I have been fortunate to witness amazing events. I have been blessed to be at the right place at the right time, sort of. I also have unbelievable bad timing. When I heard Paul McCartney was going to perform at Amoeba, I was excited until I heard which day he was going to play. The evening Sir Paul was to play Amoeba, I had an opening night for Nativo! A new club that I spin at. This wasn’t the first time a legend was performing and I had to miss it. Once I had a show the same night I had free tickets to see Tom Waits perform acoustic in front of a small crowd. I went to the show anyways but I had to bail to my own gig after a few songs. Another time I made the mistake of making a date during a SXSW conference, not knowing the time I made the date was the same time Johnny Cash was performing at Emo’s in front of 300 people, me being one of them. Once again I had to leave early after a few songs to meet my date and then I couldn’t get back in. On top of that, nothing happened between the girl and myself, ever.

I showed up to Amoeba early, hoping to catch at very least Paul McCartney’s sound check. The Amoeba bosses told us that we could watch sound check just as long as we weren’t gawking at Paul during the check. Having done many sound checks myself I always hated people gawking at me while I was sound checking. I’m usually trying to get the gallos out of my throat or awkwardly playing a part just to get a sound and it never sounds pleasant. I would make it a point, from one musician to another, to respect their wishes and not be a fan. I would continue to get the store ready for the in-store and not stop and stare.

The band was jamming on stage. Paul McCartney was nowhere to be found. I continued to take down box sets that might inhibit people from viewing the performance. The band blasted into “Ride My Car” I had my head turned while they were playing the song. I figured one of Paul’s band mates was taking the lead vocal since Paul wasn’t around. I turned around and there he was, singing and playing that familiar Vox bass. I resisted the urge to go closer to the stage and continued to work. But soon the fan in me and in the rest of the staff won out. Slowly, like cats creeping towards some foreign object in curiosity, we all edged closer to the stage. Soon, none of us were working, only watching the “show” that was supposed to be sound check.

Remember the movie Friday when Smokey (Chris Tucker) says, "It's Friday, you ain't got no job and you ain't got sh*t to do" ? Well, summer is here and if you don't got sh*t to do, walk into Amoeba on a Friday night. The store is buzzing with activity.

I thought about this when I was working Friday night. I usually don't work on Friday nights but I switched a shift in order to get the previous night off. At first I started plotting with a customer how to ditch work at go Grand Performances in downtown L.A. to check out Ojos De Brujo, who were playing for free. There were so many people in the store at that time; we figured no one would notice if I stepped out for an hour or two. But soon there was so much going on in the store I had forgotten about ditching work.

There was a grip of people not only shopping, but to check out an in-store performance by Carina Round, followed by a DJ set by Amoeba’s very own DJ Jun.

Carina Round wasn't really my cup of tea. She's good, that I can tell. With the in-stores, it's never about whether the acts are talented or not. If they are playing here, they are. It just comes down to people's individual taste. Talk to another Amoebite about the same performance and you'll get a whole different reaction. That's the beauty of Amoeba. If we all  had the same tastes we'd be boring.

After Carina's set, Jun started his set with Barry de Vorzon’s Theme from The Warriors. His set was cinematic, playing soundtrack cuts mixed with electro-house instrumentals. Jun ended his set with the Vincent Price spoken piece from Michael Jackson’s Thriller (one of the bonus tracks on the re-mastered version of the classic album) and blended it into Italian prog-rockers Goblin’s spooky theme song from Suspiria. I liked that very much.

out now-
up bustle and out head to monterey, mx
and
mix it up with the control machete crew. reggae+cumbia style electronica.

highly recomended!

available in the electronica section.

      out june 26th

hip-hop en español via spain.
a spaniard's lisp
never sounded so cool






out july 26th

electronic cumbia, rock and mambo via mexico.

¡que chido!





out now: greatest hits +three
bonus tracks from cuba's best hip-hop group. A must have if you miss the boat on their previous releases