Saturday, April 20th marked the sixth annual Record Store Day (RSD), the holiest of holy days in the record store biz. Of course, Amoeba was the hub of action in San Francisco as we are the Mecca of many a music fiend. Additionally, because the Universe works in mysterious ways, April 20th (4/20) also happens to mark the celebration of a particular herb important to many San Franciscans. Like peanut butter and jelly, the two holidays meshed together on Haight Street, creating a mystical sandwich of epic proportions.

The first Record Store Day fans on the scene lined up at 4:30am outside the doors of Amoeba San Francisco, which is pretty admirable considering the store was not scheduled to open to the public until 10:30am! Early risers were rewarded with scoring the limited edition RSD release they came for and were the firsts to get our special limited run commemorative t-shirt, which was being silk screened right on the stage by our friends at Free Gold Watch. The proceeds from the t-shirt sales will go to the SF Rock Project, which is a performance-based music school for kids age 8-18!

If you missed out on the fun, watch this video below and check out these great pictures taken by our in-house photographer! It's just like being there.

Also check out our selection of limited edition Record Store Day items for sale on Amoeba.com HERE and drop by or call Amoeba to see what RSD gems are remaining. 

The countdown continues! With the sixth annual Record Store Day just around the corner, all three Amoeba locations are gearing up for the biggest and best one yet! If you are reading this Amoeblog post, then you probably have already celebrated a few of these and know that this is our Xmas. It's the one day of the year that hundreds of independently owned music stores across the world simultaneously unite with the purpose of celebrating their culture and the unique place that they occupy in both their local communities and the world. THINK GLOBAL, PEOPLE. 

Special vinyl, DVD, and CD releases are made exclusively for this holy day! This stuff is LIMITED and is destined to go up in value (for people who value limited, exclusive, and amazing stuff). Find out just what sort of exclusive stuff I'm talking about by viewing or downloading this RSD EXCLUSIVE RELEASES PDF. You'll also want to know what's happening at the Amoeba closest to YOU, so check out what we have planned for you record fans and fiends...

 

• Hundreds of limited-edition Record Store Day titles.

• Record Store Day Gift Bags (with purchase, while supplies last)

All photos by Kaitlin Layher

With a line forming around the block, through the McDonald's parking lot and down Waller Street, Record Store Day 2012 today (April 21st) at Amoeba San Francisco was the best-attended one yet! As we discussed before, Record Store Day is not taken lightly amongst discerning music collectors and Amoebites alike, and this year we all felt the rosy glow of the True Meaning of Record Store Day as the doors were flung open to the excited crowd at 10:30am. As you'll see in these accompanying photos and the video below, special limited edition releases were what brought these souls together, but the instantly-made friendships between like-minded Amoeba patrons spoke to the higher purpose of RSD.

Also in the spirit of giving (and collecting limited edition stuff!), Free Gold Watch was on the Amoeba stage screen printing the two winning designs from our first-ever design contest! The shirts went FAST, but we still have a few tote bags at the registers. If you are interested, act fast before they are gone! Proceeds of t-shirt sales will go to the kids at SF Rock Project, because children are our future! Donate well and let them show the way.

HEY BAY AREA! OMG, as the kids used to say last week. By the looks of that countdown widget above, Record Store Day 2012 is nearly upon us! What's Record Store Day, you say? Where have you been since 2008?! Under a rawk?

Record Store Day is our Chrismukkah! It's our Gay Days at Disneyland! It's better than Shark Week. It might even be better then Werewolf Day, if there was such a thing. Officially, "Record Store Day is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music." And how! Special vinyl and CD releases are made exclusively for this holy day! This stuff is LIMITED and is destined to go up in value (for people who value limited, exclusive, amazing stuff). Find out just what sort of exclusive stuff I'm talking about by viewing, downloading, or having tattooed on your soul this RSD EXCLUSIVE RELEASES PDF! Print it out and bring it with you. Share with neighbors. 

But the spirit of RSD isn't just about what you can buy (although that's pretty great). It's also about what you can DO at each of our Amoeba locations! We've got all manner of fun awaiting you...and it starts the minute our doors open!

Last week, while visiting the San Francisco Amoeba Music store, standing in the hip-hop aisle gazing at its thousands upon thousands of vinyl and CD titles I found myself drooling in awe. The seemingly endless selection is like an encyclopedia of hip-hop, which is what I mentioned to Luis (the store's hip-hop buyer), who offered to do a quick run-through video tour (above) of Amoeba SF's truly amazing hip-hop section for those who have not recently or ever visited the Haight Street store. This section offers the most comprehensive Bay Area rap selection (including tons of DVD titles) I have ever seen -- thanks in large part to Luis, who really knows and cares about the Bay's homegrown hip-hop flava.

One aisle over from hip-hop is the soul / r&b section and it is damn good, too, with an exhaustive selection of soul from the very latest back to the classics of bygone decades. In that section I ran into Dr. Goldstein of Free Gold Watch (the nearby Haight district store that makes some of Amoeba's T-shirts and was featured on the Amoeblog last week) and knowing his love for both soul and Amoeba I asked if he would do a quick run through tour of the Amoeba SF soul section. He obliged (video below) and made the very good point, especially in these MP3 happy days, about how when you buy a CD or record you are getting an artifact -- not to mention much higher quality audio.