It was a pleasure having Canadian country singer/songwriter Orville Peck visit Amoeba Hollywood recently. He looked through the record bins and shared some of his favorite albums, movies, and artists, including country singer Bobbie Gentry. "I feel like a lot of people don't know about Bobbie Gentry, which is crazy to me," Peck lamented. "She was this incredible singer/songwriter, kind of folksy country musician." He grabbed a vinyl copy of her album Fancy, whose title track is one of his favorite songs of all-time. Though a more famous version was recorded by Reba McEntire, Peck loves Gentry's "beat poet style" of singing. All in all, Peck had an eclectic collection of killer records and films, which made for a sincere and fun What's In My Bag? episode. 

The enigmatic Orville Peck is known for wearing a fringed Lone Ranger mask when he performs, which makes him both immediately recognizable yet deliberately obscures his true identity. Although Peck's identity is not known, he has stated that he has toured extensively with punk bands in the past. 

His music fuses velvet-voiced classic country with elements of goth, indie, and punk genres. He counts legends like Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton among his stylistic influences. Peck's first song, "Dead of Night" was released in 2017. This was followed by a series of duets with artists like King Tuff and Mac DeMarco. In 2019, Orville Peck released his debut album, Pony, via Sub Pop, which was longlisted for Canada's 2019 Polaris Music Prize.

Amoeba is proud to be a sponsor of the Oaktown Jazz Workshops: 25th Anniversary Celebration at Yoshi’s Oakland on Tuesday, November 12th from 8pm – 10pm. Performances will feature saxophonist and Oaktown Jazz Workshops (OJW) instructor Richard Howell, pianist and MC Kev Choice, seven-time Grammy nominated percussionist John Santos, and pianist Marco Diaz, plus outstanding OJW Alumni Elé Howell, Jesse Levit, Ian McArdle, Tim McKay, Ranzel Merritt Jr., Erika Oba, Rafa Postel, Ruthie Price, and the Oaktown Jazz Workshops’ Youth Performance Ensemble. All proceeds from this benefit concert will support OJW’s music education for youth across the Bay Area.

Formed in 1994 by the late jazz trumpeter Khalil Shaheed, Oaktown Jazz Workshops is a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to passing on the tradition of jazz music to young people through music instruction and educational presentations. Located in Jack London Square, OJW continues to promote, preserve, and present jazz music so that youth develop a sense of ownership and pride in this uniquely American cultural and artistic heritage.

Get your tickets HERE!

Many has been the day when I would walk around the Amoeba store and try to figure out a gift for someone I thought or was told had everything, musically, and I would be at wits end trying to decide what would make a customer or `friend happy, which by the end of the search, would not be something I would always be proud to give. Of course, the stress of that would only make matters worse with the decision made harder! 

Here are sessions that are not for everyone, though. The later-period ‘Trane was an explosion of ‘’free’’ jazz sheets of sound, but here it’s tamed it like wild horses. The riffs and runs are exceptional in their emotional depth and variety. Coltrane was truly experimental, and in 1963 he felt wide open in letting the feelings flow that were coming to him. He was playing what was coming through him, without choosing, without guiding them. The 1963 sessions are available in a complete box set or as a single disc.
 

Amoeba Music and Alamo Drafthouse New Mission in San Francisco team up for another month of mammoth movie hits with this November's Weird Wednesdays! Join us at the Alamo's beautiful movie palace in the Mission District for these weird, wacky, and wild classics:

TAMMY AND THE T-REX (1994, 4K RESTORATION)
Wednesday, November 6. 10pm
Directed by Stewart Raffill (Mac and Me), Tammy and the T-Rex is a love story as old as time. This post-Jurassic jam stars Denise Richards (Starship Troopers, Wild Things) and the late Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) in an unprecedented mishmash of rom-com tropes and R-rated horror thrills. When Paul's mauled by the local zoo’s toothier residents, his love affair with Denise doesn’t cease — even after his brain is transplanted into an ancient animatronic predator. Oh, and did we mention “Bernie” from Weekend at Bernies’ is the villain? Originally filmed as a gorefest with impressive splatter by SFX guru John Carl Buechler, Tammy’s only minimal release back in the day was cut to PG-13, funneled straight-to-video, and inexplicably marketed as a kids’ film. Thanks to the intrepid efforts of top-notch archival pals Vinegar Syndrome, this gonzo gem is fully restored and ready to scorch your ganglia into dust!

San Francisco’s First and Only Rock’n’Roll Movie: CRIME 1978, a short documentary film about the legendary punk band and Amoeba favorite CRIME, will screen at the Victoria Theatre in SF on Thursday, November 14th at 7pm, followed by everyone's favorite rock & roll alien concert flick, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973)! Introducing the event are CRIME 1978 producer Henry S. Rosenthal (aka Hank Rank of CRIME) and filmmaker Jon Bastian. There will also be live music by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Ron “The Ripper” Greco (original CRIME bassist), and CRIME WAVE (CRIME tribute band with members of Egrets on Ergot, Cheap Tissue, The Richmond Sluts), plus a Ziggy Stardust lookalike contest!

The “rock verite” footage of CRIME was filmed entirely in 1978 by Larry Larson for his local cable access program In Review, and is newly edited by Bastian. Larson found a unique experience in the burgeoning punk scene taking place at the Mabuhay Gardens, a Filipino restaurant and bar-gone-gritty nightclub on Broadway in North Beach. The booker Dirk Dirksen regularly landed local punk and New Wave acts at the club, including the Avengers, The Nuns, The Dils, Pearl Harbor & the Explosions, and CRIME. CRIME’s 1976 single of “Hot Wire My Heart” (backed with “Baby You're So Repulsive”) is credited as the first single released by a U.S. punk act from the West Coast. Like some of their punk contemporaries, they took on individual personas and built a group image, wearing police uniforms and billing themselves as "San Francisco's First and Only Rock 'n' Roll Band." The members of CRIME in 1978 were Johnny Strike (Gary John Bassett) on vocals and guitar, Frankie Fix (Marc D’Agostino) on vocals and guitar), Ron The Ripper (Ron Greco) on bass, and Hank Rank (Henry S. Rosenthal) on drums.