Amoeba Music

My first visit to Amoeba on Haight in the late '90's ditching my future wife and and cousin and his gal to explore, had never seen anything like it before. Cut to two hours later, I hadn't made it out of the 7" section, the first stop I made. Cut to many years later and I work right by the greatest record store on the planet, Amoeba Hollywood. Amazing, One day, off of work early (for maybe Thanksgiving weekend) and drop in, buy some tunes and then, an announcement.....please welcome unannounced JANE'S ADDICTION....there were maybe 60 people in the store at the time.No speakers, fully unplugged they jammed Sympathy for the Devil and few others and then they were gone. Amazing again!

I moved to the bay area when Amoeba was but a medium sized store on Telegraph in B-town, and have watched with joy as the empire expanded, very conveniently, into my neighborhood. It is now a home away from home; not just a place to find nearly ANY CD/DVD (often at roack bottom prices), but a passable performance venue (with a pretty good and sometimes GREAT lineup). Yea Amoeba! Another 20 years please!

In June of 2007 I was sitting at my brothers home watching the news. A news report came on that the venue for Paul McCartney's secret show had been announced at it was at Amoeba in Hollywood. Right away, I grabbed a jug of water, a peach, a ziploc bag with cheetos, 2 small blankets and shoved it all in a backpack. Wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sandals, I asked my brother to drop me off at Amoeba because I was going to stay there to get into Macca's free secret show. I did. I waited there all night. Used public restrooms and ate horrible fast food. It was an enduring time to wait. Along with many other fans, we waited for about a day and a half to get into Amoeba to see Paul McCartney. Inside Amoeba, I saw that celebrities from Woody Harrelson, to Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne, Olivia Harrison, and even Ringo Starr were in an aisle not to far from me. For some reason, the staff moved them...to the aisle in front of me. What a great way to enjoy a Paul McCartney concert. I watched this show standing a few feet behind Ringo Starr and many other stars. It is a memory that I will never forget. Amoeba is always the place to go for music and movies that you know will not be found anywhere else. Thank you Amoeba!!! Thank you for giving me memories that I will never forget!

I'm an avid music collector and have been one since the late sixties. I first discovered Amoeba Music about six years ago, right after my son moved from Detroit to San Francisco. I'll never forget the first time he brought me over to the store in the Haight and I walked in. It was like finding paradise. I ended up buying tons of items that I was unable to find anywhere else. Ever since then, a visit to the store has been a "must do" for me on my frequent trips to the city. I always set aside several hours to not only purchase music, but to browse the aisles, find CD's that I didn't even know existed, and just take in the atmosphere. Take it from me, if you love your music collection, a pilgrimage to an Amoeba Store is a must for you.

Slash April 17, 2010 2pm! I wanna take this chance to talk about my experience at amoeba record store. My boyfriend chente and I always buy our cd's here and its great. Also our favorite place to chill and smoke! We find out about all this shows and concerts there, its heaven for music. And heaven for me, since i met my now best friend Mr. Saul Hudson aka SLASH. It all started April 5 when i was waiting for his first solo album to come out. One day before amoeba's contest, to be one of the first three hundred people to buy it and get a chance to come back and get it signed by him. I just got all my cents together i asked my mom for a few bucks and she sent me to hell but she ended up giving it anyway. So i ditch school and travel from Wilmington waking up at four and made it there at 6:19 with only a few guys in line.. i waited four hours for amoeba to open, buy my cd and get outta there. I came back the 17 and waited in line for a few hours, smoke a little for my nerves. And then they drag us in to get our only one item signed and i almost shit myself. when i was waiting for my album to get signed i kept thinking how can i get his hat.. i was there one step away for me going next.. the lady said your next so i went and.. Slash said hey i said uhh! I gave him my cd and marker and shaked his hand firmly and he squeezed the living hell outta it. I kept staring at him and didn't know what to say so i just said "you're great man, thanks!" so i walked away with a good sensation, i looked at amoeba's logo and said, damn you guys suck.. your good at everything!! Alright thanks for reading.

I've been shopping at Amoeba Hollywood since the store first opened. Over the years I've been consistently delighted to find many rare and hard to find soundtracks, movies, and other items. Like anticipation, half the fun is sometimes to be found in just the search itself. But one such search has a special meaning for my wife and myself. We were newly engaged and looking for a song that we could call our own. We found it on Todd Rundgren's album "With a Twist." The song is "Mated" and it perfectly evokes our feelings for each other and continues to do so to this day. Thanks Amoeba.

My most magical moment that occurred at Amoeba was back in 2002 when I was going through some rough times and in the midst of all this noticed that Paul Westerberg, iconic former frontman for the Replacements, was giving a free in-store performance at the Hollywood location. I made a friend in the process, got to see one of my musical heroes in the flesh, and walked away truly amazed at the outstanding selection of hard-to-find music releases. I'll never forget that special evening at your store.

Back when I was 8 years old there was a BBC miniseries on PBS called "Elizabeth R." It was about the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled Britain during the 1500s. (She was the daughter of Henry VIII.) Anyhow, I remember really enjoying this series, even though it was a little "sophisticated" for an 8 year old. Anyhow, years later while going through the DVD boxed sets at Amoeba I found the BBC series, which actually had been released on DVD in the early 2000s, but was out of print. For roughly $65 I was able purchase the entire series that sparked my interest in British history so long ago, and was able to relive the remarkable Elizabethan era all over again, with an incredible performance by Glenda Jackson portraying Good Queen Bess. Thanks, Amoeba!

In 2000/01 I was living in Austin and bought tickets to take my first trip to Cali and I was going to SF. My girlfriend had broken up with me which left me with 2 non-refundable tickets. Fortunately a friend wanted to go and so we both went and had a blast. Now, I'm a huge record collector, I buy music by the dozen, I can't buy 1 or 2 things. Being a music fiend from Texas I had heard of Amoeba as the place to go to find everything under the sun. Upon arriving my friend and I purposely stayed away from Amoeba because we both knew that without a doubt all of my money would have been spent day one at Amoeba. Oh yeah, no kidding, I certainly would have spent every cent. So I never made it to Amoeba when I went to Cali, sad I know. My Amoeba shopping however is done online and I have bought some fantastic CDs from them like 'Les Rallizes Denudes'. I'm in Florida right now and get my Amoeba fix periodically.

In the summer of 2007 I desperately wanted to purchase Santana's Lotus album which is hot as it features some dynamic playing by the likes of Chepito Areas on timbales. Lo and behold, as I made my way down the Rock & Roll isle at Amoeba's Haight store, there was Chepito Area's browsing albums with his son Adrian. I was blown away! And didn't know how to introduce myself, but told Chepito I was there to buy Lotus and he laughed! Then I asked him to autograph the only copy of Lotus the store had, and he did so with with glee in his eyes, and it was a magic moment I'll never forget! Thanks Amoeba for all the bright moments!