SAN JOSE, Calif. — Amoeba Music – you don’t have to be a microbiologist to recognize that name.

Started in Berkeley in 1990 by music-loving record collectors Marc Weinstein, Dave Prinz and Mike Boyder, Amoeba sprouted locations in San Francisco and Hollywood and soon became the biggest independent music store in the world. Amoeba sells and trades records, sure, but it has also delivered legendary in-store concerts with Valhalla-level artists like Patti Smith and Paul McCartney.

Downloading, streaming and the pandemic took their toll in recent years, and Amoeba was forced to temporarily close its L.A. store. But it’s since reentered the good times, surging on a wave of vinyl demanded by a new generation of vintage record lovers. Step into the Berkeley location, and you’ll be overwhelmed by the delightful things on offer. There are sections for jazz, metal, New Orleans, soundtracks and spoken word (like “Allen Ginsberg Reads Kaddish,” which the poet wrote on Dexedrine and LSD). There are $100 sealed Miles Davis LPs and $1 cassette tapes, T-shirts for The Germs and Public Enemy and clothing patches for James Brown and the Sex Pistols.

These days, Prinz lives in Point Reyes but spends time on Maui, where he paused during a recent tropical squall to chat.

Amoeba wouldn’t exist without cannabis

After Prinz sold his Bay Area chain of Captain Video stores in the 1980s, he was looking for something else to get into. Shopping at San Francisco’s Streetlight Records, he met Weinstein, the store manager, and formed a fragrant bond. “I used to bring back pot from Hawaii, which he’d never had,” Prinz recalls. They decided to open an independent music store in a college town — Berkeley. “We became pretty good friends, and that’s how Amoeba started – me smoking Hawaiian pot with Marc Weinstein.”

A huge day in Amoeba history involved Sir Paul McCartney

Amoeba has held in-store concerts for everyone from Nancy Sinatra to Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, The White Stripes and Billie Eilish. Prinz’s favorite memory? In 2007, Paul McCartney and his touring band recorded a secret concert at the Hollywood Amoeba. In the audience was Alanis Morissette, Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr. “Ringo didn’t really like to be in crowds, and he was a little nervous,” says Prinz. “I said, ‘Why don’t you stand in my row, and I’ll guard the end?’ Ringo felt comfortable enough in the crowd to watch his old bandmate.”

Celebrities love (and love shopping at) Amoeba

Eric Clapton was swarmed by customers on his visit, but Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have shopped there with no problems – though Plant, when asked to step around a security gate, joked that “for a bunch of hippies, you guys sure have a lot of rules!”

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