One day at Amoeba Hollywood I proclaimed that Aztec Camera's 1983 release High Land, Hard Rain was one of the best records of the '80s. This single statement eventually led to over 200 Amoebites ranking their top 10 favorite albums from the ‘80s.

From the beginning we realized that it was impossible for most of us to condense our favorites from all genres into a tiny top ten list. So, we limited our lists to Rock/Pop and its sub-genres like punk, metal, goth, and new wave. Even so, it was a difficult selection process because not only are there hundreds of amazing records to consider, there is also the added dynamic of time.

The '80s were a long time ago and the music has had many years to gestate. We have a deep sense of nostalgia and sentiment with these albums as our fondest memories are associated with them. These are albums we LOVE.

- Henry Polk

P.S. We'll be posting new additions to the '80s list project from Amoeba staff members on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. See all entries in our ‘80s list series.

P.P.S. The '80s List Book is available for sale at Amoeba Hollywood.


Heather Long
Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
Husker Du – Zen Arcade (1984)
Judas Priest – British Steel (1980)
X – Los Angeles (1980)
Pretenders – Pretenders (1980)
The Cure – Disintegration (1989)
The Clash – London Calling (1980)
Duran Duran – Rio (1982)
Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast (1982)
Adam And The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier (1980)

On Tuesday, July 27, Amoeba will present a book signing, talk and 3-D presentation with Brian May and Elena Vidal for their book, A Village Lost and Found from 7-9pm at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles! You no doubt know of Brian May for his tenure as lead guitarist in a little band called Queen. He is less known for his work as an astrophysicist (!) -- and his new book, along with co-author Vidal, a photographic historian, brings together a collection of stereoscopic photos called "Scenes in Our Village" by T.R. Williams.

Read much more about this signing event and also the contents of A Village Lost and Found right here!

The new, cool looking line of Amoeba Music guitar picks may be priced at just 50 cents per pick, but in the world of guitar pick collecting some avid collectors will pay many times that amount for a heavily desired pick. As reported by the Pick Collecting Quarterly about a month ago, one guitar pick collecting fanatic forked over $1063 in an eBay auction for a Kiss (circa 1974) black on white Ace Frehley / Pastore Music guitar pick. Yes, as any serious guitar player will tell you, guitar pick collecting can become as much of an obsession as guitar playing itself.

Guitar picks, which are a type of plectrum designed for use on a guitar but often used to play other string instruments too, such as mandolin or banjo, come in all kinds of shapes, styles, and are made from numerous types of materials including plastic, rubber, felt, glass, tortoiseshell, and stone, and can range in price accordingly. Although picks have been around for centuries (early ones been made out of bone, shell, wood, metal, amber and other materials), it wasn't until the 1920's that they were mass produced. A relatively more recent phenomenon is the customized pick. Traditionally made by rock bands, with Rick Nelson of Cheap Trick been one of the first to famously toss out dozens of them during concerts, more recently entities such as Microsoft, MTV, Verizon, and Budweiser, have all emblazoned their names on guitar picks. Right now there are thousands upon thousands of customized guitar picks out there with legions of avid collectors following them.

So why is Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County Arizona in a music blog? Because of the band Queen, of course!

For those who aren't familiar with Sheriff Joe, his heavy-handed approach to law enforcement has caused much controversy over the last fifteen years. He has won fans in conservative Arizona, but to the rest of the world, he is seen as one of the worst violators of human rights. According to Phoenix New Times, from 2004 through November 2007, he was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U.S. District Court and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts, with more than $50 million in claims being filed. His tough on crime tactics have crossed over into immigration issues. After Arizona passed a law that would make it a felony to smuggle undocumented immigrants into Arizona, Arpaio took it upon himself to instruct his sheriff's deputies and members of his civilian posse (known as The Minutemen) to arrest “illegal aliens.” They soon took to harassing any persons of color without regards to their legal status. Earlier this year The Department of Justice began investigating Arpaio's targeting of Latinos and Spanish-speaking people. Two months ago, The Department of Homeland Security removed the authority of Arpaio's deputies to make immigration arrests in the field.

Arpaio is a master at eluding questions in the vein of Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon, another master of the game. However, on Monday night, Arpaio was being interviewed "Meet-the-Press" style at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Protestors soon tired of him dodging questions and broke out into a cacophonous version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" to disrupt the interview. Check it out below.

Happy Thanksgiving, Amoeblog readers! Above is Gloria Gobbler's reinterpretation of "You Can't Hurry Love" from a turkey's perspective, with reworked lines such as, "You can't gobble me on Thanksgiving Day. Why not eat tofu? Feed yourself the vegan way." And if you enjoy Thanksgiving themed, turkey perspective song parodies done to animation, check out the reworking of MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" -- "U Can't Stuff This" or The Giblets' reinterpretation of Queen's "We Will Rock You" -- "We Will Eat You."  

And don't forget that tomorrow, Friday, November 27th, is when Amoeba kicks off its annual Holiday Toy Drive at all three Amoeba Music stores. When you come in to Amoeba over the next few weeks (cut off dates vary from store to store) we strongly encourage you to spread the love to those not as well off this year by bringing in a new, unwrapped toy for some needy child in your community.

And to help you feel even better about donating a toy for some poor kid, as a thank you for your generosity, Amoeba will give you a $2 coupon valid for any item over $3.99! All toys collected will be distributed to a local charity: Amoeba Hollywood will donate to Five Acres, Amoeba San Francisco will collect toys for Compass Community Services, and Amoeba Berkeley will provide toys to A Safe Place. For full details on the Amoeba toy drive run dates and the charities involved, click here.