AMOEBLOG:  How'd you end up working at Amoeba and what exactly is your job there?

PAUL VASQUEZ:  I started working at Amoeba in March of 2006, a year and a half ago. I was fed up with the record store I used to work for, so I spoke to a friend of a friend, and the rest is history. I work in the World Music section, helping our customers and maintaining the section.

 
AMOEBLOG: What makes working at Amoeba unique compared to previous jobs?

PAUL VASQUEZ:   Working at Amoeba has been a huge thrill for me. I've never had a job that I look forward to every day. I know that as soon as I walk in the building, I'm among friends...no, scratch that: among family. I feel like the employees are respected and valued for their contributions to the store. The owners and managers have created a mellow and open environment where we feel that we are taken care of. Being an Amoeba employee has changed my life in so many positive ways; it's hard to imagine not having the support structure the store and it's employees provide.
 

AMOEBLOG: What are the Top Three Items at Amoeba this week that people are seeking out?

PAUL VASQUEZ: 
    M.I.A. - Kala
    Buika -    A Spanish singer recently profiled on NPR.
   The Fania Reissue Series - The classic Salsa label finally gets a proper
                                                       reissue.

Continue reading

Amoeba Music recording artist Brandi Shearer, whose anticipated album "Close To Dark" on Amoeba's newly launched record label just dropped this week (8/28) and who just wound up a month of dates on the East Coast, will be doing a very special free instore performance at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 1st) at 2PM sharp. Note that this return to the Amoeba Hollywood stage for Shearer will be streamed live online via audio and video feeds - so just return here to this site on Saturday starting at 2PM PST.  Other artists performing for free at Amoeba over the next number of upcoming days include Norwegian Prins Thomas who will be bringing his "cosmic disco" sounds to the Amoeba Music Hollywood stage tonight (Friday August 31st) at 8PM. For more info on this talented artist and his Amoeba show click here. And on Tuesday at the San Francisco Amoeba Music there is a recommended free instore when the New Orleans group Galactic perform with special guests (the Quannum emcees who also make cameos on their new album- From the Corner to the Block) Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truth Speaker. For more info on this Tuesday evening show at the Haight Street store, which starts at 7PM but for which you should probably arrive early to get a good position,  click here.  Update:  the previously scheduled Amoeba Berkeley instore with Patton Oswalt for this coming week has been canceled.

New Orleans emcee Mia X is from the old school and has been making hip-hop for twenty plus years. She is probably best known by most rap fans for the period she was signed to and associated with Master P's No Limit label but her rich rap history goes back long before that.  However to go online and do a search under the artist's early rap years will  inevitably yield inaccurate results - whether searching on the  AOL.music,  All Music Guide, Yahoo, VH1 websites or on the Wikipedia bio on her which erroneously states "Although born in New Orleans, Mia began her rapping career in Queens, New York as part of New York Incorporated, which disbanded after only four years. She then returned to New Orleans and met with Master P, an aspiring rapper and producer who signed her to his record label, No Limit.".   "That's not correct and I am tired of people telling me that I used to live in New York and started my career there," Mia X said by phone recently noting that she never lived in New York - always in New Orleans. So how did this misinformation get out there in the first place?  "I think it was someone at VH1 who first got it wrong in a story about me," Mia X said. It turns out it was John Bush - writer for All Music Guide who got it wrong but then all the other websites listed above (Yahoo, AOL, VH1) plus many others, including whoever entered the artist's Wikipedia information, all copied the erroneous bio.  The original mistake came about apparently based on the fact that one of the members (Denny D) of New York Inc. was from New York - but he lived in New Orleans before returning to New York - according to Mia X.   So for the record here is the updated, accurate bio on Mia X c/o the AMOEBLOG.:  

AMOEBLOG:   How long have you worked at Amoeba Music Berkeley and what exactly is your job there?
 
DEAN SANTOMIERI:   I started working in the record business in 1971 when I dropped out of SUNY Buffalo. I moved to the Bay Area in 1975, and although I thought I was through with the record business, unemployment was high and my friend Ivy got me a job at Tower Records in Berkeley.   In November 1990, I visited Marc (one of the Amoeba owners) the first weekend Amoeba opened and he offered me a job. I thought about it over the weekend then gave my two employers, Tower and Revolver Records, notice and started two weeks later. This would be late November or early December 1990. A year later I took a job running the Media Center at the California College of Arts, but continued to work Saturdays at Amoeba. In 1996, I left CCA and went back to Amoeba full time. I am a buyer and I work in the classical department. Most of my time is spent helping customers and pricing used CDs.

 

AMOEBLOG:   What makes working at Amoeba unique compared to other jobs you've had?                

DEAN SANTOMIERI:      I could say many things, but Amoeba’s generosity in accommodating its employees stands out, for example, many of us are touring musicians and are graciously given time off. But the lengths to which the owners, managers and Amoeba employees have gone to help each other in time of need is what I find most unique about Amoeba. It is also what makes me most proud about working here. We live in a time when the escalating cost of health care, salaries and pensions have caused companies to drastically reduce or eliminate benefits, but what the Amoeba family has done for Dax Pierson (Amoebite pictured above who was in a serious auto accident while on tour with his band) and others is unlike anything I have ever seen.

Mad brothers know his name....It's a daily operation

These infamous hip-hop words (above) are among some of the numerous memorable lyrics uttered by GURU (Gifts Unlimited Rhymes Universal) over DJ Premier's track on the February 1991 Gang Starr single "Just To Get A Rep" (Chrysalis/EMI) which, with "Who's Gonna Take The Weight" on the single's flip side,  is a true hip-hop classic!   Same for the January 1991 Gang Starr ablum, "Step In The Arena" - that "Rep" was culled from - each a key part of hip-hop's legacy with each phrase and rhyme known by heart to any true hip-hop fan.  Just to get a Rap harks from a time (late 80's/early 90's) that many agree was the "golden age of hip-hop" and a time that is very close to my heart as a longtime hip-hop fan.   And listening to Just to Get A Rep again  (see the video below and read the lyircs under video screen)  - brings back memories of that time when the single and the album had just dropped and when, like most new hip-hop albums back then, was brimming with amazing new hip-hop joints that (as a DJ) I was dying to play.  At the time I was doing Bay Area hip-hop radio and TV shows and interviewed Gang Starr many times. It was no big deal back then.   Back then (pre Dre's Chronic which ushered a new more mainstream era in rap's consumption) rap had still not gone 100% fulltime mainstream.  Meaning that if you were a Bay Area DJ on such independent small stations as KUSF, KALX, KZSU, KPOO, KPFA, or KFJC you could get artists like Gang Starr to make a live appearance on your show with little effort (today you are competing with David Letterman and People magazine).   Back at that time Guru and Premo made numerous trips to the Bay when they used to come to the Bay regularly to perform (EG at one of Dave Paul's BOMB Hip-Hop Showcases at the DNA) and do the rounds of local radio stations and retail outlets (big up to Leopolds in Berkeley and T's Wauzi at Eastmont Mall in East Oakland). If you have any memories of this hip-hop classic or wish to nominate one of your personal fave hip-hop classics - please do so below in the COMMENTS. thanks!