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New Kendrick Lamar CD

Kendrick Lamar’s excellent new album DAMN. is available now on CD.

New David Bowie EP

No Plan, featuring Bowie’s final recordings, is out now on indie exclusive 180gram color vinyl.

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Our New Music We Like Book Is Here

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Bookstore Day & Tabletop Day at Amoeba Hollywood

15% off books and tabletop games at Amoeba Hollywood Saturday, 4/29 in honor of Bookstore Day and Tabletop Day. View

Music of the Spheres in San Francisco

Join us for a night of music, feasting & social good, with performances by Zion I, the Kev Choice Ensemble & more, 4/28 at Grace Cathedral in SF. View

Baby DJ School at Amoeba Hollywood

Baby DJ School is hosting an 8-week class for kids age 2 months – 5 years at Amoeba Hollywood thru May 6. View

Record Store Crawl in Los Angeles

The Record Store Crawl returns to LA this summer! Record stores, beer, giveaways, swag, and a bus around town with other vinyl aficionados. View

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Gemma Ray - Amoeba Green Room Session

Watch Gemma Ray perform a set of moody torch song psychedelia, replete with her kitchen knife guitar playing, in the Amoeba Hollywood green room.

Weyes Blood - Green Room Session

Natalie Mering, AKA Weyes Blood, plays a gorgeous mini-set of acoustic songs that push the sound of 60's and 70's Laurel Canyon...

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May 4th 6pm - Hollywood

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Music We Like

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With its uplifting rhythm and melancholic mood, Future Islands' latest album is a consistent follow-up to the excellent Singles , which launched them into the mainstream's attention in 2014. Although the album is called The Far Field , the band hasn't strayed too far from their familiar territory, even while using their live drummer for the first time in the studio and adding some string arrangements. The result, thankfully, is more emotionally resonant and catchy synth-pop anthems with minimal, effective post-punk bass, atmospheric synths, and Samuel Herring's uniquely affecting vocals, which belong somewhere between the walls of Factory Records and the mountains of Middle Earth.

2016 Atomized (CD)

The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes are simultaneously split between the past and the future. Though their music has the elements of electronic pop and experimentation that you commonly hear in indie rock and even on radio hits, there's something simultaneously nostalgic and vintage in the mix. Previously the band has embraced a '60s vibe, but their latest is shamelessly '80s. 2016 Atomized is labeled an "anti-album" as it's more of a compilation. Each month, the Danish duo would upload a unique track online, and 2016 Atomized collects them all together with no thematic connection other than the way they were released and a shared post-industrial dance mood. It's definitely a disorienting trip, one the band calls "potentially schizophrenic & disjointed, potentially cohesive and related." March's "EXCUSES" is a perfect example of what they were experimenting with. Initially starting off as a sorta Cure-ish shoegazey rocker, it suddenly slows down into '90s melodramatic R&B. The lyrics are deliciously relevant as the chorus chants "Time to let lose / wanna get bruised / fuck your excuse / hit me with nukes," somewhere between war time horror and post-breakup anger. "Junko Ozawa," which borrows its name from the composer of the classic video game themes to Pac-Man and Dig-Dug , is as video gamey as pop gets. The classic jealous, frustrated lyrics are comic over a melody that feels like it could have come out of an arcade machine replete with 8-bit bleeps and bloops. Despite not having the narrative cohesion of a full album, there's something beautiful about how each drastically different track leads to the other. They still all have one thing in common: they're fun!

All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ (CD)

Joey Bada$$

Joey Bada$$'s sophomore release still keeps him in place as the bridge from the golden era of hip hop to the new age. He picks up where he left off lyrically, but on this effort his topics include America's current status and the powers that be. It's the variety of beats and the delivery of his message that pull you in to listen and feel where he's coming from. Just as the albums before this one, B4.Da.$$ and 1999 , All-Amerikkkan Badass is a record that will stay in your rotation without being retired anytime soon. Standout songs: "Rockabye Baby," "Legendary," "For My People," and "Babylon."

Basses Loaded (CD)

Melvins

Nobody keeps it weird the way the Melvins do. The usually ultra-prolific group took it a little slower in the last year and have finally come back with a new studio album designed to melt faces and rip off your head. Born out of a failed reunion with Nirvana's surviving members, the experimental weirdos jump somewhere between the uneasy schizophrenic territory of grunge, metal, and novelty. Their first studio album in two years features six bassists shredding like maniacs at glass-shattering volume. Tracks alternate between Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, Redd Kross' Steve McDonald, Butthole Surfers' Jeff Pinkus, Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn, Big Business' Jared Warren, and former Melvin Dale Clover. "Hideous Woman" crunches loud as it's a beautifully gooey song with lyrics that assault you and guitars that teeter so close to insanity they could go off the rails any second. The surprisingly faithful cover of The Beatles' ode-to-acid "I Want To Tell You" is like a nostalgic bar and grill cover band getting messed up on cheap beer and opioids and forgetting there's an audience in the room as they tear in. The bouncy synth line and a fuzzed version of George Harrison's guitar sound makes the spaciness of the original track feel quaint in comparison. The last track brings the punny title of the album full-circle with a "wtf?" cover of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" that starts out like an NES game before it explodes into a ramshackle cover that only copious amounts of booze could fuel. If you ever feel rock is dead when you stream weak stuff online, remember The Melvins can still freak 'em out like no one can.

Odd Boat (CD)

Flatfoot 56

Flatfood 56 makes Celtic melodies into punk and it's no sloppy gimmick either. They use the bouncy rhythms and haunting melodies, and accelerate them to 100mph. Formed in 2000 by brothers Justin, Tobin, and Kyle, their brand of Irish punk has been shredding ears by combining fuzzed guitars and bagpipes like they were always meant to be together. Their seventh album, Odd Boat , has a ragtag, intense mood that leads them ahead as the most interesting and dynamic of the Celtic/punk subgenre. "Penny" gallops relentlessly with the occasional "AY!" to punctuate that mood. The precision sharp guitar playing clicks with gorgeous rhythms. The most unexpected diversion the song takes is the calm in the middle of the storm as it slows down into a beautiful harmony. Guest vocalist IL Neige comes out with a gorgeous reprieve that offers rest from the otherwise delirious track. Odd Boat is helluva banger. Blast this and get ready to jump up and down.

Pure Comedy (CD)

Father John Misty

On Pure Comedy , we find the troubadour musing about his life, society, and pop culture over downbeat folk rock melodies. “Leaving LA” is a raw, meandering account of life spent too long up in the hills. The title track is insightful, intense, and hard-to-forget. “Total Entertainment Forever” sees Father John discussing Taylor Swift’s appeal — it’s a dissection of celebrity you didn’t know you needed in your life (or eardrums) until now. All in all, Father John Misty provides the perfectly melancholy, dryly funny, and surprisingly moving soundtrack to our times.

Pleiades' Dust EP (CD)

Gorguts

Technical death metal stalwarts Gorguts have been laying eardrums to waste since '89, but almost 30 years later they have still managed a first, as Pleiades' Dust marks their first ever EP release. Dust consists of a single 33 minute song that recounts the history of the House of Wisdom, an ancient library in Baghdad that was eventually destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century. This high concept kind of stuff is established prog rock tradition by now, and demands a no-nonsense, technically proficient approach to pull it off convincingly. The album begins with an ominous soundscape of ambient noises that lead into a ferocious cacophony of pummeled drums and strangled guitars, until Luc Lemay's bellowing growl destroys any would-be lingering notions of subtlety. Much of what follows is in this vein, as the record alternates slow, eerie passages with dissonant blasts of noise; trading soft, arpeggiated guitars and atmospheric synths for moments of pure chaos. These dynamics help keep the momentum constantly changing and prevent the music from ever growing stale on this monolith of a tune. As masters of the form then and now, Gorguts have shown that they are no death metal anachronism, but instead are once again leading the genre forward in 2017.

LA Divine (CD)

Cold War Kids

The Cold War Kids deliver the indie-dance-rock goods on their latest album, named in honor of their hometown of Los Angeles. The music is energetic and expressive, but the lyrics are introspective and often allude to the process of maturing in the context of living the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, as in the power ballad "Can We Hang On?" and the piano heavy "Restless." Be sure to put your dancing shoes on for the hand-clapping, foot-stomping "So Tied Up" and lead single "Love Is Mystical," which will almost certainly be playing many a night this summer.

The Ride (CD)

Nelly Furtado

For her latest release, Nelly Furtado sought out producer John Congleton (Angel Olsen, St. Vincent) to create a “pop-alternative album” with more of an indie feel than her past work. The result is The Ride . It’s definitely still a Nelly Furtado album and it bears all the hallmarks — catchy hooks, smooth, glistening melodies, and that dulcet voice — but altogether the album is more substantial, experimental, and impactful. Furtado’s lyrics are introspective, although her sound is still as clarion as ever, with much of the album spent delving into themes of disappointment and rebuilding. Single “Pipe Dreams” is an interesting example, with a bouncy, irresistible beat segueing into a serious pipe organ solo that Furtado pulls off with aplomb. This is a smart, thoroughly enjoyable album that makes us hope for another outing from the newly-minted Furtado/Congleton team.

New Skin (CD)

Jones

In the ten months since her first single, "Hoops," dropped online, we've been patiently waiting for the debut by soul singer-songwriter Jones. With minimal production that's light on heavy melodies, it goes straight for bouncy, electronic beats that flow over a whispered guitar part. But this is all undermining her voice that has the sensitivity of Sade and the power of Rihanna. So it's a great pleasure to discover her first album is a warm, loving one that's carefully performed with quiet restraint and whose melodies are so chill they almost dissolve. Using music as a way to communicate her deep feelings and as a way to grow, New Skin is a mature, carefully constructed first album that shows her range of songwriting ability along with her uniquely sensuous voice. Her songs are so calm and intricate that you can almost feel the temperature of the room drop. "Melt" opens with a riff that sounds as if it's sampling Portishead, but crashes into a mellow love song about romantic repair. As she sings about the given problems and turmoil that come with any relationship, she has a chorus where she says, "We got the heat/melt with me," equally affectionate and psychedelic imagery. "Indulge" is a very personal song about obsessive love that feels like you're spying into her diary. Jones' imagery and fanatical lyrics make her undying love sympathetic and gives her voice a quiet respite that's easily the most intimate delivery on the album. New Skin doesn't have the shaggy quality so many first albums have. It's beautifully assembled and the result is one of the best soul albums of the year.

Sing [2016] (BLU)

Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings

Sing stars Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon, an eternally optimistic koala who puts on the world's greatest singing competition to save his crumbling theater; Reese Witherspoon as Rosita, an overworked mother of 25 piglets desperate to unleash her inner diva; Scarlett Johansson as Ash, a punk rock porcupine with a beautiful voice; and more.

Moonlight [OST] (CD)

Nicholas Britell

Nicholas Britell’s score for the lovely Moonlight is every bit as gorgeous and affecting as the film. Plaintive, aching strings anchor many of Brittel’s sensitive, intelligent compositions including “Little’s Theme” and “Chiron’s Theme.” There’s even a chopped and screwed version of the latter track — the reworking gives the song an interesting depth, but you won’t initially think “chopped and screwed” when you hear it. Tracks by Goodie Mob, Boris Gardiner, and Barbara Lewis are welcome contributions, bringing added texture and life to the mix. The soundtrack conjures memories and emotions familiar to viewers of the film, but even those who haven’t seen the picture will enjoy Britell’s incredible orchestral works.