I've been attending the amazing WFMU Record Fair for the past four years, ever since I joined the unique freeform New Jersey radio station, and the one thing that is a given at this popular annual event is that you will always spot a ton of Amoeba bags floating around the weekend long event. This should not be too surprising, considering that both the WFMU Record Fair and Amoeba Music attract the same sort of person -- one who is extremely passionate about his/her music, and music collecting.  With hundreds of thousands of records and CDs (plus tons more stuff) being sold by over a hundred vendors at the expansive Metropolitan Pavilion venue in the Chelsea district of New York CIty, the three day WFMU Record Fair attracts people from all over the States and overseas who will travel to New York City just to attend this event. Many of these same folks will travel all the way to LA or the Bay to shop at Amoeba.

This time last year I reported here on the Amoeblog about the 2008 WFMU Record Fair, where Amoeba logo wearing music collecting fanatics included Nakajima, who had flown all the way to New York City from Japan specifically for the WFMU event. And at this year's event (Oct 23, 24, 25), which was "a success" according to WFMU Station Manager Ken Freedman, the instantly recognizable black record 100% cotton tote bags with the bright yellow & red Amoeba Music logos and store of origin's name were sighted all over the place.

1) Ghostface Killah Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City (Def Jam)

2) Crown CIty Rockers The Day After Forever (Gold Dust Media)

3) Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation/Atlantic)

4) Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Links Pt II (ICEAL)

5) Brother Ali Us (Rhymesayers)

Thanks for this week's Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Top Five chart go out to Tom at the Berkeley store where, in addition to updating the Amoeblog on the top selling new hip-hop albums, he reports that, as of yesterday,  the Telegraph Ave. store has, "got all the Halloween decorations up and it looks mighty spooky." What's spooky to me is how quickly the summer just flew by and the fact that it's almost Halloween again. Dang! Time really does fly. Case in point is Ghostface Killah -- it seems like it's only been a few years since the Wu-Tang Clan rapper dropped his first solo release, Ironman, but actually that release came out thirteen long hip-hop years ago, in 1996! His latest album, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City on Def Jam, which is this week's number hip-hop release at Amoeba, is actually the eighth solo release from the Wu rapper, who took his name from the 1979 kung fu film Mystery of Chessboxing.

San Francisco avant garde guitarist The Genie, who plays tonight at 111 Minna as part of a must-see, multi-artist show featuring the Lions of Kush from St. Croix, has long been connected to Amoeba Music in some form or fashion. Like many local independent artists, he has had all of his independent releases for sale at Amoeba Music. Beyond that, The Genie, who pioneered the 'scratch guitar" and who over the years has collaborated with numerous artists including Talvin Singh, who invited him to Europe earlier this year to perform, has also performed onstage at the San Francisco Amoeba Music. That was on July 16, 2004, for an instore performance to promote the release of The Genie's debut CD Rebel Music. Also that same year the artist appeared on the Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V with the track "Before The World Goes." In the time since then, The Genie has never strayed too far from Amoeba, it seems. Two years ago he was featured here on the Amoeblog and he is frequently spotted both inside Amoeba SF (usually digging for hard to find music) as well as right outside the Haight Street store, where he is known to have inspired impromptu performances. Check out the videos above and below, filmed recently outside the SF Amoeba when the artist pulled up in his ride right outside the store, popped some quarters in the parking meter, and proceeded to have an engaging sidewalk show ("Amoeba out-store," I guess you could call it, as opposed to an "in-store"), much to the delight of the small crowd that stopped, gathered and applauded loudly. I hadn't seen or talked with The Genie in a couple of years, so I was anxious to catch up with the always innovative artist to ask him about his music and also about tonight's show at 111 Minna.

          
                SCRATCH GUITAR MAESTRO

"It is guitar but a lot of the method is like turntablism" says The Genie, born Luis Monterrosa, the innovator of DJ influenced "scratch guitar"  music, who was brought to the attention of many Amoeba Music fans after he appeared two and a half years ago on the two-CD set Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V with his wonderful composition "Before The World Goes," which was culled from his own album Rebel Music.
                                                                   As I was just starting to assemble the elements of what would become the fifth volume in the Amoeba Music compilaiton  series, which showcases underground/indie artists -- mainly from California and many of them Amoeba Music employees -- Naomi (the marketing person at the San Francisco Amoeba store) told me about a few "must check out" artists for that upcoming collection. Knowing what impeccable taste Naomi has (much earlier she turned me onto Deerhoof long before it seemed anyone knew about them), I immediately dropped everything to check out the artists she recommended, including the Genie. And again she was right. The Genie is definitely a must check out artist!