Amoeba Music is such a cool store.  I really feel so fortunate to have it in my city.  I visit often, sometimes with a purchase in mind, but usually just to browse.  I always come out with a shopping bag; the temptation is just too massive.  If you don’t know what Amoeba Music is, I’ll give you the Cliff Notes rundown: It’s basically a ginormous independent music store that sells CDs, records, DVDs, VHS, posters, books, and other music paraphernalia.  In addition, they have a bunch of fabulous in-store music performances, weekly DJs spinning, contests, and all sorts of events.  When you walk in, it’s so big that they have actual printed out store maps available dictating where you can find anything you might be looking for.  You could literally spend hours in the store (I definitely have).

Amoeba is a store of the community, they cherish independent artists, and they promote a green lifestyle.  There is a huge sign hanging above the cash registers that reads: “Amoeba donates a portion of the proceeds from every sale to preserve the rainforest land for indigenous peoples.  Over 1,000,000 acres have been saved so far.  Thanks to our customers for your support.”  They publish free copies of extensive ‘Music We Like’ guides that inform shoppers about marvelous new bands and movies.  Their staff is friendly and just a few notes short of being musical geniuses.  They have their own parking garage.  They still sell VHS tapes.  They have listening stations like the indie music stores from our childhood always did.  You can sell your used music and movies to them for extra cash.  DJs and band are constantly entertaining shoppers with live music.  They’ve got every imaginable style of music covered and even have specific sections labeled for less commercial genres such as gothic, black metal, rockabilly, bluegrass, ska jungle, Celtic, avant-garde, and world music.  Their clearance CD section has some unreal deals and if you buy 4 clearance CDs or DVDs, you get the cheapest one free.  Their website offers free song downloads from select artists. They have three locations: Hollywood, San Francisco, and Berkeley.  Dare I praise them more?…

Dustin and I ventured in for the Scissor Sisters performance on Thursday and ended up doing some digging thru the multi-level, multi-room musical world to see what we could find of interest.  First of all, the people watching alone could be a pastime.  All sorts of individuals go into Amoeba and it’s fun to see what they gravitate towards.  I saw a guy carrying a giant stack of cassettes.  I personally do not own a single device that I could play a cassette in but maybe he didn’t make it on the upgrading technology bandwagon.  We also spotted, in true TMZ style, Ben Hoffman, host of Current TV’s infoMania.  Ben had an intricate interest in observing the crazy Scissor Sisters fans bum rush the autograph table and stood nearby filming on his phone (future episode?).  We were very captivated by the rare box sets comfortably nestled behind a glass security case…$270 Beatles box, $200 The Police!!!  The “Japanese section” was massively intriguing as well.  Amoeba has a collection of discs from Japan that are rare imports, limited print, and have the original packaging of the first vinyl release.  Some highlights from that section were a $325 David Bowie Aladdin Sane Japanese promo and a super pricy, yet exclusively remastered, Elvis CD.  Other notable findings that we stumbled upon in our journey: a $105 Lady Ga Ga imported version of The Fame USB edition, a Jerry Garcia bottle of wine, a book titled “Who Killed Martin Hannett?  The Story of Factor Records’ Musical Magician,” some antique lunch boxes, hundreds of rare band posters, lots of buttons, and a sign that said “Collectible Lasers.”  On the way out I noticed a sign on the bottom rack that read, “Look what I have found: Rare, exciting, out of print treasures.”  I didn’t dig thru because I had to save something for next time.

Words by Nicole Pajer.  Photos by Dustin Downing