930 Forums

=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: stu47 on September 13, 2004, 12:43:00 am

Title: Amoeba music
Post by: stu47 on September 13, 2004, 12:43:00 am
I just got back from almost two weeks in LA...while there, my friend took me to the amoeba store in hollywood
 
 my god...I could live in that place. We only had about an hour, and it felt like I barely got started looking at stuff. it basically just took that long to go through the used rock cd's. I was tempted just to find a sleeping bag, a corner, and just live there for awhile....just an amazing record store
 
 if youre ever in LA (I think there's one or two in the bay area as well) check it out.....
 
 oh, and we saw Grant Lee Phillips in this incredibly small club (maybe 50 seats)...great set, and evidently, he plays there almost every week now (or has been for awhile)
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: MiloGTC on September 13, 2004, 06:07:00 am
The original is on Telegraph ave. in Berkeley, and the San Francisco store is in the Haight-Ashbury, right next to Golden Gate Park. All are great.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer on September 13, 2004, 09:10:00 am
Was the club called "Largo"?
 
 
Quote
Originally posted by stu47:
  I just got back from almost two weeks in LA...while there, my friend took me to the amoeba store in hollywood
 
 my god...I could live in that place. We only had about an hour, and it felt like I barely got started looking at stuff. it basically just took that long to go through the used rock cd's. I was tempted just to find a sleeping bag, a corner, and just live there for awhile....just an amazing record store
 
 if youre ever in LA (I think there's one or two in the bay area as well) check it out.....
 
 oh, and we saw Grant Lee Phillips in this incredibly small club (maybe 50 seats)...great set, and evidently, he plays there almost every week now (or has been for awhile)
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: chaz on September 13, 2004, 10:57:00 am
Been to the SF store a few times.  Great store, great town.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: eltee on September 13, 2004, 11:15:00 am
I was assuming the same thing...Largo is an excellent place to see a show. Small, intimate, no chatter, dim lighting, great sound, etc.
 Yeah, he's been playing there regularly for a bit.
Quote
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
  Was the club called "Largo"?
 
   
Quote
Originally posted by stu47:
  oh, and we saw Grant Lee Phillips in this incredibly small club (maybe 50 seats)...great set, and evidently, he plays there almost every week now (or has been for awhile)
[/b]
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: stu47 on September 13, 2004, 04:08:00 pm
yeah, it was the largo
 
 great club....my friend saw hayden there in early august, and raved
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: vansmack on September 13, 2004, 04:12:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by MiloGTC:
  the San Francisco store is in the Haight-Ashbury, right next to Golden Gate Park.
I make a bi-weekly trip there.  Heaven on earth.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: andyrichter on September 13, 2004, 05:06:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by chaz:
  Been to the SF store a few times.  Great store, great town.
when i visited sf this summer, i went to the haight street amoeba.  i too could have lived there for a week and i STILL wouldn't have been done.  sf was so awesome.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer on September 13, 2004, 05:08:00 pm
I was a bit disappointed the first time I went to San Francisco. For some reason, I thought it was going to be this mecca of alternative-ness and it turned out to be more of a dot-com yuppie mecca than anything else.
 
 
Quote
Originally posted by chaz:
  Been to the SF store a few times.  Great store, great town.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: Venerable Bede on September 13, 2004, 05:11:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
  I was a bit disappointed the first time I went to San Francisco. For some reason, I thought it was going to be this mecca of alternative-ness and it turned out to be more of a dot-com yuppie mecca than anything else.
 
   
Quote
Originally posted by chaz:
  Been to the SF store a few times.  Great store, great town.
[/b]
you should have been there the day jerry died. . .harsh bud, man.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: kurosawa-b/w on September 13, 2004, 09:53:00 pm
Hey, Vansmack. What's the name of the record store down the street from Amoeba in Berkeley? I like that one as well. I can't remember the name but have the feeling it is something communist-sounding?
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: bellenseb on September 13, 2004, 10:08:00 pm
You're thinking of Rasputin.
 They have stores all over SF. Another good place.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: chaz on September 13, 2004, 11:09:00 pm
It's probably just too expensive a town to be the mecca you expected anymore.  Still I love that town.  Great food, neigborhoods,walkable,plenty of transit options and it probably doesnt hurt that all 3 times I've been there I left behind shitty winter weather for great sunny warm weather.  Not the norm I know, I just got lucky with the weather, that's all.
 
 A friend of mine blames the .com boom and crash for the decline of the local music scene there...bands couldn't survive cuz practice spaces were so damned expensive as real estate prices sky-rocketed during that short live economic boom.  That and the popularity of techno-type music.  At least that's his theory.
 
   
Quote
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
  I was a bit disappointed the first time I went to San Francisco. For some reason, I thought it was going to be this mecca of alternative-ness and it turned out to be more of a dot-com yuppie mecca than anything else.
 
   
Quote
Originally posted by chaz:
  Been to the SF store a few times.  Great store, great town.
[/b]
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: MiloGTC on September 14, 2004, 12:13:00 am
Chaz: speaking as a native San Franciscan, it seems to me that your friend is more or less right ... the fact that the dot-com implosion has leveled things out just a bit, pricewise (SF was never cheap) hasn't brought many of the departed back, nor have recent efforts by some of the dot-com nouveau riche to restore things by, e.g., opening huge "affordable" new practice spaces and recording studios.
 
 I think the Bay Area scene also suffers, to a lesser extent, from the same problems I see in the DC/Baltimore area (and, I guess, most other large metro areas): creeping cover-band-itis and the Clear-Channelization of many of the larger venues. There's still a lot going on any given week, though ... we *are* still in the top five cities that enjoy live music per capita ... just a bit less on the more underground levels.
 
 ps: "vansmack," are you the same person who used to post punk bootlegs on sharingthegroove.org under that name? if so, thank you for that.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: kurosawa-b/w on September 14, 2004, 08:24:00 am
Quote
Originally posted by bellenseb:
  You're thinking of Rasputin.
 They have stores all over SF. Another good place.
That's it! Thanks!
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: vansmack on September 14, 2004, 06:09:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
  I was a bit disappointed the first time I went to San Francisco.   For some reason, I thought it was going to be this mecca of alternative-ness and it turned out to be more of a dot-com yuppie mecca than anything else.
   
You're right.  It's hardly the Mecca that is Springfield, VA.  Moveover neighbor, I'm coming home....
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: vansmack on September 14, 2004, 06:13:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by bellenseb:
  You're thinking of Rasputin.
 They have stores all over SF. Another good place.
The Rasputin in Berkeley is far superior to the one in Downtown SF.  It is also better than the Amoeba in Berkeley.  But the Amoeba in The Haight I find to be the best in terms of both price and selection.
 
 All of which are better then anything I've seen in the greater DC/Baltimore area.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: andyrichter on September 14, 2004, 07:19:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by vansmack:
   
Quote
Originally posted by bellenseb:
  You're thinking of Rasputin.
 They have stores all over SF. Another good place.
The Rasputin in Berkeley is far superior to the one in Downtown SF.  It is also better than the Amoeba in Berkeley.  But the Amoeba in The Haight I find to be the best in terms of both price and selection.
 
 All of which are better then anything I've seen in the greater DC/Baltimore area. [/b]
which goes without speaking
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: Captain Jack on September 14, 2004, 09:41:00 pm
It's the Louvre of record stores; there's no way you could do the whole thing in day.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: Venerable Bede on September 15, 2004, 10:15:00 am
Quote
Originally posted by vansmack:
   
Quote
Originally posted by bellenseb:
  You're thinking of Rasputin.
 They have stores all over SF. Another good place.
The Rasputin in Berkeley is far superior to the one in Downtown SF.  It is also better than the Amoeba in Berkeley.  But the Amoeba in The Haight I find to be the best in terms of both price and selection.
 
 All of which are better then anything I've seen in the greater DC/Baltimore area. [/b]
and the rasputin in san jose is basically just a chain store.  however, i'll still take my san jose streetlight records, if only because there are less hippies there - and i have such fond memories of just going there in high school because i had nothing else to do but go through the $3 and under bins.
Title: Re: Amoeba music
Post by: vansmack on September 15, 2004, 12:55:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
   i'll still take my san jose streetlight records, if only because there are less hippies there -
I found Elbow's "A Cast of Thousands" there, the limited edition Double Disc CD/DVD for $5.  It had been out for about a week.  Streetlight Records holds a soft spot in my heart too.