So many amazing artists have performed live at Amoeba over the years!

While they are at our stores we like to take some time to get to know 'em a little better by having interviews, which we capture on video because we want you to have as much access as us! Check out just sampling of the MANY great artist interviews we have on our website below! For even more interviews click here! 

The webcasts started back in June of last year, but I just heard about them. Directed by Austin Lynch and Jason S., a 100 so-normal-they're-surreal citizens of these United States are interviewed in situ by Angie Schmidt and Julie Pepin. The Interview Project covers 20,000 miles and selects potential subjects as "they're found." Each interview is about 2 minutes long and introduced by David Lynch (father to one of the directors):

They go to places like Marfa, Texas:


Which is where No Country for Old Men was largely set. And they interview Texans like Doc Whitman:


Whose Steve Ditko-styled hands suggest a lifelong struggle against nature and industry:

They, of course, meet other people from other places, too, if you're into that sort of thing:

No, I haven't given up on talking Inglourious Basterds to death; I'm almost finished, cross my heart. It's just that Dave Fiore distracted me with thinking about how I'd rank Lynch's feature films (The Grandmother and The Alphabet are probably my favorite shorts). Nothing will pull me into a conversation faster than my favorite living director. One thing I've noticed about my enjoyment of his films is that over time it's negatively correlated with my initial reaction: the less I liked them on first viewing, the more I like them with each re-viewing, and vice versa. Another is that I prefer the ratio-narrative Lynch to the one who lets his dreams/"ideas" take him wherever (granted, many, including Fiore, don't much agree that my preferred Lynch even exists). So, in order of my enjoyment/rewatchability/hours of mental masturbation afforded:


Well, actually, it's the first half and finale with Bill Pullman's Fred Madison that place the film on top. For sure, LH contains some of Lynch's weakest moments: Balthazar Getty's Pete Dayton ("you liked it, hunh?"), music chosen by Trent Reznor (Bowie's "Lost Highway" over Payne's -- really?), and a menacing cameo by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy (about as spooky as W.A.S.P. in Ghoulies 2). Nevertheless, most of Lynch's major themes receive their fullest and most direct expression here: Vertig-inous duality (Renee vs. Alice), repression and oneiric escapism (the hallways, Fred's fugue state as a release from his impotence and murderous deed), and the demands of the always elusive Real (the intrusive mirror, phone calls, video tapes and, of course, Robert Blake's Virgil, the white-faced Mystery Man). Some poor casting and music supervision can't ultimately diminish Lynch and co-writer Barry Gifford's perfect construct.

My pal Kyle and I had a chance to interview the best living director. Here 'tis: