Amoeba Music

I really enjoy Amoeba Records, although I always forget what I'm looking for the moment that I walk inside the enormous Los Angeles location. My favorite moment has to be when Henry Rollins was performing Black Flag songs there back in 2002. With the help of Martin of Los Crudos/Limp Wrist and my friend Tom, I did a flip over a rack of records onto the pogo-ing kids at the front as they were playing "Rise Above." One of the Amoeba bouncers grabbed me and "escorted" me out of the store. I also love finding all of the awesome obscure hardcore records there. Thanks!

The first time I stepped into Amoeba in Hollywood was when I was 16. I didn't have any money, like most teens at that age, but I did have a full tank of gas in the '89 Dodge Caravan my parents let me drive to school. A friend and I ditched school that day because he had been raving about Amoeba for a year now. The drive took us a little more than hour; from the streets of Valley Blvd in El Monte, down Cesar Chavez in East Los Angeles to Sunset near Silverlake. When we finally got there, I wasn't sure if I was relieved because we finally reached our destination or because that was the farthest I had ever driven without a license, or the fear of getting in trouble for ditching. But to say the least, it was overwhelming. The largest music store I had been to, at that time, was a record store in the Montebello Mall. Not having a very eclectic sense of music (stemming from Blink 182 to MxPx to a little of Nirvana) I was obviously out of my element here. I remember looking up at the posters hung on walls of artists I've never heard of and noticed customers dressed in cool vintage clothes. Walking through the isles, I now vaguely remember band names and the music I listened to on the music players on the second floor. In retrospect, I think my first visit was more of an experience rather than a memory. Like when you got your first guitar or the first time you listened to Pink Floyd. Though you may not understand it or know what to do with it, you do understand you have found something truly unique and special.

I moved to the bay area nearly three months ago and ever since I've frequented Amoeba Music in Berkeley. It's been a mecca, as well as a consolation, after moving out for the first time and 3000 miles away at that. One day in particular, Ryan Stark recommended the album "Curse of the Zounds" by Zounds to me. I bought the CD, went home, put in my stereo, and blasted that shit. I started cooking as "Demystification" came on. My irrepressible need to dance to that song plus cooking didn't work out so well... I somehow nicked the center of my palm with a knife. Kind of ironic, seeing as Zounds means "Christ’s wounds," which I found out the next day when reading Othello for class. Disregarding minor injuries, the record was amazing, as were the many other treasures that I've discovered at Amoeba. Thanks for being everything I wanted and more in a record shop. You've made my move worthwhile.

It's funny, I used to live in NYC and there was nothing even close to Amoeba. When I moved out to SF I immediately fell in love. A serial DVD collector, Amoeba had it all. Foreign, new, classic, etc. both new and USED! Amoeba is like crack to me. What's funnier, though, is that for years there was talk about online sites like Amazon and mega stores like Virgin sending places like Amoeba to the stone ages. Yet, recently it's all the megastores that have fallen and are continuing to fall. For the time being it feels like community places like Amoeba that are dedicated to the mainstream and the offbeat are the pioneers of physical media. I can't predict the future, but I know I'll continue to support Amoeba because it's more than just a record store. It's a way of life. And yes, that was cheesy.

We travel to come to Amoeba's record shopping. It's my husband and my favorite date. In fact, on our 6th wedding anniversary we hit up Amoeba's for a mini shopping spree, followed by Zachary's pizza (a couple of Anchor Steams), followed by The Pixies 1st re-union tour show at the Greek Theatre. It was just about the perfect day.

I thought really great record stores only existed in really great movies. Places where the employees know everything and they can guide you to new artists. Or where you can guide yourself. Living in the suburbs of the bay area when you're 16 you can't always make your way to the Haight. But when I learned how to drive and I finally visited Amoeba for the first time I was blown away. I was definitely intimidated at first. There was no possible way I could ever feel at home in a store like this! I could never navigate my way around. How could I possibly get to everything? All of these cool people walking around with their heads full of knowledge about bands and musicians I had never even heard of. But 13 years later I feel like I walk that store with pride. I love spending hours just guiding my way through all the different aisles. I love checking that PJ Harvey vinyl section just in case by some miracle a "To Bring You My Love" copy found it's way in there. But I didn't get to feel at home like this all on my own. To that guy who helped me find the out of print Martin L. Gore EP because I was in love with some guy and I wanted to listen to "Compulsion" over and over. Or that one guy who told me that first BSS album was just OK but I bought it anyway and it came to be one of my favorite Cds. To any of the workers who didn't judge me for JUST getting into The Rolling Stones and told me their opinions of their best albums to buy. Or for the store in general for always having every Bob Dylan cd there used or new because when all else fails and I can't find anything to buy I can always work on completing my Dylan collection. Whether I'm falling in love with a cashier because he too was in love with a not yet enormously popular Death Cab for Cutie or jumping up and down because I walked down the vinyl aisle to discover Ryan Adams had re-released all of his albums on vinyl. I love you Amoeba San Francisco. Others may feel intimidated and I feel at home.

I don't really have a great Amoeba records story,except to say that they are always awesome to me when I have had rough times in the past and was forced to sell or part with some of my record collections or what have you.the last time I was in the Hollywood store selling some of my records at AMOEBA I ran into Brian Grazer who works with Ron Howard a lot on Movies.I have always had surreal experiences at the different Amoeba record stores since the 1980s,the original store I used to go to was the San Francisco store.

Amoeba Records is the world's greatest music store. I wish I lived in Los Angeles to be able to visit the store more often, but my once a year pilgrimage will have to do.

I have been a music addict for over 40 years now. When Amoeba opened it became my favorite place to feed my addiction. Over the years I have introduced hundreds of people to Amoeba. Many are from out-of-town and leave with their arms full of music and their hearts full of envy. In the early days of Amoeba, you would offer a choice of t-shirt if I spent a certain amount of money. I have a lot of t-shirts. My favorite moment was the first time I took my then 10 year old son to the Berkeley store. He looked up at me and said, "Dad, this is so cool! They have even more music than you do!" That's my boy!

Since the Amoeba Music store in Hollywood, CA. first opened, I have watched a complete change in the music industry. One by one, every single major, mid major, and mom and pop music store has either been forced to close their doors or gone bankrupt. From the long standing indi store Aron’s Records on Highland all the way to a true Hollywood icon, the huge Tower Records complex on Sunset (that included a separate Classical store and a video store). So many artists had their record launch or inshore event at Tower that is was really a sad day when they finally closed their doors. An era had ended. Somehow, through it all, Amoeba stood tall and continued to be the one true home for all music, DVD, Blu-Ray, books and to my surprise a classical section that easily surpassed Tower classical in both selection and price. I find whatever excuse I can to visit the store. If I have a mix on a dub stage in Hollywood, I make sure to set aside an hour or two afterward to stop in. Going to a movie at the Arc light Cinemas next door; I plan my movie start time to fit in with a visit to Amoeba. I have found literally hundreds of treasures inside, from the complete Columbia works of Vladimir Horowitz and Miles Davis in beautiful mini-Lp replica box sets, to the rare and out of print complete Riverside recordings of the one and only Thelonious Monk. My sister is a voice teacher in Louisville, KY. and doesn’t have access to anything like Amoeba Records. She visits me at least one a year and we plan her trip around visits to Amoeba. If she’s in town for 6 or 7 days, we visit Amoeba at least 3 times per visit. A trip to Amoeba for the two of us lasts anywhere from a couple hours to (and I kid you not) well over 4 hours. She plants herself in front of the Opera section and literally goes through each and every new and used CD, Lp, DVD and Blu-Ray. On many occasions she even outlasts me (which is saying something). She purchases all her needs for the coming school year and still finds a way to pick up a rare Hong Kong film or an out of print DVD copy of “Harold And Maude” My favorite story with my sister is watching “House Of Flying Daggers” together at the Acrlight and then walking over to Amoeba while talking about how amazing the film was. I told her that it was worth going upstairs to see if we could find an import copy of the film we had just seen on DVD. She laughed and said “I wish, but there’s no way... It just opened this week”, to which I replied, “true, but you never know”. Sure enough we went to the Hong Kong cinema DVD section and found not one, but two copies of the film on DVD; one for each of us. It was unbelievable as this film wasn’t released on DVD in the US for another year! We still talk about our amazing good fortune to this day. Lastly, Amoeba has converted my 17 year old son from someone who just didn’t get physical product and the need for anything but a digital download of his favorite songs, to someone who can't live without them. About a year ago I talked him into going with me to Amoeba were we found limited edition releases of cds from Kanye West, Jay-Z, Jurassic 5 and even found an out of print cd from Q-Tip he’d been looking for. All the pictures, mini-posters, lyrics, bonus trax and bonus DVDs that came with all these various finds had him hooked. He hasn’t downloaded a track since and his one request for his 17th birthday was a gift certificate to Amoeba. As for me... my favorite artist in the world is a band unknown to most Americans but fairly popular in the the UK. That band is “The Wildhearts”. I have never seen any store in any state carry anything from this band, new or used. Last time I was at Amoeba they had the band’s 3 most recent releases new and in stock including what I think is the greatest rock album of all time “Chutzpah!”!!! If you’re reading this and want to try something new, go to Amoeba right now and look for this brilliant CD. I promise you, you won’t be sorry. Long live Amoeba Records and thank you for EVERYTHING!!! With love, Jack Diamond Burbank, CA.