To know Anticon is to love Anticon. I’m sure casual Anticon fans exist; but by and large we are an obsessive breed; comparative, in some ways, to those that follow the Manson Family—you mention a trivial fact and eyes widen, speech accelerates with enthusiasm, rattling off dates, facts, and slogans. Anticon is that level of obsession without the creepiness—finding a fellow devotee is finding a new friend for life.

Anticon is an independent hip-hop record label, initially based in the Bay Area and founded in the late ‘90s. Similar to other hip-hop “crews,” they’ve released records as individual bands or performers, but other artists make guest appearances on nearly every release (of which there are MANY. Every artists is wildly prolific). Founding members of Anticon include Doseone, Jel, Sole, Alias, Pedestrian, Odd Nosdam, Telephone Jim Jesus, and Why?. Combined project acts of these individual artists include Themselves, Subtle, cLOUDDEAD, Greenthink, and Deep Puddle Dynamics. The combinations continue: Themselves + German indie band The Notwist = 13 & God, and Sole’s solo project that is now post-Anticon is Sole and the Skyrider Band.

Photos by Kaitlin Layher
Words by Spenser Russell-Snyder

In this week 20 years ago, the first Amoeba Music opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA! I'm sure none of you need a history lesson, but just in case you do, head over to our "History" page and educate yourself on all that is Amoeba Music! On Sunday, November 14th, Amoeba Berkeley had a birthday blowout celebration featuring in-store performances, DJs, prizes, cookies, and a 20% off used item sale! Here are some pictures from throughout the day:

Kicking off the day at noon was Amoeba Berkeley floorperson Kyle, who spun old time rock 'n' roll, garage, blues, and soul records.

The Berkeley store's Grace had people spinning the prize wheel all day! Also at the prize table, we held an hourly raffle, with all proceeds going to The Berkeley Free Clinic. Prizes from the raffles included "Lunchbox" amp from ZT Amplifiers, a year's worth of Peets Coffee, a $100 Amoeba gift certificate, plus other rad items!

If you are in the Bay Area today put a stop at Amoeba Music in Berkeley at the top of your to-do list! All day today, Sunday, November 14th, the famed East Bay Amoeba store that opened 20 years ago this month is celebrating with a big sale and non-stop entertainment. In addition to 20% off all used items and lots of other enticing store bargains and goodies (EG gift bags for customers who purchase over $20 + Amoeba Prize Wheel with fabulous prizes such as a collectible lunchbox amp from ZT Amplifiers or limited edition Amoeba 20th Birthday T-shirts) there will be non-stop music by DJs and other performers.

DJs include party rocker and turntable wrecker DJ Pam The Funkstress of The Coup, who, as you can see from the concert clip above, is an amazing DJ to witness live. Her set begins at 3pm today. Other spin masters today include two current Amoeba Berkeley staffers JoNasty (noon) and DJ Inti (at 1pm he will spin an exclusive "dollar bin" set), and two former Amoeba Berkeley staffers, DJ Platurn (6pm is when the famed Oakland Fader DJ kicks off the day's closing set) and DoseOne. Anticon's DoseOne (born Adam Drucker and a renowned emcee) is such an incredibly gifted & multi-talented individual. His DJ set starts at 2pm and is followed by a meet/greeting/signing session. In concert with his groups Themselves and Subtle he often simultaneously raps as he plays synth, sampler, and/or keyboard.

Twenty years ago this month, Amoeba Berkeley opened its doors and we began this mystical journey that continues and has spread over the years to San Francisco, Hollywood and around the world! For the next few weeks, we will be celebrating here on the blog with various posts -- an interview with one of the store's owners, Marc, about opening Amoeba; pics of the Berkeley store while it was still under construction and in its first year; special top 10 lists from the employees who have been with us the longest; highlights of some of our most memorable instores; and today, we kick things off with testimonials from various fabulous customers -- including Adam from Doseone, Good Word of BPos, Yoni Wolf from Why? and more!

Read on and check back for more additions over the next few weeks! To get info about the Anniversary Events scheduled at the Berkeley store on Nov 13 & 14 with DJs, live performances from Foxtails Brigade, and Lyrics Born and prize giveaways, click here! You can also get involved by entering our contest -- share your own Amoeba story for a chance to win a shopping spree and more! Read about it here. You can also read Part 2 of this Anniversary series, an interview with co-owner Marc Weinstein about getting the Berkeley store up and running, what Amoeba means to him and more right here!


Yoni Wolf of Why?

Today is the third and final day of the talent-packed, weekend-long Coachella Festival, which has been Amoeblogged about here intensively in the hella informative Coachella 2009 30/30 Initiative (30 Coachella Bands Featured in 30 Days) blog over the last few weeks leading up the annual diverse outdoor music festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, CA.

Rightfully dubbed by the UK music magazine NME as "probably the best festival in the world," today's (Sunday, April 19th) impressive lineup includes The Cure, Public Enemy (the recently reunited), Throbbing Gristle, Lupe Fiasco, Roni Size Represent, My Bloody Valentine, Groove Armada, K'NAAN, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Antony and the Johnsons, and Themselves, who I recently caught up with. I checked out their show (amazing!) and talked with member (and former Amoeba employee) Adam "Doseone" Drucker, who shares membership in the Oakland-based Anticon duo with fellow producer/emcee Jeff "Jel" Logan.

Although Jel and Doseone are both members of the group Subtle and are constantly producing together or just hanging out in the East Bay, where they both live, as the duo Themselves they had not performed or recorded together in six years until recently. They've just recorded an album that will drop in a couple of months or so, put together a kick-ass mix-CD, and have undertaken a national tour that ends today at Coachella. Then, on Friday (24th) they begin their European tour, starting in Paris, France. I caught up with them in NYC a couple of weeks ago when they played at Webster Hall and talked with Doseone about various things, including the Anticon group's ten-year anniversary. "We made up a ton of music we always wanted to make and one was a giant collaborative effort...with everyone we ever shared air with and that was something we always wanted to do in a million ways," said Dose-One of the new mix CD that includes such killer tracks as "Know That To Know This," featuring Aesop Rock. "There's nothing like an hour-long posse cut to clean the blood," he laughed. "And we finished our full-length, which is our kind of stoic little ten song banger for the ten year anniversary and [on it] every song has its place in the history of rap recording to us and our own personal history with respect to rap and how we make music these days. So, you know, it's a blast. It was great! It was like getting our fitted suits."