Recently we held our first-ever design contest for our 2012 Record Store Day T-shirt. We were blown away by the creativity and effort everyone put into the contest...not to mention the sheer volume of entries! We received over 200 designs! It was a really tough decision but after much deliberation we are proud to reveal the two winning designs by Adam Thiesen and Erika Themaras!

You can pick up your limited edition T-shirt on Record Store Day, April 21st, at any Amoeba store. We'll be silk screening the shirts live at Amoeba Hollywood and Amoeba San Francisco thanks to our friends at Junk Food Clothing, Family Industries, Anti- / Epitaph Records and SF's Free Gold Watch!

See our full list of Record Store Day events.

	Design by Adam Thiesen.
	Design by Erika Themaras.

Mastodon have just unveiled a brand new video that captures the much-revered metal band in their best setting - live in concert and killing it on the song "Dry Bone Valley" which is the second single from the band's critically acclaimed Mike Elizondo-produced album The Hunter - the band's fifth studio album that was released by Roadrunner Records via Reprise/Warner in late September.

This is the second video for this song: the first been the Tim Biskup created music video (see below). The above live video of the song was recorded at the Atlanta, GA band's recent sold-out show at London's Brixton Academy on February 11th.  The new video arrives just in time for diehard Mastodon fans (and there are many of those!) who have been anxiously awaiting their anticipated 2012 North American tour that kicks off this week featuring the super-skilled hard rock ensemble's Troy Sanders (bass guitar/vocals), Brent Hinds (guitars/vocals), Bill Kelliher (guitars), and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals).

The new US/Canada tour begins tomorrow night (04/04) in Portland, ME and ends on May 12th in Atlanta, GA. Unfortunately for Cali fans the hectic tour, with co-headliners the Swedish progressive metal band Opeth plus opening act Ghost (who are well worth checking out), includes only two Golden State dates so if you don't already have them, so get tickets now. Those two Cali dates are just three weeks away: Thursday April 26th in LA at the Gibson Amphitheatre and the following night (Friday April 27th) at the Fox Theatre in Oakland.  Pick up Mastodon's The Hunter in each of the three Amoeba Music stores on directly from the online Amoeba.com shop.

Super Bowl isn't the only event happening today. On a more bittersweet note around the same time as the Giants/Patriots game over in the UK is a big J Dilla fundraising tribute party - just one of numerous events scheduled this month, on both sides of the Atlantic, that will honor the greatly revered late hip-hop producer and emcee who died six years ago around this time (Feb 10th, 2006) following a battle with lupus. Fittingly money raised at the British Dilla event today, which is titled J Dilla Changed My Life and will be held at Scala in London, will be donated to both Lupus UK and the J Dilla Foundation with all the DJs performing for free to benefit both causes. Also in the house today will be Ma Dukes - the mother of the late great artist born  James Dewitt Yancey and was also known as Jay Dee (not to be confused with an early 90's European house music act of same name). For more exact details on today's London event, that will be hosted by Phat Kat, visit the official Facebook event page.

Other J Dilla tribute events this month include ones in Detroit, LA, Baltimore, San Francisco, and New York where on Feb 19th at the Brooklyn Bowl the sixth annual Donuts Are Forever celebration will start at 8pm and will feature such talents as DJ Neil Armstrong, Prince Paul, and the hip-hop group Tanya Morgan. Of this NYC accidentally annual event Derreck "Dee Phunk" Johnson,  a partner in Rare Form - the event's organizer, said, "We never went into this planning for it to be an annual series. The original Donuts Are Forever in 2007 was a commemoration of the first anniversary of his passing.  But when we witnessed the turnout, we were dumbfounded.  We were fans and we knew there were a ton of other fans out there...but just seeing the physical manifestation of that love blew us away.  And five years later...here we are on number six." Details.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year, is fast approaching. The folks at Record Store Day have helped to organize a series of exclusive items just for indie record stores to be released on Black Friday. The list is pretty big, so we wanted to highlight some of the titles and give you the chance to view or print the entire list (PDF) so you can be prepared on Friday November 25. Just a heads up that the stock may differ between the three stores as well. 


We will hold exclusive RSD releases behind our front counters. Line will form outside the store no earlier than 8 a.m. on Saturday. Product is limited to stock on hand and available to customers on a first come, first served basis. Limit one per title per customer. Store opens at 10:30 a.m.

Huge Black Friday Turntable Sale at Amoeba Hollywood! All turntables 20% off, plus even bigger deals on Audio-Technica LP 60 and Crosley Keepsake turntables. Limited to stock on hand. Friday 11/25 only.

We will feature exclusive RSD releases on our sales floor. Product is limited to stock on hand and available to customers on a first come, first served basis. Limit one per title per customer. Stores open at 10:30 a.m.