Amoeba vs. Jeff Tweedy: Smackdown!

I thought this was a hilarious story, and bitingly well-written, from the CrazyTalk blog by Howie from San Francisco. It is part of his review of the Jeff Tweedy show at the Fillmore in February. He writes:

"Tweedy told a hilarious story about his experience the day before at San Francisco's famous Amoeba Records. Apparently he had bought a used cd there, only to discover when he got back to his hotel room that the cd wasn't in the case. He called Amoeba about it, to see if someone could bring him the cd at his hotel, and the clerk basically said "sucks for you."

When Tweedy suggested that maybe if someone from the store was coming to the show, he could put them on the guest list and they could bring it to him. The clerk replied, "There's like 100 people who work here and I'd have to find like the 2 people who MIGHT be coming to your show, so no - I don't think that's going to happen."

(For those of you uninitiated in Amoeba, it is ground zero for indie-hipper-than-thou-ennui. I think the criteria for employment there involves being in seven "in" bands concurrently, at least 3 of which are signed to nearly-defunct indie labels, 2 of which are scheduled to tour Japan with a band from Merge or Barsuk, and 1 of which got a positive review on Pitchfork; plus some combination of tattoos, mental ward hair cuts (shampoo is a definite no-no), and near-wikipedic knowledge of psych-prog rock. The application process culminates in a 100 yard dash where entrants must wear tight jeans with white belts. I got on the 5 year waiting list last week when I bought my first Members Only jacket). Anyway, determined to get his cd, he walked to the store from his hotel, but when they still couldn't find the cd, he accepted a handy record tote bag in lieu.

I guess Tweedy had told this story at the first Fillmore show (the night before our show), and the clerk at Amoeba got such amazing shit from her co-workers that at the 2nd Fillmore show, Tweedy found an Amoeba hoody (signed by the offending clerk) in his dressing room. He came out for the second encore wearing said hoody."

Now *that's* a good story to tell. It's classic, especially the response from the clerk on the phone. I wish I could be as cool as the Amoeba hipsters, although I did have quite a good time sifting through the vinyl section the last time I was there, coming home with some gems (Jimi Hendrix & Otis Redding at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, REM Dead Letter Office, Jerry Lee Lewis "Breathless" double LP, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Cure . . . Happily Ever After). Aaahhhh.