I don't know why I haven't thought to write a highlights about probably my favorite place to spend money at in Los Angeles, which has to be the beautiful, the magical, the awesome store known as Amoeba.
PART 4 - AMOEBA MUSIC
Amoeba Music - Hollywood
6400 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
90028
(323) 245-6400
Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30am - 11pm, Sun 11am - 9pm
Trade Counter Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30am - 9pm, Sun 11am - 8pm
Amoeba Music - San Francisco Amoeba Music - Berkeley
1855 Haight St. 2455 Telegraph Ave.
San Francisco, CA Berkely, CA
94117 94704
The first Amoeba opened up in Berkeley in 1990, then the San Francisco store in 1997, and finally the Hollywood branch on November 17, 2001. I can easily tell you from years of experience that Amoeba in Hollywood is one amazing store for music lovers, filled to the brim with CDs, vinyl records, posters, DVDs, blu-rays, VHS (lolz!), t-shirts, record players, music and movie memorabilia, record players, books, zines, magazines, etc. etc.
The very first time I went to Amoeba I remember just being completely floored by how huge (and tall!) the whole store is. There are tons of people carrying records in baskets or by their plastic cases's long ends, wandering around looking at the walls covered from floor to ceiling with posters, listening to hard to find vinyls, and scourging the rows and rows of music for the best price or finest copy.
I've taken a few people for their first trips to Amoeba and I love the way their faces look when they first walk in. The store is a huge maze of stuff and to find what you are looking for might take a while, but you'll find other great things along the way.
Take your old CDs or movies to Amoeba and they'll give you an estimate of a cash return for them or pure store credit (which is what I always opt for) and browse to your heart's content! Amoeba is a true place for hardcore music lovers, be warned! I was once asked by a fellow customer about what type of record player I owned and what program I used to convert the vinyl music into MP3s for my computer, to which I blanked on completely and looked like a complete idiot mumbling about how my record player was awesome but I couldn't remember the brand name of it.
Amoeba has lots of live shows plus signings for movies, soundtracks, records, and books as well as selling the best music in town.
My advice for visiting Amoeba for the first time is: park downstairs in their garage parking (sometimes it says it's full, but it's not, believe me, just wait in line for someone to leave, I've never had to wait more than 3 or 4 minutes), and head up their record and graffiti filled stairwell to the store, giving you the full Amoeba-effect! Head in the back room for blues music, more posters, and t-shirts, the bottom floor for general rock CDs and vinyls, plus world music, show posters, odds and ends, discounted DVDs, the exchange counter, and the top floor to get a good view of the walls covered with posters and rare vinyls, and a room full of DVDs and blu-rays. I also advise to be sufficiently supplied with cash or card, because you will always find something you cannot live without.
(Read my post about Shingai here)
