Musician Jay Reatard was reportedly found dead today in his house. He passed away last night at just 29 years of age. The death is now being investigated as a homicide. More information will be posted as it is known.

Reatard recently played a mini-tour of all three Amoeba stores on August 18, 22 & 23, 2009. To see pics of him in action from Berkeley, click here; San Francisco, click here; and Hollywood, click here.

We’ve been having a lot of fun “holiday shopping” at Amoeba Hollywood lately. But instead of standing pat with standard box-sets and collections, we’ve been imagining what we’d want as a collection, using a broader parallel of titles and themes, and, well, we started putting together our own fun Gift Boxes!

These aren’t your average ordinary “best of...” sets or, you know, “the complete series”...no, these are the box sets we wish people made. Sets like our ZOMBIES! DVD Pack, which gleefully includes not only Dawn of the Dead, but also Shaun of the Dead (plus 28 Days Later and Zombie! the movie), all packaged up nicely in a little “to go”-style box for only $30 (everything is hand-picked from our awesome used selection to keep the budgets down).

We also made up some Blu-ray Starter Kits with horror classics, football films, Stanley Kubrick, Brad Pitt and more, for all those folks who got a Blu-ray player last year (or have one under the tree this year!), to kick-start their collection. At only $50, these thematic sets are a total steal. We have music packs—World, Jazz, Classical—to give a sampling of different sections in our store; boxes for kids, Christmas music, and even some larger collectible packs for people who like The Beatles or Elvis. These might include a t-shirt or a poster, or some funky collectible item we’ve had in our stash to make the ULTIMATE pack for a true fan.

We're patiently waiting the arrival of our store decal. Stay tuned for how we might use our QR code.

Read more about Google's Favorite Places here.

Celebrate, relive and/or discover some highlights from the year's instores at all three Amoebas along with us right here!

Amoeba BERKELEY!


EXENE CERVENKA
The Legendary X front-woman Exene Cervenka played a captivating set of her folky solo material at Amoeba Berkeley for an adoring crowd of old and young punks alike. After performing, she signed records and chatted with the giddy fans. View more photos here.


THE MAE SHI
Los Angeles spaz-punks The Mae Shi completely wigged out on the Berkeley stage. Passing a full-sized parachute over the whole stage and crowd in the Jazz room, the band climbed on our CD racks and ran into the aisles while performing songs off their latest album, Hlllyh. View more photos here.