Amoeba music – You don’t need to be a microbiologist to acknowledge this name.
Amoeba was founded in Berkeley in 1990 by music-loving record collectors Marc Weinstein, Dave Prinz and Mike Boyder. The company established locations in San Francisco and Hollywood and shortly grew into the most important independent music store on the planet. Of course, Amoeba sells and trades records, but has also held legendary in-store concert events with Valhalla-level artists like Patti Smith and Paul McCartney.
Downloads, streaming and the pandemic have taken their toll lately, and Amoeba has been forced to temporarily close its LA store. But it's since returned to the nice times, riding a wave of vinyl in demand by a brand new generation of vintage record lovers. Step into the Berkeley location and also you might be overwhelmed by the wonderful offerings. There are sections for jazz, metal, New Orleans, soundtracks, and spoken word (like “Allen Ginsberg Reads Kaddish,” which the poet wrote about Dexedrine and LSD). There are $100 sealed Miles Davis LPs and $1 cassette tapes, T-shirts for The Germs and Public Enemy, and clothing patches for James Brown and the Sex Pistols.
These days, Prinz lives in Point Reyes but spends time on Maui, where he recently took a break to entertain himself during a tropical storm.
Without cannabis there could be no amoebas >>>
After Prinz sold his Captain Video chain of stores within the Bay Area within the Eighties, he was searching for something else to get into. While shopping at Streetlight Records in San Francisco, he met Weinstein, the shop manager, and struck up a sweet friendship. “I used to bring weed from Hawaii that he never drank,” Prinz remembers. They decided to open an independent music store in a school town – Berkeley. “We became pretty good friends, and that's how Amoeba started – me smoking Hawaiian weed with Marc Weinstein.”
An excellent day within the history of Amoeba was related to Sir Paul McCartney >>>
Amoeba has hosted in-store concert events for everybody from Nancy Sinatra to Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, The White Stripes and Billie Eilish. Prince's fondest memory? In 2007, Paul McCartney and his touring band recorded a secret concert on the Hollywood Amoeba. In the audience were Alanis Morissette, Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr. “Ringo didn’t really like being in crowds and he was a little nervous,” says Prinz. “I said, 'Why don't you stand in my line and I'll guard the end?' Ringo felt comfortable enough in the crowd to watch his old bandmate.”
Celebrities love (and love to shop at) Amoeba >>>
Eric Clapton was inundated with customers during his visit, but Jimmy Page and Robert Plant shopped there without a problem – although when asked to go through a security gate, Plant joked: “For a bunch of hippies, you sure have so much.” “of rules!”
Prinz was “completely surprised” that vinyl was coming back >>>
“We love having UC Berkeley children shop in our stores because they are the future of America and the future of the people who will support the music industry. The fact that kids are buying vinyl again has changed everything. Go to a store Record Store Day, and you will see how many there are who are looking for artists that are close to their hearts.”
CDs don't end up in landfill >>> yet
Although new CD sales are down, Amoeba is selling more used CDs than ever before. “There’s a big market for it because there’s a lot of stuff that’s not currently on vinyl,” says Prinz.
And don't throw away your old boom box >>>
Everything has its cycles. Physical media is currently experiencing an enormous boom. “Even cassettes are popular again, it’s really crazy,” says Prinz. “This is a format that you would assume is completely dead by now.”
Expect a major Louis Armstrong project to drop soon >>>
Prinz has spent nearly a decade tracking down elements from the jazz giant's 400-page discography and hopes to do what he says “iTunes and Spotify couldn't do, which was to properly compile an artist's discography.” Armstrong was never one Label committed – he recorded for more than 50 labels. When Decca tried to imprison him by sending thugs to “persuade” him (this was a real practice), he moved to France to record for a few years.
Prinz tracked down hundreds of sources around the world to compile and remaster his catalog. “It was like putting together a giant puzzle,” he says. “At least half of the songs in this discography were not official releases and most people have never heard them. I would like to release this as a download site soon (supported by donations). I think that would be a real gift to the world.”
The jams an independent record store founder listens to are… obscure >>>
“I love collecting records, that’s how I got into this business,” says Prinz. “My dream was that I went into a record store, right? And I saw this big stack of cool records that just came in and saw a guy going through them and then the owner came over to look at them. I said, “I want to be that guy – the guy who looks at the pile of records first before everyone else gets in there, and you have to fight for the records that everyone wants.” And now I am.”
Prinz has about 4,000 CDs and maybe 6,000 LPs, but what he's passionate about right now is playing 78s on a 1948 Wurlitzer jukebox. “I have almost every Django Reinhardt 78 – he's one of my favorite artists – and a lot of rockabilly 78s. I just saw this amazing 78 by Eddie Bond with “Slip, Slip, Slippin' In” that I've been looking for for years. Recently I heard “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles, which is a great 78, and ten Beatles 78s, real ones, like an acetate of the Beatles playing “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” on a BBC session. That’s what I really like, so I’m really retro.”
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Amoeba Music is at 2455 Telegraph Ave. Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Berkeley and open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 1855 Haight St. in San Francisco.
Hear Bay Beats – streaming music playlists featuring local artists, a collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library – at baybeats.sfpl.org.
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