Michelle
2 years employment
Floor Gal

Miss Ess: I know you are quite the artist. Whose music inspires your visual art? What do you like to listen to while you draw/paint?

Michelle: I have to listen to music when I draw or paint or am making something. What works best for me at the moment is drone-y, abstract, experimental sounds/different noises. I'm really into Philip Jeck's Surf album this week for sure. 
 
ME: What song describes your life perfectly right now?

Michelle: [What] describes my life perfectly right now is Reverend Al Green! Wooo hoooo! Of course! I'm in love and Al Green pops up wherever I go. One time we went to our favorite breakfast diner and they played Al Green songs the whole time we were there. Fancy beer plus fancy chocolate plus fancy Al Green equals good quality couple time.
 
ME: How did you arrive at Amoeba?

Michelle: When I graduated and got my bachelor of fine arts I quit my job at Borders that I'd [had] for my whole 5 years of college; [I was] in charge of the music department. 

Then, I applied to both the Berkeley and Haight [Street] Amoebas; I love music, it fit my schedule, and [there are] creative people all over the place. [That] is what led me to the store. I'd cut high school just to go to shop at Amoeba; I always admired the people working there too.
 
I wanted to work at the Haight [Street] store but Berkeley hired me first. I was there for about half a year and transferred over to the Haight [Street] store and here I am now.
 
ME: What was it like to meet Mick Jones when he came in the store?

John Garcia
Over 10 years employment, spread across all 3 stores!
New Product Buyer

Miss Ess: What is your pick for best release of 2008 so far?
 
John Garcia: Well, so far it is probably the rather weighty 4-CD box set on the Cleanfeed label that brought together multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton and guitarist Joe Morris together for the first time (Four Improvisations [Duo] 2007). Each disc is one solid uninterrupted hour of improvisation between these two masterful performers. They are both busy players that ironically have a keen sense of space, but they use that space very differently. Listening to them attempt to resolve those differences on the fly is big part of the fun of the album. The critic Whitney Balliett is credited with calling jazz "the sound of surprise." Under the best of circumstances, all great music has that quality somewhere.
 
Also, I am also still quite taken with the new album by the British folk group Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, Bairns. I wrote about it in the upcoming Music We Like (Fall 2008) and just as the Braxton/Morris album is complex and flitting, Unthank & Co. are relatively simple, slow-moving and austere. These qualities are their strength, vocally and instrumentally.
 
Oh yeah, and that Soft Machine DVD, Alive In Paris 1970 is pretty remarkable visually, musically and historically. It documents a performance by the rare quintet version of the band recorded for a then-new half-hour French TV music series. They were the first band featured in the series. Their set was so popular that they aired a second show using the unused footage they shot for the first show. Most of the cameras are onstage and backstage, so some of the angles are unusually intimate and intense. It is only slightly marred by the occasional overdubbed cheers and applause that, apparently, were used to disguise some of the sound editing that needed to be done. At least they resisted using the "psychedelic" special effects that intrude on so much documentary and televised footage of the period.

Don
8ish years employment ("It's all a blur...")
Floor Manager Extraordinaire

Miss Ess: What have you been listening to lately?

Don: I've been listening to Adele, Sex & the City Soundtrack, Duffy and the new Kathy Griffin LP [For Your Consideration].

ME: What dance track changed your life?

Don: Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time was the dance album that changed my life. Not only because I realized I liked dance music but it was also the time I realized I like boys.

What album or song is your favorite to dance around to?

Wow what is my favorite dance lp? Hhhmm-- there are so many, but the stand out is probably "Dance This Mess Around" by the B52's. It's so much fun.



What lesser-known or forgotten artists should people seek out in the dance section?

Billy Ray Martin or Sophie Ellis-Bextor are two that spring to mind. Billy Ray is from Electribe 101 which was an amazing band also. Sophie is a current British pop dance diva.

Andrew Lux
3 years employment
Man About Amoeba


ME: So, what brought you to Amoeba?  How did you end up working here?