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Buried Treasure and the Temptation to Make a “San Francisco Treat” Pun

For anyone who’s never been to Amoeba Music in San Francisco, please just take my word for it when I say there’s a reason that, after flying out of Newark at 7AM local time and landing on the West Coast at 10:30, I wanted to go there before even checking into the hotel, before showering, changing my clothes or any of it. Six hours on a plane — get me some shwarma and get me to Amoeba. So it went.

If Heaven is an ideal locale and God is a mythical being reigning over that ideal locale, Amoeba Music is both God and Heaven at the same time. I had to draw up a wishlist before I got there, because I knew that once I walked in, I’d be like a hyperstimulated three year old and forget everything I’d wanted to buy. I had a few necessities. For example, I’d have felt like a failure if I didn’t find something on Man’s Ruin. I wanted something specifically Californian, and I wanted something rare.

For the first, I was pleased to find Drunk Horse‘s Tanning Salon/Biblical Proportions, for the second, Citay‘s Dream Get Together (reviewed here) and for the third, the Sheavy/Church of Misery split on Game Two Records. Because it was there and I could, I also grabbed BorisSmile (Live at Wolf Creek) in the grey die-cut foam case, and just because it has Los Natas covering “Paranoid,” the Black Sabbath tribute, Sabbath Crosses, which is all South American bands.

Not all of that was on my list — Drunk Horse specifically was — and I didn’t get to pick up either of the first two Fu Manchu albums or any Kyuss promos or either of the first two Desert Sessions releases, but there’s always Amoeba in Berkeley to give it another go, and for my first day here (which also included a brief stop at Shaxul Records right across the street), I did pretty well. Here’s a full rundown of the haul:

Blind Guardian, Tokyo Tales
Boris, Smile (Live at Wolf Creek)
Burst
, Prey on Life
Citay, Dream Get Together
Drunk Horse, Tanning Salon/Biblical Proportions
Khanate, Clean Hands Go Foul
Rainbow, Rainbow on Stage
Trouble, Live in Los Angeles
Various Artists, Church of Misery/Sheavy, Born too Late
Various Artists, Sabbath Crosses: Tributo a Black Sabbath
The Wizar’d, Follow the Wizard

More to come…

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One Response to “Buried Treasure and the Temptation to Make a “San Francisco Treat” Pun”

  1. grace says:

    I just want to thank you for your awesome post about Amoeba Music. It’s great to know that we have record loving fans all the way on the other coast! Be sure to visit again when you come through the Bay Area – we’d love to have you stop by again!

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