Heaven is a place on Earth

The highlight of just about every trip I take down to Los Angeles is our visit to Amoeba Music.  Usually it is a struggle for my friends and I to agree on something to do, but whenever a stop to Amoeba is mentioned, a consensus is reached immediately.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Amoeba, it is one of the largest independent record stores in the world, with hundreds of thousands of titles available for perusal to the discriminating music junkie.  Not only will you able to find the latest album from even some of the most obscure artists working today, but there are aisles and aisles that are filled with rare EPs and singles that you did not even know existed.  With this information in hand, you now understand why it is a must-see destination for every trip we take down south.

Usually one trip is enough, but on our journey back home we stopped in San Francisco for the night and had some time to kill before dinner, so we dropped in to that location as well.  When all was said and done, the damage was twenty-one albums, EPs, and singles covering a wide variety of genres.  For this go-around, my biggest score was picking up a wide variety of early post-punk albums that I previously had trouble tracking down because of limited pressings, and it has been a blast listening to all these lost classics since we returned.

Los Angeles is a hellhole, but at least it is a home to this wonderful oasis.