AMOEBA ART SHOW 2012
Friday, May 4th
6pm - 11pm
2928 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA
MAP
In what has now become a Bay Area tradition, Amoeba Music throws killer annual art shows to exhibit

Michelle Guintu

Grace Cooper

Billy Sprague

Trixy Grace

and celebrate the creative works of its multi-talented staff from all three Amoeba locations. For our fifth annual Amoeba Art Show, we are taking over the future home of The Black Spring Cafe in sunny Oakland!

By Kaitlin

Growing up, I was never allowed to fiddle with the radio in the car. I listened to whatever my folks were listening to and that was that. I knew kids who would get in the car and change the music, turn it up, and I was a little jealous. In retrospect, I realize that I received a huge musical education in those car trips that I wouldn’t trade for a pile of gold. Seriously!

In my dad’s car was where I first heard the Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, and so on and so on. In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to share some of my memories about hearing these legendary, moving, and talented women.

I believe I first heard of Loretta Lynn when watching Coal Miner’s Daughter, the film based upon her life starring Sissy Spacek. She grew up dirt poor and skyrocketed to fame with an amazing voice and moving storytelling in her songs. She was a strong woman and sang about issues that real, working women dealt and still deal with such as cheating men, being a single mother, birth control, and divorce, among other themes.

by Sally
Davey Havoc pic by Audra, all other pics by Kaitlin.

Every year Record Store Day just gets bigger and bigger, and the craziness grows! Here in SF before we opened the line was INSANE outside our doors and the first person in line had been there since 6am! That's some dedication! Even more astounding, customers were calling Friday night and asking if they could camp out for prime spots on the big day!

At 10:30am on the button, the doors were opened and people swarmed into the treasure-laden vinyl aisles of Amoeba SF. There were hoardes of people packing the rows and surrounding the 7"s. Watch an awesome video below shot by Audra of the line and the vibe before the doors were flung open!

One of the many highlights of the recent Amoebapalooza North 2009 at the Mezzanine club in San Francisco (August 2nd) was the power-duo-- the $helbyville $helbyvilllains' all too short set in which talented San Francisco Amoebites Josh Pollock (guitar/vocals) and Kaitlin Layher (drums, above) effortlessly channeled the White Stripes. Even more impressive was the fact I later learned: that Kaitlin had only been playing the drums for a relatively short time and that this was the first time that she had ever played drums out in public. I recently caught up with Kaitlin to ask her about her personal experiences as a drummer, as well as about female drummers in general as part of the long running In Celebration of the Drum Amoeblog series.

Amoeblog: Who are among your favorite female drummers and why?

Kaitlin: My favorite female drummer currently drumming is Adrienne Davies of Earth. I love watching her controlled, deliberate movements.  She's hypnotizing. Moe Tucker of the Velvet Underground was amazing as well as Karen Carpenter. And, of course, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Meg White of The White Stripes. But you can't forget the all-girl groups, too! The Bangles and The Runaways were simply solid bands with solid drummers.