Amoeba Music

Today I lost my "Amoeba Virginity." I went with a friend on the metro link to Hollywood and when I entered the store I was shocked, delighted and surprised. I spent 170 dollars on fantastic music and might I say The person was very patient as I scrambled to pay for the last few dollars in change. I found some Disney movies that i love and have trouble finding in Best Buy and Borders. 10 CD's 3 Movies and a darling new organic tote for $173.48 and awesome, non-judgmental customer service. There is a quiet sense of comradeship in this store that is similar to what you, in my friends words, can only find at shows. Everyone is in the same, somewhat lonely, "Indie-Boat." May good music always prevail! Thank you Amoeba!

Thursday Night I was at Amoeba Music, Sunset and Vine, Hollywood -- one of America’s last great record stores. The massive three-story building has an open plan and the browsers were crammed with product from one end of the store to the other. Concert posters lined concrete walls. There was a separate area for Jazz, Classical, and a loft for video. It was almost closing time, it wasn’t crowded, but the kids that were there, some tattooed and pierced, wormed through the aisles, searching for gold. The store felt a bit like the old Tower chain – cement floors, hand written signs; the staircase heavily graffitied, a la CBGB, but there was also mall-store tackiness – all of the CDs were housed in those annoying plastic security casings shaped like the old long box. Dubbed coffins, they were created to prevent theft, but they were also shaped to make the CD fit in the old Vinyl LP fixture. I grew nostalgic looking at Amoeba’s stage. A bevy of speaker cabinets hung from the ceiling. It reminded me of the stages at HMV – we were the first to add them to the in-store experience. We also had DJs, listening posts, separate environments for Classical and Jazz – back then, nobody had that stuff. The late 80’s was a boom for record stores as consumer converted vinyl to CD. Tower, HMV and Virgin, raced around the world to place bigger and more exciting stores in Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, and LA. I jetted about, sniffing out locations, doing deals to put great stores on several continents. I had just turned 30. Twenty years later, the landscape has changed. I don’t get out much nowadays, so it was great fun last week to hit four cities in six days as one of the owners of CBGB – Chicago, LA, SF, and Sacramento, which incidentally is where the first Tower Records appeared. Russ Solomon’s dad owned the Tower pharmacy back in the 50’s; Russ sold singles besides the malt counter. Today an indie store occupies part of what was once Tower – a small park, café, and theater fills out the rest of the complex. The city had the good sense to landmark the building – too bad that didn’t happen in NY for CBs. At one point in the late 90’s, I was involved with EMI’s attempt to buy Tower. Even if that acquisition had happened, I doubt the brand would have survived. My first experience with a Tower was in 1978 on Sunset – I’d head for the new release stacks, wander through their canyon of vinyl, my mouth watering, trying to figure out how best to maximize the ten bucks in my pocket. I’m not sure how much longer a place like Amoeba will last. There’s a purity to their positioning – they had little merch, it was all CD, Vinyl, DVDs. At HMV we used to say that as long as a record store remained exciting, people would come because shopping was a social experience. Kids want to share discoveries, engage one another. At that time, the Internet was a solitary experience. Nowadays it’s all about the on-line community. People are sharing up the gazoo. Jill just took a dump. Dan is stuck in traffic. And yet, until technology delivers Star Trek’s Holodeck experience in the home, the internet can’t replace face-to-face engagement, and even if I share my playlists with friends, it’s still not as cool as sitting around in a dorm room, smoking weed, listening together. But each day technology entices a child to spend ever more time away from the real world, and if places like Amoeba expect to be around next decade, they’ll have to provide something that kids don’t get on-line. In 2009, I'm happy to say that the Amoeba experience can’t be replicated even if it is a venue in Guitar Hero.

My first Amoeba experience was in Berkeley in '93, and it was like finding Mecca! I now live in sleepy Santa Barbara and our local Amoeba equivalent is closing, as I have just very sadly discovered this morning. So I had to look y'all up just to see where the nearest Amoeba outlet might be. FAR AWAY...in Hollyweird. I'd rather take the 350 mile drive to SF and shop there! Long live the indy music stores, you are our (music lovers) only hope!

I had a powerful hankerin' to learn something about North African music, so I just called up the store on the phone and got an awesome mini-lecture on the subject along with some great advice on what to listen to first. Thanks Diego, thanks Amoeba.

I love Amoeba. Its my favorite store in the world. Any chance one day you might allow loyal customers to place special orders?

I visited you guys two years ago from Aberdeen, Scotland - and what a place you've got!! Music Mecca! I got lost in your store for hours, I only wish it was just down the road from my place! Can't wait to return to SF for another rummage around your diverse selection. Best wishes Laura

thanks for all the biscuits. more please.

I live about 2 hours away from SF, so once or twice a year we pack up the family and take a day trip. Every single trip, after I get on a bus from Market to Haight, I have simply one place in mind: Amoeba Records! My family and I have been doing this for over 6 years now, and never has this place cease to amaze me. I pretty much have bought my most memorable lps and cds here! Absolutely no cd venue ANYWHERE had any Shudder to Think albums, so Amoeba naturally has my devoted blessings :)

I used to live in Thousand Oaks and would go to Amoeba at least once a week. I now live on Long Island and I am literally sitting here at 12:40AM wishing that I could be in Hollywood, just so I can spend hours in Amoeba looking for laserdiscs and Nine Inch Nails Singles. This is ridiculous. Amoeba is the last hope. I usually shop on ebay and amazon now, but I still would find things in amoeba that could never be found through the network. Amoeba makes me feel like a kid and there needs to be one in every major city.

I travel to San Francisco from Melbourne (Australia)twice a year and I always make sure that i come in for a browse..... Not once have I come out of the store empty handed. Without doubt the most diverse collection of world music and vinyl I am yet to find. Cheers Kris