Take catchy lyrics like “She’s like a female phenomenon; she’s a glamazon,” add a peppy dance beat, and you have the title track on RuPaul’s latest musical endeavor, “Glamazon.” In support of the follow up to Ru’s chart topping “Champion,” Amoeba Hollywood kicked off the release of “Glamazon” with a fan-filled RuPaul CD signing.
Foster The People is in the midst of an extensive headlining tour. They won over thousands at Coachella and have already sold out their upcoming El Rey dates in Los Angeles in July. Last week, the titans of indie rock played a free set at Hollywood’s Amoeba Music to a crowd of over 600 fans.
The show kicked off shortly after 6:30 p.m., however, fans skipped out of work and got in line way before to solidify their spots; the earliest arriving at 10 a.m. Groups of Foster lovers crammed into CD aisles which were roped off once at capacity.
The Twilight Singers have morphed into so much more than former Afghan Whig’s lead singer Greg Dulli could have imagined. Originally created as a side project while in between Afghan Whigs albums and in the midst of a record label dispute, Twilight Singers has become the current focus of Dulli’s career. Since their conception in 1997, the band has released five albums and is currently signed to Sub Pop Records.
Fans of The Twilight Singers celebrated the release of the band’s latest musical endeavor at Hollywood’s Amoeba Music on the album’s February 15th release date. As shoppers purchased CD and vinyl copies of “Dynamite Steps,” they were treated to a 30-minute set by the band.
2010 was a great year! A plethora of music, festivals, exotic art, discovering new bands, overcoming hatred of public transit, behind-the-scenes tours of freak shows and hanging out with 3-legged creatures, and meeting lots of great folks along the way. Check out the year’s highlights as seen by ChinaShop contributor Nicole Pajer after the jump.
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).
It’s not often that you stand in front of a stage at a concert and listen to a store employee take the mic and point to the nearest emergency exits, as was the case at Wednesday’s Amoeba Records Scissor Sisters in-store. Listening to this airline safety type declaration go down, I couldn’t help but wonder if this had anything specifically to do with the fan base of the 5-piece glam rockers otherwise known as the Scissor Sisters. I realized I probably wasn’t far off in my assumptions after squeezing myself amongst the crowd and making conversation with a few of the more hardcore fans. Exhibit A stood next to me and consisted of 3 beyond die-hards who arrived at the in-store around noon, a solid 6 hours before start time, each holding a giant pair of home constructed and fully operational corkboard scissors. After the audience was successfully laden with anticipation, Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Ana Matronic, Del Marquis, Randy Real, a keyboard player, and a duo of back-up singers took the stage to perform an array of songs, including hits from the new release Night Walk.