This week our Hollywood store will unleash a massive collection of rare library LPs. For those of you who might be a little confused as to what exactly library/production records are, these LPs contain music produced and owned by production music companies, who licensed the music to film, television, radio, record producers and other composers. The music was produced with the most accurate attention to a generic style or context, so that it would fit with any precise musical needs of the user.  This is a rare opportunity to browse bin after bin of obscurities from all the famous and sought-after production library companies including but not limited to De Wolfe, KPM, Colorsound, Sonoton, Hibou, Spectrum, CREA, Valentino, Intersound, Telemusic, Boosey & Hawkes, Bruton, Intl. SFX, Chappell.  This collection consists of all genres and styles of music, from psychedelic rock and jazz to electronic and symphonic background scores, ethnic styles are represented and there are plenty of LPs featuring solo instruments such as drums, synths, bass, guitars & more. Please check out the buy stuff section on our website for more of these titles.

Last Saturday marked the end of my nearly eight years of employment at Amoeba Music Hollywood.

Okay – right away I can hear your breathing start to quicken and your heart-rate speed, so let me say right off that I will still be contributing to the Amoeblog. I struck a deal with management that, in exchange for writing my thoroughly researched and factually accurate lies and nonsense as I have been, I will be permitted access to the Amoeba Music break-room for all the free coffee I can drink from the hours of 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm, every Tuesday. Jealous?!?

A lot of people have been asking me what I’ll be doing now that I’ll no longer be working retail. My answer is simple.

Anyway, I want to share some of the sounds that have been weakening my knees for a while now; specifically, harmonizing vocal groups. (To be clear, I’m going to focus on more “popular vocal” groups of yesteryear – doo wop delights like The Flamingos and modern… err… marvels such as Color Me Badd will not be included.)

To start, let’s listen to one of my favorite harmonizing vocal groups of all time, The Ravens.

The Ravens
(...well, actually, it's just a picture of them on your computer)

After confusing our poor customers for the last three years, we settled on a home for all World Music clearance CDs. No more moving the World Music clearance sections from one spot of the section to next, or for that matter, from the top bins to the under the bins. World Music clearance is now located smack dab in the middle of the section, between where the Latin section ends and where the Brazil/African section begins. An entire row of World Music clearance CDs priced to move -- nothing over 2.99 and as low a buck! For those who do not know the drill, if you buy four red tag clearance CDs you get the cheapest one free. That means on average you can take home four CDs for around ten bucks or less.

From Aterciopelados to Zulu Spear, the section is always full. We have a big selection of known and unknown gems on such World Music labels as Real World, Putumayo, Six Degrees, Nacional, Island/Palm, Ahi-Na-Ma, Rough Guide and World Circuit. It’s a great place to find out of print CDs without having to pay the ridiculous collectors' prices listed on E-Bay and Amazon. It is also a great place to find a promo CD of a fairly new release or some obscure group that is huge in Argentina but unknown in Los Angeles. Yes, there is plenty of gold in that sea of clearance CDs, and no one knows more than L.A. DJ and promoter DJ Tonearm.

If you haven't heard of Garfunkel and Oates yet, you probably will soon. (No, it's not a long-lost collaboration between folk singer Art Garfunkel and pop/soul singer John Oates.) Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci are two actresses and singers also known as the musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates. They've appeared on Raising Hope, Scrubs, Last House on the Left, Bored to Death, and The Big Bang Theory. They've performed on The Tonight Show and were just signed to a pilot deal with HBO. They also recently hosted our monthly charity auction at Amoeba Hollywood to celebrate the release of their new comedy album, All Over Your Face.

Riki and Kate met at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles and began working together on a short film called Imaginary Larry. As Garfunkel and Oates they create satirical folk songs covering topics like same sex marriage ("Sex With Ducks"), gently telling a guy they aren't interested ("I Would Never [Have Sex With You]"), and the joys of pregnancy ("Pregnant Women Are Smug"). You can buy All Over Your Face here or at Amoeba Hollywood.