A Visit to the New Amoeba Records Hollywood

 

Chewie, we're home. (But for the record, as fun as it is to shop Amoeba, the store is so popular that it's nearly impossible to discover "finds" while digging through the stacks. The used stock is picked over, leaving mostly new albums.)

Help Save Amoeba Records

Donating to a business to keep it afloat seems a bit odd, but Amoeba Records isn't just any business. It's the last mega-sized record store in Los Angeles, in an age where stalwarts like Aron's, Rhino, Tower and Virgin Megastore went away, and only smaller stores still remain. It's still a wonderland where you can spend hours and never tire of discovering all sorts of finds. Which is why I wound up donating to a Go Fund Me (a clearly sentimental move that surprised even my own cheapskate self). After all, I don't want to live in a Los Angeles without Amoeba!

Amoeba is now halfway to its $400,000 goal — you can donate here.

My Variety colleague Chris Willman describes the draw, and why thousands of people like me have also donated, in an interview he did with Amoeba co-founder Marc Weinstein. Amoeba's 400 employees (between the Hollywood location and its two Bay Area spots) are currently furloughed, and the Hollywood location's move to a new spot — as its current location is about to be redeveloped — is in a bit of a limbo at the moment.

"We are launching the GoFundMe campaign before everyone’s tapped out to try to give our fans a chance to help us here," Weinstein told Willman. "There are still so many unanswered questions about where we’re going to end up. We’re really just trying to get to opening our new store on Hollywood Blvd. We have this cool new space and a plan to get in there. But between now and then, we are trying to get whatever resources we can to help with the move and help us cover our staff. Every one of our staff is on unemployment now. We’re chipping in, in that we’re covering all their benefits, making sure everybody has health. But otherwise, everyone that works for us is on unemployment right now. Including me."

Read more here.

Amoeba Records: Pre-Sad About Its Impending Move

Amoeba Music is moving, now that the City Council has approved a new 26-story tower on the site. But no one knows where Amoeba is moving to — and I can't imagine, wherever it ends up, that the new location will be nearly as large or exciting as its current digs.

Amoeba, of course, is the last of the great monster-sized music shops. There are still plenty of other record stores in Los Angeles, but none of them are very large. Stores like Rockaway Records have survived by downsizing their space. Large retailers like Tower Records and Virgin Megastore are long gone, and even decent-sized stores like Aron's Records have disappeared.

That's why we've got to savor the Amoeba Hollywood experience while we can. I spent several hours there on a recent Saturday night, and could have spent several hours more. 

Writes the L.A. Times: "The retailer’s Hollywood location, which opened to great fanfare in 2001, has been in a kind of holding pattern since news of the possible development came to light a few years ago. The store sold the building to developer GPI Cos. in 2015 for $34 million."

The Times also notes that Amoeba has repeatedly promised to reveal its plans, yet hasn't yet — which gives me cause for concern. Adds the paper:

“Amoeba has every intention of remaining in L.A.,” Amoeba’s Jim Henderson told The Times in 2017, citing the store’s statement on Facebook as the most complete update on its future at 6400 Sunset Blvd. “Rest assured, we are NOT closing, but we are now in a position where we may have to change locations in the coming years.”

On Tuesday morning, Henderson seemed unconcerned with the City Council’s vote. Amoeba’s move is a foregone conclusion, he said. The store has a lease that will carry it in its current location “for about another year,” he said, with a few brief extension opportunities.

“But I can also tell you that if we find something that’s a fit, then obviously we won’t be taking those extensions and GPI can get on with their business and we can get on with ours,” Henderson added.

The council’s vote was the final hurdle facing the development, which will replace the two-story Amoeba building with a mixed-use tower slated to contain up to 200 residential units. The ground floor will provide 7,000 square feet of commercial space, but there are no indications that Amoeba will remain at the address.

Save Amoeba!

Record Stores Still Live: Support Your Local Retailer While You Can This Holiday

It was very heartening to visit Rockaway Records on Sunday, as it held another of its periodic sales. Yes, I download and stream music these days, but there's still nothing like holding physical media — and discovering something in the stacks. I went home with 16 CDs for $36. I'm not sure how much of a business model that is, but I imagine Rockaway makes most of its revenue through its vibrant collectable business, and also from its real estate. (The music store has slimmed down over time, as it began renting off chunks of its building to other businesses, like Silver Lake Wine.) Thank goodness for stores like Rockaway and Amoeba, keeping the joy of music shopping alive.

Rockaway Records, 2395 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039

A Sign That I Am... Old

This sign excites me. I'm sorry. /old

A Visit to a Survivor: Claremont's Rhino Records Celebrates its 40th

Back in the 1990s I used to frequent the Rhino Records store in Westwood, particularly for its regular parking lot sales (in which CDs were just $1 each). The store was owned by Richard Foos, who also had founded the Rhino label -- although the two were completely separate. (Warner Music eventually bought Rhino, but Foos still owned the store.)

But that wasn't the only Rhino Records around. Foos had also owned a store in Claremont, but sold it off way back in 1976. That store kept the "Rhino" name though -- so when Foos decided to shut down the Westwood store in 2006, it didn't impact the Claremont store, which still exists.

We happened to be in the Pomona area a few weeks ago and decided to visit the Claremont Village area, where Rhino Records store is located. I couldn't resist. So I brought the kids and Maria -- who, as you know, worked for several years at the Rhino label as a designer -- and we finally checked it out. I wound up buying several 45s at $1 each.



Support your local independent music store this holiday season! They are a dying breed. Here's a bit more history about Rhino Claremont, which just hit its 40th anniversary. David Allen writes:

Mark Leviton, a friend of Rhino founder Richard Foos, opened the Claremont store in October 1974 under Foos’ ownership.

Foos sold the Claremont store in 1976 and it continues as an independent operation today, with no connection to the record label of the same name, which was also founded by Foos. It remains there today, thriving as the only full-service indie music store in the Inland Valley.

Weekend Snapshots: Eagle Rock

The Islander Motel Drive-In



Juice Mural



The only other outpost of Chicago's Permanent Records, right here in Eagle Rock.



Formerly Larkin's, the brown bungalow on Colorado Blvd. is now being remade into "Food Beer & Wine." Oops, I thought that sign looked familiar -- it actually is left over from Larkin's. According to a commenter and Grub Street, the eatery Little Beast is taking over the spot.

The Return of the Cheap CD at Rockaway

There are few things I like better than cheap CD sales. Granted, most CDs at those sales are crap. But that's begun to change -- as, sadly, the CD becomes a less sought-after artifact, I'm beginning to find some really great diamonds in the rough at these sales.

That's why I'm excited to see that Rockaway Records' sporadic CHEAP DVD and CD SALE is back, and happening today through Friday, July 5 through July 8. DVDs normally priced $2.99 and less are half off, and CDs priced $1.99 are half off too.

Support your local indie record store while you still can! Rockaway is in Silver Lake, next to the new library.

Rockaway Records
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Regular Hours 11am-7pm
2395 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90039

Rhino Records Retail Store Returns -- At Least for a Bit

The record store gods have giveth and taketh in Los Angeles -- as Amoeba opened up in 2001, Aron's and Rhino shut down just a few years later.

I used to regularly attend Rhino's parking lot sale in the 1990s -- and discovered a lot of cool music while getting a sunburn behind Rhino's Westwood store. Now, Richard Foos -- who continued to own the store long after he sold the Rhino label to Warner Music -- is bringing the store back.

Sorta. The Rhino store, which closed in January 2006, will re-open for a few weeks next month as a "pop-up" store to benefit charity. Chris Morris writes:

Store founder Richard Foos, now chief executive officer at catalog label Shout! Factory, is reopening Rhino at 1740 Westwood Blvd., three doors down from its original location. One of the store's former managers, Sam Epstein, will oversee the temporary outlet.

Several special events, including an old-timers day, are planned. Foos said singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes' 60s band the Merry-Go-Round will reunite for an in-store performance.

"It should be like the old Rhino," Foos said. "We're bringing back the spirit of the old store."

Proceeds from the pop-up shop will be donated to Chrysalis Enterprises, a local non-profit that provides employment for the homeless and economically disadvantaged, street maintenance and recycling services.

A Rhino Records store still exists in Claremont, but that one has operated independently since Foos sold it in 1981.

Record Store Day: Is Amoeba Hollywood The Best Record Store in the Country?

With Record Store Day on tap for tomorrow, Paste magazine has put together its list of the 17 Coolest Record Stores in America.

Our own Amoeba, which is actually a relatively recent entry in the world of record stores -- having been imported to L.A. in 2001, from the Bay Area -- is named "The Best Store in the World. Not Just Music. But Store. Including Target."

Pretty nice, right? Here's the write-up:

Tour posters climb the 50-foot walls, surrounding you as you join the skinny-jeans-wearing bass players and bespectacled screenwriters who listen to an in-store performance from The Bird and the Bee. You can then wander off in search of a red-vinyl Vince Guaraldi album or Tom Jones’ Live at Caesar’s or the latest posthumous Tupac release. Looks like L.A. doesn’t suck after all.

Hold it. What? Who, exactly said L.A. sucked, Paste? Unnecessary L.A. dig alert.

Too bad that Record Store Day seems to land every year on the same weekend as the Coachella Festival -- but hey, that just means more room for me to shop tomorrow at Amoeba and Rockaway.

Land of the 99 Cent CDs

I'm a sucker for used record store clearance sales, having spent hours searching through unorganized stacks of CDs, all for a few diamonds in the rough.

Rhino and Aron's always held great sales -- and I developed quite a few sunburns over the years as I stood outside flipping through stacks. Sadly, those stores are long gone -- but at least Silver Lake's Rockaway Records is still keeping the faith.

Rockaway's pop-up clearance store made a few appearances over the holidays -- and now it's back, the weekend of Saturday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 24.

Once again, all CDs are 99 cents -- ditto LPs and DVDs. I walked away with several cool finds the last time the clearance store was open, and I plan to dig my way through several more boxes next weekend.

The best part: It's inside. So no bargain CD-related sunburns for me.