Bands where you know you want to acquire the entire back catalog of, but have not as of yet due to the cost, size and listening tediousness of getting it quickly

for really big bodies of work that i know i'll want all/most of eventually, i just try to go chronologically. which i figure gives a good perspective of how those albums sounded in light of what they'd done before when they first came out.

I'm usually looking more for weird, rare one-off albums by obscurities than artists with humongous discographies, because usually the latter have at least a couple duds in there.

I third Nurse With Wound. Current 93 is probably a higher priority though.

And Tom Waits.

Don't you just hate it when the Wire does one of those Primers on someone you hardly heard of, and they make the whole back catalogue sound so essential, that your life is totally meaningless until you've got, and got into, those records.

I hate this. As if everybody has the luxury of buying them all, or is fortunate enough to know someone that will copy them. Even in this age of mp3s, it's still a lot to assume.

Nope.

mar acardipane (got yr email stevo....i'm in koln, replzy when i get back)

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I take it you haven't heard "Aura" then?!

No, not yet, but if that's the only shite one out of 100+ then he did alright.

And is it really bad in a 'Landing on Water' or 'Never let me down' way or is it just inessential?

But I think I've largely kicked the completist habit nowadys, it's much better when you can be less than a _total_ fan. You don't have to pretend everything they do is great, it saves a lot of money and frees up time for listening to other stuff.

It's a good deal if you don't buy past your obligation...

(I need to be schooled more on classic rock, I must admit)

It's probably a bit unfair to Miles' legacy that this album was ever attributed to him in the first place (although of course he does have his own ego to blame for that!)

Basically it's a load of self-indulgent navel-gazing wankery supposedly recorded as a tribute to Miles but which The Man (With The Horn) himself was somehow persuaded to come and add a few aimless tootles over the top of.

Fortunately it bears no resemblance to anything else (I've ever heard) in Miles' back catalogue.

"... if that's the only shite one out of 100+ then he did alright."

Very true; although I really wouldn't bother with his autobiography either unless you're prepared to read the phrase "like a motherfucker" being used to describe absolutely everything and everyone Miles ever encountered!

True. Though audiogalaxy and soulseek were helpful.

All of St Etienne's "proper" albums were released locally in Aust

Also, I would really like to hear John Barry's scores for the Connery 007 flicks through mid-Moore, plus a few others (Black Hole, Zulu) remastered from the original tapes and not conducted by some tame weenie in Prague.

Born about a decade late, really.

That's what makes it classic!

I actually got my hands on the complete (post-'59) Coltrane catalogue this summer, and am very happy about it.

A second person who thinks about this, even for a second! Good heavens but it's a small world.

(ObThread: that my own tiny band hasn't made this list is rather disappointing to me, as I have made it my mission in life to construct a daunting & largely unobtainable back catalogue)

Don't buy 'Never let me down'!!!!!!!

Hey, thanks!

A second person who thinks about this, even for a second! Good heavens but it's a small world.

The fact that one of your album essays was a tribute to Rozz says it all, John. ;-)

that my own tiny band hasn't made this list is rather disappointing to me, as I have made it my mission in life to construct a daunting & largely unobtainable back catalogue

But you then sabotaged it with the three CD rarities collection and now we all have everything. Well, I have some. Did you ever hear the Peoplemover cover of you from 1993 or so? And this is the Eric J. Lawrence-led Peoplemover, not the other one.

Yes, but that constitutes, what, one half (if that) of everything available, no?

sonic youth ? don't bother (musical tediousness, out of date allusions, empty pretensions)
sun ra ? probably technically impossible
zappa ? beneath musical tediousness

webern is easy, varese would be 3 cds max., stockhausen DG lps is the phase one set, whereas you don't need any john cage stuff at all

jandek, caroliner et. al., no neck blues, acid mothers etc., haino, oscar peterson, coltrane, miles davis (you just need one album for each 'developement' if you think davis is interesting)

monk is feasible with a finite set of compositions but maybe consistency = tediousness -- steve lacy ? (a. braxton would be tedious) -- ken vandermark ?

Oh, and as for back catalogs that are too extensive to even know where to begin...FRANK ZAPPA.

It just seemed gauche to mention here. But I have not let friends burn me copies of Zopilote Machine or Hot Garden Stomp or any of the other currently unavailable albums; it would take all the fun away.

That, and my own presumptions of immortality and good luck that I will some day come across for $1 at the Goodwill. Or that 3BOS will rerelease them; even when I lean towards being a completist I avoid being a fetishist about first editions and whatnot. Which probably makes me a boring person.

Anyway, as for the original question: This is even more relevant to me for genres. I have for the most part avoided jazz or hiphop or "world" music because of the sheer amount of music I'd have to buy and listen to. Sigh!

I agree with Chris Barrus in his suggestion of Sun Ra, and i'd add in John Fahey.

Actually that's incredibly easy - begin at the beginning: Freak Out, Absolutely Free, We're Only In It For The Money. After that, I agree, a very large sieve is required.

are you sure abt that?! even the operas?

When it comes to cost it's actually fairly efficient to get his stuff (and Eclipse Records stocks 'em all anyway).

Also, with all the mentioning of Acid Mothers, perhaps I should mention that I saw Monghang last night, which has members of AMT. They dress all in funny costumes/headdresses and dance VERY WELL to their funky/surfy/psych music. We got the drummer really trashed before the show, and he said he went to the school of Ganja when we asked him if he went to college in Japan. He ruled.

it's a piece of piss to get his whole catalogue in one job lot! that is, if you're happy to spend the $160-odd on 40 cds.

Charlie Parker's back catalog is a confusing mess. I've got a nicely put together 2cd compilation that Rhino put together and a cheapy best of Verve collection, but I get the feeling that there are some other really good records to hear, but where to start next is not easy to discern.

There are some good compilations of The Fall out there, you have to weed them out, but starting with the "Early Years 77-79", Rough Trade "Totally Wired" & "458489 (A Sides)" compilation will give you a really good overview. Of the five CDs, there is only one song that would appear twice, 'Rowche Rumble' and it is a live version from Totale's Turns on the Rough Trade compilation.

aka. More Perennial The Wire Faves With New Releases Seemingly Every Few Weeks

My days of rushing out and buying everything by X artist are over, I think, unless I come across something sometime in the future that's just crazily strong. I'm more into having a collection of good records than having every record by a particular group.

Wire is my favorite music magazine b/c I buy it and there's 8 things I want to read at once, and then later I can pick it up when I have a better understanding of the other movements/reviews showcased and have my mind blown all over again (I've never thrown away a copy), and dream of hitting a good record store for Sukteh or something (one of these days!). No other music magazine makes the obscure so sexy, so totally makes learning about music as engrossing as wandering into gigantic comic stores, mouth agape, as I did when I was younger and determined to spend money differently than I do now. Unfortunately, there's only one bookstore in the area that sells Wire.