story but that's probably the most awkward thing to happen to me at Amoeba. The end.

I almost religiously stop at Amoeba every time I pass by there, once or twice a week, and thoroughly go through the clearance racks, filling up my back catalog, discovering new music, and walking out of their smugly with 4 new CD's for about $10. I'm a music producer and composer and just walking the aisles inspires me to create new music.

I lost my virginity to twin supermodels, discovered I won the lottery, achieved spiritual nirvana and mind-melded with extra-terrestrials within my first five minutes at Amoeba. Also, I found some decent used CDs and picked up a copy of Campus Circle. Bliss.

I was one of the lucky few to see Paul Mccartney at his free concert at Amoeba on that magical night of June 27th. 2007. But it wasn't just this that was so incredible. Nor that as I waited in line that day having got my special pass I was interviewed by press from all over the world in my Malitia gear like a Sgt Pepper in the flesh celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sgt Pepper. No it wasn't just that. Nor was it that Amoeba is the holy grail for every Boomer on the planet who feels they can no longer talk to anyone who understands. No it wasn't just that. Nor that the night of June 27th 2007 inspired the end of my John Lennon movie about the haunted painting of John Lennon. That I am one of the lucky few people who knows about this. That I was fortunate enough to have a special visit from John one night in the early 90's when a Poster of his I had on my wall lit up. A Poster that I later found out on a trip to Liverpool was a variation of the haunted painting of John Lennon now locked away in the Cavern cause it was freaking everyone out. No my dear Rock and Roll lovers it wasn't just this. What was and is still so incredible about that night and indeed will remain for me one of the most magical moments in my life is when it was time to go in for Paul's concert. Of when as I turned that corner into the Amoeba entrance way a New York Times reporter was scrabbling for names and phone numbers of anyone so we could tell her what it was like to have 'been there'. If only she had known as she passed me by that I knew about a small article in her New York Times paper written some years before about that haunted Painting of John Lennon. If only she had known. But it didn't matter as then I walked into Amoeba and was stunned as everyone cheered and applauded and cameras flashed. 'Yes we made it' I thought. 'John' says hi! - George says hi from his special garden and Wah-wah tree by the Observatory in the Lalaland hills!' I bellowed to everyone and to every camera lense. Smiling faces all around. I was stunned, moved and uplifted by the magic of it all. As I then turned the corner to even more cameras and cheers and applause. As I then uplifted my boomer arms to Amoeba's roof and beyond that 'To the Toppermost of the Peppermost' and exclaimed 'Yes, anything is still possible!!'. As then I heard everyone around me chorus 'Yes, anything is still possible!'It was one of the most unifying experiences I have ever had'. And now three years later it is still a magic that uplifts me. Yes now it is this moment that ends my movie about John's haunted painting. And maybe one day when Paul looks through his 'Memory Almost Full' photos he will see that photo of that Pepperish looking guy that his cameraman took of me that June 27th 2007 hot summer's afternoon - as we waited in line outside - and think after seeing my movie about John's haunted painting 'Now I know John is 'Here Today' - Now I know that Pepper spirit of anything is still possible is still alive and well' And maybe Ringo who was also there that night will remember that Pepperish looking guy who yelled out 'Instant Amnesia!'. Of Ringo's heaviest track since he pounded those drums on John's 'Tomorrow never Knows'. With all my love to all of you Rock and Rollering Amoebarites for helping to make the world a better place, Chris Rayburn.