“Hi, I’m Sam. I play guitar in the Parson Red Heads. I thought I’d write a little tidbit for The Vinyl District. (Thanks for the invitation to do so.)”
“I want to tell you a little bit about my experience working at a record store called Amoeba Music. There are 3 of these stores in California, and for 3 years I worked at the one in Hollywood.
Record stores employ some of the most interesting, caring, and creative individuals I’ve ever met. Ever. Record store employees are so underemployed—most of the ones I worked with had degrees and were extremely intelligent and ambitious. But they just don’t care about money—they care about music and art and people. (I can’t speak for all record stores when I say this, but I know Amoeba isn’t the only one that’s this way. I’ve worked at 2 other record stores and both were similar.)
When Broken Social Scene played at Amoeba Music and we reached capacity and had to turn people away from the show, my boss Karen ran to the registers and back to the front doors about three times, getting armloads of t-shirts to give to people as they got turned away. My bosses there had incredible patience and professionalism, and my coworkers were great—their sense of humor, unique and indie art projects, amazing patience when taking a customer around the entire store and answering each of their questions and even summoning impromptu descriptions of whatever music that customer might ask about—is just the tip of the iceberg.
Even our security guards who dealt with Hollywood addicts and tweakers and thieves were incredibly patient and kind before they had to use force. I was really humbled when I worked with these people and I bet you would have been too.
You can meet some of them—go to Amoeba Music in Hollywood.
Another thing that happened at Amoeba is that I learned about a ton of great music from my coworkers. If you ask them they will tell you about some amazing album you won’t believe isn’t more popular. Most of them will also be glad to recommend music to you if you give them the names of a few bands you like, even if the employee you’re talking to doesn’t like the bands you mentioned (which they’re unlikely to let on about.)
I don’t work for Amoeba anymore so I can say the following statement without bias: if you go to Hollywood and you can only do one thing, I promise you that if you choose spending an hour at Amoeba over going to Mann’s Chinese Theater or the wax museum or a bar, you’ll be happy with your decision.”
That’s The Parson Red Head’s Sam Fowles from 2011’s “First Date” preaching our shared gospel. The band is back after a brief break with a smashing new release, Orb Weaver and we have an exclusive peek into the recording process with the video above.
Not to be outdone and exclusively to TVD, the band has supplied us with a super-rare test pressing of the new LP, signed by the band—sealed and delivered by us—to one of you!
Enter to win the autographed test pressing of the brand new LP Orb Weaver by giving us your pick for your favorite record store anywhere—and briefly why. Spill it in the comments below and a winner selected at random with a North American mailing address will find the LP in his or her mailbox. We’ll choose a winner a week from today, 10/4!
