Amoeba Music

I have a hard time visiting Amoeba and not spending a few hundred dollars on records. The staff are always very nice and usually give me a free Amoeba tote bag to carry them in, and now I probably have 5-6 of these. It's actually gotten to the point where if I come back from Amoeba without a tote bag, my wife is disappointed. Apparently spending $300 to get a $10 tote bag is a good value to her. But if she's supporting my vinyl addiction, who am I to complain?

Amoeba Records has a special place in my heart. Growing up, I lived in Mountain View (which is about 40 miles south of SF). Being raised in the suburbs, there was an obvious gravitation to hip-hop. However, Mountain View was not known for their record stores. While attending Foothill College, I interned at KFJC and soon became obsessed with vinyl. Without an way to feed the need, my station coordinator, the now off air Phil Dirt suggested I take a trip to Amoeba Records in SF. A friend and I took that trip and I have been a dedicated customer ever since. Amoeba provides so many thing for it's patrons. In-stores ( I have seen, Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Rogue Wave, MIA, Murs, Boris, Wallpaper, Surfer Blood, and most recently Local Natives), I know there is more to add to that list, but can't remember all of them. Competitive prices, NO!; the BEST prices for new and used vinyl/CDs/DVDs. Lastly, there variety and sheer amount of music takes my breath away every time I go. Rolling Stone was right, you are the "best record store in the country". I am forever in debt to Amoeba Records.

The first time I ever set foot in an Amoeba I had lived in California for less than one week. I had just left Boston after working at various record stores, which I witnessed shut down one after another. The idea that a store, a large record store, could have such deep stock and varied taste blew me away. It was the Fall of 2005 and I walked through the tourists and traffic to dive into Amoeba on Haight. Minutes later while I was still overwhelmed by it all some loud psych rock blasted from the stage. It was Dungen! This was before they had become a household name but people were taking notice. One of my favorite contemporary bands was just killing it while I flipped through Scientist dub records! I knew San Francisco made sense at that point. It all came together at that moment for me. Money pays the bills but music makes me happier and it would be hard for me to ever not live near an Amoeba. Five years later and I am there once a week snapping up house edits and Link Wray LPs in one trip! Where else can I do that? Thank you Amoeba!

About fifteen years ago, on a rainy day, I was coming out of the bookstore across the street from the Berkeley store when the rain stopped and the sun came out. I saw a double rainbow in the eastern sky, and from where I was looking it seemed to be right above the Amoeba store's rainbow mural...so it was triple rainbow!

November 2001... I remember waking up early so I could walk down to the grand opening of the Hollywood Amoeba store. I'd been driving by the location on Sunset and Cahuenga for weeks, getting more and more excited about the grand opening. Afterall, the store looked like a giant version of the Amoeba stores in Berkeley and San Fran, both of which I adored. LA needed a new record store desperately. Most of our small mom 'n pop stores had closed or were in the process of closing. We needed a new mom 'n pop- a MEGA mom 'n pop. When I arrived at the store, there was already a line all the way around the block. At first I was disheartened but once I got in line I realized that everyone around me was super cool. The wait went by quick, as we were all feverishly waiting for the doors to open. When they did, I entered and ran from section to section, picking all kinds of vinyl: old Brazilian classics, new jungle white-labels, hot hip hop singles and some amazing 7 inches. The employees were all extremely nice and helpful. We all goto cool Amoeba T-shirts and other goodies just for being there so early. Since the grand opening, I've had the pleasure of seeing a multitude of amazing acts go through the store (all for free, mind you!). From Murs' energy-packed performance to Sia's kooky and funny act to Busdriver's mind-bending lyrical set. What I really appreciate, more than the impeccably organized music collection, is the sense of community Amoeba creates. I feel like it's a meeting place for Hollywood's music nerds, artists, musicians and just regular folk. Every time we arrive back in LA and step off the airplane at the Burbank airport, I know I'm home when I see the huge Amoeba advertisement with a shot of the entire store. Congrats on 20 years, Amoeba! Here's to the next twenty...

I was in the Hollywood Amoeba store and i saw Madonna disguised as a man buying some cds and no one recognized Madonna because she was incognito . I asked her if she was Madonna and she said Yes and that she was in 2 hours of makeup and prostetics facial appliances to get the disguise on so that she could browse the Amoeba store without being mobbed by fans. She thanked me for noticing her and smiled .. I was so excited!

My sister and I went to Amoeba when you first opened the Hollywood location some years ago. We went in search of a gift for my father and someone suggested it. You see, the artist we were looking for was Lucky Thompson, who my father took lessons from way back when he was young, and was a great fan of his music. My sister couldn't find any recordings by him anywhere else, and when we went to Amoeba, not only did we find a CD of Lucky Thompson, but there was actually a whole section of recordings that none of us knew about. Needless to say, my father was very pleased with the selections that my sister Alva purchased. We were both floored at all the different genres of music available for sale at Amoeba. I've had to avoid going back because I'd drop off my entire paycheck every two weeks if I come shopping there!

My then 4 year old son went with me to see the Swell Season's in-store in San Francisco. My son already thinks of himself as a musician, and continually asked if he could sing on the stage. During our 1 hour wait for an autograph I repeatedly explained to him that only the musicians could sing on the stage. When we got to the front of the line, much to my surprise he walked directly to Glen and asked if he could sing with him. Glen took him on stage for a brief improv, then put him on his shoulders and leaned forward for Marketa to give my son a kiss. My wife took the photos with her cell phone. When we left the store we checked the photo. Her thumb was over the lens. The following year as we watched Glen and Marketa get their Oscar, I commented that we could have had a photo of our son sitting on the shoulders of one Oscar winner being kissed by another on stage at Amoeba. Instead we have a lovely photo of my wife's thumb.

Every time I come to LA I ALWAYS go to Amoeba. I love music and movies and they always have things I'm looking for. The place is amazing as are the staff and I always lament the fact we don't have Amoeba in the UK. I'm currently spending 2 months travelling the US seeing friends and I've already been shopping in Amoeba twice and have plans to go back for more things when I get back to LA later in November. Whenever I meet people who've never been before I always encourage them to go or, in some instances, take them with me. Also I always plug events at Amoeba on my Facebook & Twitter so that any of my friends that live near any of the branches are aware of it and can go an attend. I love the US and keep coming back for more...and the same can be said for Amoeba. Here's to another 20 years of Amoeba!!

Oh man! I have so many fantastic stories from my times at Amoeba. From seeing the Roots in Hollywood while I killed time before the deerhoof show at the troubadour. Or stumbling upon The Trainwreck Riders when They played at the S.F. store (again Killing time before a show at Cafe Du Nord). Here's just a few highlights/stories from my times at amoeba. In 1998 I had really started to "flourish" as a music nerd. I was 18 and I had just discovered the wondrous world of Bill Laswell's music. Right around this time It was also suggested to me that I check out the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. So I'm at Amoeba Berkley, killing time before Phish at Shoreline (98' awesome show), and I'm searching for both of these artist. I just about pooped my pants when I came across "Transmutation Live". I had know clue that both of these bands had played together! Another Fantastic moment was at the Hollywood store when I found a John Zorn vinyl box set. It was all the game piece records in a handmade cardboard box, numbered (#7) and signed by John. I couldn't pass it up even though I had doubts if the signature was real or not. I had a copy of "hemophiliac" signed and the signatures just didn't match. So I bought it and contacted John to find out the story on this. The fine folks at Tzadik got back to me and said John never released a vinyl box set. Not being able to accept the fact that I just spent $750 on a fake Zorn box set I sent them a picture. Turns out it was real, John used that as a promo pack to send to radio stations. He was shocked that any were still around and sorry that I paid so much. AWESOME!! I was at the Hollywood store, digging in the clearance sections, And I heard this over the P.A. "Will the customer who was looking for the new Jon Brion album please come to the info booth". I got a tingly feeling in my pee pee area. I knew Jon was finally recording solo stuff, but didn't know it was released yet. I went over to the info booth and asked them if they had more copies, "nope, but if the lady who was looking for it doesn't show up in 5 minutes it's yours". Thanks for not showing up lady. I've learned a lot of things about searching out great bands from my times at Amoeba. I learned that anything on ninja tune, Axiom or cryptogramophone records is guaranteed to be bad ass! yet everything on Anticon , Tzadik and Def Jux is not. I learned that all the obscure "jambands", regardless of genre, are going to be in the "rock" clearance section. And The most Important thing I've learned is, DO NOT look at the items behind the register while checking out! That's where they hide all the expensive stuff that music nerds think they can't live without. Listen to my warning or you'll be thinking "did I really just spend 750 bucks on records of a dude playing a duck call into a bucket of water?"