Amoeba Music

I visited the Berkeley branch of Amoeba in 2007 on my first trip to the Bay Area. I'd recently settled far enough into teenage indie rock fandom to feel real reverence toward independent record stores. Back in St. Louis, my friend Austin and I had started wading through the CD aisles at Euclid Records and Vintage Vinyl, and I snapped up everything by Wilco and a handful of new indie pop groups. These were great places, with intriguing band posters and generally good selections. The few employees were friendly and quiet, and they left you alone while you browsed for the album you had come to look for. Then I walked into Amoeba. It was huge and bustling and brightly colored. Despite the size of the space, the records seemed to push forth from their tall shelves, wanting to jump out and bridge the aisle gaps where psychedelic dangling signs announced their genres. Names and pictures grasped out at me at eye level as I zoomed past them and crates of extra copies lined the floor. These recordings had agency. I wasn't looking down from above and selecting them; I was moving through them and waiting for the right ones to latch on and stick. The one that stuck was Okkervil River's The Stage Names. I bought the vinyl version because it was bigger and cooler and it came with a coupon for the digital download. It was the first vinyl record I purchased for myself, and it quickly became one of my favorite albums. Sitting on the porch of my mom's friend's house in Oakland, I listened to it on my headphones while I pencil-sketched the San Francisco skyline and thumbed through the "Music We Like" booklet I had grabbed on my way out of the store. I would drag my family back to Berkeley at the tail end of our stay and leave with several more records and a fantastically loud t-shirt. I kept buying records back home, retrieved a turntable from my aunt's and uncle's basement, and turned into a vinyl snob. I molded this insistence into a college essay, which was apparently found persuasive by several admissions officers. Come April of 2009, I convinced myself that proximity to 24,000 square feet of music on Haight Street was not the primary motivation behind my choice of universities. Austin drove from Colorado Springs to Palo Alto to visit me in the spring of our freshman year. We spent a day in San Francisco, reaching Amoeba just after it opened. It was the first time he'd been there, and he amassed an arm's length of CDs from the clearance aisles. We were both already putting in a lot of hours at our respective college radio stations, and our trips to Vintage Vinyl had become contests of musical knowledge. But Amoeba overwhelmed both of us enough that browsing was a collaborative fight against those teeming shelves. A year ago I had purchased R.E.M.'s vinyl Chronic Town EP with proud exuberance, and now when Austin pulled an original cassette version from Amoeba's shelves he handed it to me. After a couple hours Austin tossed his colossal purchase in his van and we drove around the city listening to the Guided by Voices CD I had bought. Despite the better part of a year here for college, it was the first time I felt at home in the Bay Area.

I can't really remember when I first really "went" to Amoeba. You know, really went to the store and spend hours poring over music. It was almost as if I crept into my life, just waiting for the opportunity to share its treasures with me. I remember my first purchase was a record for $8. I don't think I had ever been to Amoeba before. I was in high school, and happened to step into Amoeba San Francisco. I was in love with the setup, the media stretching across the floor and up the walls. I went to the hip-hop CD section and just browsed to my heart's delight. Then I went to the vinyl hip-hop section. It should be known that I did not own a record player, nor many records. I had a few I got from a book sale. But I dove into these records like I was a seasoned veteran. What did I find? An Eminem white-label vinyl with mixtape cuts. To this day, I still don't own a record player, and thus have never listened to the record. But I was amazed when I found it. I felt like I had found something special. Just to hold the music was amazing. I immediately bought it. My first Amoeba purchase. Now, it is a regular activity for me to browse CD upon CD at Amoeba Hollywood, especially in the clearance hip-hop aisle. I have found so many gems, and I feel such pride in my ability to take charge and find those gems myself. I know Amoeba will always be in my life. I'll support it always. And you should, too!

Three Days To Loving Amoeba Saturday 10 May 2003 Look, listen, enter Amoeba . . . What a crazy place! . . . Full of activity . . . Find earphones I like . . . Buy them . . . Cashier walks to end of the counter??? . . . Hands me the package . . . Sunday 18 May 2003 Amoeba again . . . What a trip . . . Buy five CDs . . Lou Reed “Reprise” . . . Carly Simon “Film Noir” . . . Squeeze “Play” . . . Miles Davis “Live Around The World” . . . Henri Salvador “Chambre Avec Vue” . . . Amoeba has tapes! . . . And vinyls! . . . Will be back . . . Saturday 24 May 2003 Return to Amoeba . . . Store credit for damaged Squeeze CD . . .Buy nine CDs! . . . Squeeze (again), Aka Moon, The Boo Radleys, Tracy Chapman, Janis Ian, Edith Piaf, Neil Young . . . Second floor soundtrack section . . . “Ken Burn’s Jazz Sampler” . . . “Kansas City, A Robert Altman Film” . . . In Amoeba for three hours! . . . One CD every twenty minutes . . . Love continues! . . .

hi guys, i just want to say that Amoeba music found in me a customer for life, back in 2003. my wife and i were sick of not being able to find our music that we enjoyed at big name record outlets, we found Amoeba by chance. my car started to overheat coming down Sunset blvd and stopped right in front of the store at the bus stop. we saw all these great things in the window all these people going in and out. looked up an saw the sign. car got towed home and we stayed for about 3 hours looking around the store..we went home with about $200.00 in movies , $100.00 in music and a Speed Racer original lunch box. i will never shop anywhere else for my intertainment needs as long as i live you guys F*ckin ROCK !!! thank you. Sam & Teresa.

One of my favorite moments (of many) at Amoeba Hollywood came during an in-store performance by Lhasa (de Sela). My best friend is a drag performer who wanted very badly to meet Lhasa but couldn't make it. Each and every performance by my friend Plastilina included at least one song by Lhasa. My other best friend and I went instead to meet her and get Llasa to sign her cd for him. She found it funny that we wanted her to sign the cd with the inscription, "Dear Plastilina, How mother f*ckin dare you! Love Lhasa" but she generously complied. She really had the voice of an angel and we miss her terribly. Thanks to Amoeba for providing such an intimate forum for her and so many other performers.

i love the reggae cds selection and lps thanks!

I've only been able to visit Amoeba once. It was last September when I was in town visiting my Grandma. Of all the attractions in Los Angeles I really wanted to visit Amoeba and my Grandma agreed she would drive me from the suburbs down to Hollywood. Of course my Grandma is 85 and she refused to let me drive her car. I wasn't sure I was going to survive the drive with her changing lanes without looking but we made it! The selection at Amoeba is amazing and I was overwhelmed with what to buy. So after browsing for a while I noticed that my Grandma was nowhere to be seen. Soon after I heard over the store loudspeaker, "Ryan Ward, your Grandma is looking for you!" I was pretty embarrassed when I, a 25 year old had to go up to the front to let my Grandma know I was alright and that I was ready to buy my selections an go. Needless to say if I win the Amoeba shopping spree I promise to let Grandma help me spend some of the money on what ever it is she listens to! Thanks for rocking Amoeba! Hopefully Ill be back soon!

Amoeba Records is one of the last great stands of American culture. With your wide variety of vinyls, out of print dvds, and general wide variety of collectible material, you're definitely THE one stop place for the music and movie junkie. The most memorable experience I had has to be this past September 27, 2010. I got an email from the Soundgarden fanclub telling all West Coast members to go to Amoeba Records in Hollywood to pick up a band to go see a show that night. Completely disbelieving this, I drive straight to the store, where I find 2 Amoeba employees in the back by the poster section with Soundgarden's new box set on display. As adrenalin surged through my body, both employees smiled back, and in a knowing tone said "Soundgarden?" Dumbfounded, I nodded as one employee checked my name off the list as the other put a wristband on my arm. I was then handed a nondescript card with an address on it with a date and time which was my key to my most memorable concert to date. Not only did I witness one of the most amazing bands perform for the first time in 15 years, I also met Gene Simmons and shook his hand! Thanks Amoeba!

My kid brother turned 30 this year and just recently got into vinyl, so I got this hair-brain idea to give him a record for every year of his life - ones that were released consecutively, from 1980 to 2009. Needless to say, I couldn't have done it without Amoeba. Highlights include looking for 1989's Doolittle and finding the original 12-inch for "Monkey Gone To Heaven," and going to buy the re-release 1997's OK Computer, when I found an original pressing in "New Arrivals."

I have two stories. The first one happened YEARS ago at the Berkeley store. I was REALLY wanting the Bonzo Dog Band box set, but I could not find it anywhere. For Valentine's Day, one year, my wife drove from San Jose to the Berkeley store (she would NEVER drive up there for any reason...so I thought!) and bought me the box set for a surprise Valentine's day gift! She REALLY touched my heart with this!! The other story happened just last year at the San Fran store the day Elvis Costello played the SF and LA stores, the SAME day! I was JUST getting ready to publish my own children's book and had just ONE proof copy of the book. I LOVE Elvis and I got to be one of the lucky few to get to meet him. I took the opportunity to give my ONE proof copy of my new book to Elvis to read with his twin sons when he arrived home! Thank you Amoeba for giving me these two SPECIAL memories to cherish forever!