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Amoeba Music
LOS ANGELES, CA • 6200 Hollywood Blvd, LA, CA 90028
Amoeba didn't start in LA, and it didn't start nearly as big as it is today. Founded by Marc Weinstein, Mike Boyder and Dave Prinz, former Rasputin Records employees, who opened the first location on famed Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1990 with an immediately recognizable logo designed by comic book artist Shepherd Hendrix.
A second location followed in 1997 in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, but it’s the Los Angeles outpost, opened in 2001 after LA customers kept making the trip up north that has our hearts. The first Hollywood location spanned an entire city block on Sunset Blvd, with as many as a quarter million titles on hand to buy; Amoeba claims to be the largest independent record store in the world. No idea if that’s true, but the selection is always breathtaking.
It almost didn't survive. COVID and a brutal real estate fight forced that original Sunset location to close in 2020. In 2021, Amoeba reopened just down the street. The new location continues the tradition of free live shows for customers at the store, and their youtube channel hosts the stellar, “What’s in My Bag?” series, where the influential and famous show just what they’ve dig up inside the store.
Essential when in Southern California.
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