Music Collecting: Method vs. Madness, FITE!

(Invoking Benjamin on collecting is encouraged, if it isn't done to the point of absurdity)

I plan some but most of the time buy on a whim sifting through used bins. I plan on buy several new releases from bands that can be considered my favorites.

Most of it's on a whim...sometimes I think, such and such has a new album out, I'll buy it, but I'll also buy something on a whim to compensate.

is it not possible to have a method to your madness, sterling? i mean, sometimes when i'm ready to go to the record store (like tonite fer instance), i just randomly decide "i need more jazz!" but when i go to look for jazz, there's a certain method to my searching: i.e. look via other peoples recommendations, the canon, my own prejudices, etc. mostly, however, my cd shopping is via the used store, which is nothing but randomness and happenstance.

I bet I make Sterling look like a librarian. My purchasing habits make no sense whatever. In fact, on the extremely rare occasions when I've 'meant' to buy something, without fail I walk out of the shop with something else entirely. Sometimes friends are cleaning out their houses, I'll take their whole collections without looking at what any of them are before getting them home. On occasion there IS an inadvertent alphabetical theme to my purchases of the day, but that's usually because I'll just start somewhere random in the racks and pick up the first things that interest me until I exceed my budget.

What's more, I can't imagine why other people don't have this approach. I hear endless conversations, "What should I buy, what's better, would you recommend this" etc and it just exasperates me, I say "For fuck's sake, just buy it, if you don't like it get a refund!" People talk about choosing CDs like they're about to invest their life savings on Wall Street.How much harm can a CD purchase do? Then there's the "I don't want this CD to be seen in my house, it's too uncool" crowd, which I just find either sad or hilarious, depending on age of speaker. (This is to be expected among adolescents, who think the whole world's watching them and that record shop clerks are laughing at them behind their backs.) Hell, just last week I was walking down toward Angel Station and I bought a copy of Burton Cummings' Greatest Hits on cassette from some alcoholic street vendor!

did you see the thread on cds i bought , i have no system for any entertainment purchase and more often the n not buy on rather large binges .

Well the whole 'going-into-the-store-with-a-blindfold-on' idea does lead to some...uh...interesting purchases. But mostly you end up bumping your 'nads on one of those low racks.

Actually, I use both the Madness Method and Method Method. The only difference is if I brought my god-eared copy of The List with me or not.
Some would say Custos' way is better because he will not waste any money, but get top dollar bang for the buck....
Well, I'm desperately poor. I have to make every purchase count. And on the rare occasions when I have all the bills paid and the cupboards filled with enough Top Ramen and generic cereal to maintain bare minimum life support, I spend the rest on crap.
But, isn't it more like stamp collecting than music collecting then?
Naw. It's just like real music shopping, you just don't get burned as often. Granted, the Method Method is not perfect. I've gotten burned twice by a Method Method List Approved and Annointed choice, but two times out of 60, is a much better batting average than my old Madness Method days. (I had too many stoner friends back in high school, and an ex-girlfriend convinced me that Tales of the Topigraphic Oceans was a really cool record. And I was dumb enough to believe her.)

But is an only half-decent album getting "burned" or is it useful? Do we need to hear/own second tier stuff in order to fully appreciate the canon? Oh, and Topographic Oceans, if you haven't sold it, deserves another listen.

for what seems like the first time ever, i'm agreeing with Dave Q...
risk taking adds some excitement to the process. with jazz, for example, when you find something you like, you should work down the avenues of the other musicians, the label, the songs, the instrumentation, the arranger if there is one, even the producer in some cases. just going for the most popular choices of best album ever is unlikely to find you your own personal favourite. if i'd had followed that i'd have bought dull old Kind of Blue instead of Journey in Satchidananda or something.

Tales from Topographic Oceans is the only Yes album worth listening to by a long way, IMO.

Uh, yeah...but it has the unfortunate defect of being a Yes album.
And after listening to it all the way through, I gave it to my ex, just so she'd stop playing Tormato.

risk taking adds some excitement to the process

True. True. But 9 times out of 10, all the albums I bought on a whim turn out to be dissapointing.
Thats why I collect as many opinions as possible before I dive in. Especially now that the average CD costs $19 new and $5 used, whereas it used to be $13 new and $3.99 used. So its a case of now more than ever... look before you leap, 'cuz when it comes time to hock those CD's you don't like, you'll still only get $2.50...if you're lucky.

Whim is a beautiful thing. It must always be pursued.

I would like to buy on a whim more often, but I a) have NO money, and b) hate (HATE) the feeling of having spent $13.99 on a crap record.

Actually, I buy blindly more often when it comes to jazz, if only because I'm at least vaguely familiar with most of the artists in the store and because hack jazz musicians USUALLY don't get to make records. With everything else, I like to have at least some sort of basis for my purchase.

Records I have gone out to buy this year: Get a Move On (Mr. Scruff); Kardinal Offishall. Intending to buy a record and then acting on that intention happens maybe once or twice a year. I always forget about whatever it was that occurred to me to buy, probably with the unarticulated excuse that if it's really that important I'll remember to buy it later. This almost never happens. Therefore, recorded music is unimportant.

There are ways to be exposed to things you haven't heard yet without having to buy anything: the radio (well, okay, it's often disappointing, but I do hear new-to-me things there relatively often), libraries, people you know, and all the stuff that is available online (which admitedly can take a lot of time and hassle to deal with).

I would like to be more careful what I spend money on. It's very nice to talk about the joys of impulse and whim, until you realize that because of all the money you pissed away on mediocre CDs (or even good CDs) you can't buy certain other things which might be more important. There is already a huge huge list of CDs I know I want. If I am exploring unfamiliar area, then I may rely on standard guides, online music gossip, etc. I am definitely not interested in building a standard collection of classics for each genre I buy, however. My jazz collection is more of a Sun Ra collection supplemented by other artists than a real jazz collection. I just don't like jazz enough to want to collect the basics, though it would be nice to hear them if possible. (I recently borrowed "Kind of Blue" from the library, which saves me from buying it, since I found out that I don't want it. I've yet to acquire a taste for Miles Davis's sound.) On the other hand, I would like to buy some dub CDs, and I have a list of recommended Lee Perry albums and collections. Based on hearing a few samples from one of them, I suspect I would like most of what's on that collection, so eventually I might buy that.

One thing I've realized is that it's better for me not to buy big batches of CDs at one time. When I do that,i t doesn't mean that I won't almost immediately want to go buy something else. I might as well only buy one at a time, because if I spend $100 on CDs now, in a couple weeks I'm still going to want to go out and get something else. Better to just spend, say, about $20 now. Unfortunately, since a lot of what I want I order online from two specialized distributors (and occasionally CDNOW or amazon.com), I won't get the best bargain on shipping and handling by buying one or two at a time, but in the long run I will probably save more money if I start doing it this way.

Since I live around 3 music stores with healthy used sections I purchase based on availability. That is... I have a couple titles in mind.. scavenge around in the used sections.. then may or may not end up with what I intended to. I have a bad habit of walking into a music store with a mission to buy X CDs before I leave. If I can't find X CDs I actually intended to get I settle for the next best thing or take a leap of faith.

Whim is a beautiful thing. It must always be pursued

Yes, but whim has led me astray so many times, I don't trust fate anymore.
Example 1: After hearing an uncles copy of "Knight of Swords" (an incredibly obscure 6 Vinyl LP Box Set of Bob Dylan) I became a Bob- ophile. So I ran out to the record store and bought Empire Burlesque, Infidels and Down in the Groove. Because I didn't know any better.
Example 2: After seeing a TV show about David Bowie, I fell in love with his music and bought Tonight and Never Let Me Down. Because I didn't know any better.
Example 3: Starship's Knee Deep in the Hoopla.
Example 4: I, to my utter shame and confusion paid full price for a new copy of The Return of Bruno by Bruce Willis.
Now you know why I research things first.

So, obviously, I must arm myself against bad records...with the platemail of previous knowledge.
Now, granted. The full wishlist has over 4,500 records on it. So, although alot of is "canonical(tm)(c)(r)(patent pending)" it has more than enough variety and enough random fringe stuff so that I can walk into any record store and 9 times out of 10 pick up something that SOMEONE SOMEWHERE has reccomended at least once. So the Method Method List isn't some farty *cough*Rockist*cough* list of "the 100 Best", it's just a vague guideline.
And as smugly clinical (or as the Brits on the board might say "Anorak Encrusted") as it may seem to even waste time on making such a list...I have to admit...
It works.

Mark Knopfler's playing on 'Infidels' is good

That might be the only thing that was good.

Oh, by the way...to borrow a phrase from Chuck D...don't believe the hype! Two Live Crews As Nasty as they Wanna Be is totally ass-flavored. And yes, I paid full price to find that out. And, no, its not just that it's a mean-spirited record of wack tracks by hacks. It boring! Its bad enough that its overrated, overhyped, underproduced crap...but whats worse: its 79 Minutes of overrated, overhyped underproduced crap. If I wanna listen to a loud-mouthed sicko, I'd like it to be good sickness. It takes Luther Campbell more than an hour to say what Oderus Orungus can say in a single verse!

dave q. would be a choice guy to go rekid shopping with, i reckon.

For mercy's sake Lord C you have only yourself to blame. For long running artists like Dylan - is the cover good? All the albums you mentioned have terrible covers on which Dylan looks like a plank ergo stay clear.

(Sorry if you are blind by the way)

Well, first off, I was 14 years old at the time and couldn't have known better. And the cover of (i think...) Down in the Groove looked rather moody and stark. Turns out it was the worst album of the bunch. Even an album full of "Silvio"'s won't make up for ONE "Ugliest Girl in the World."

Shit! I even got one of the the Duran Duran albums that WASN'T Rio. What does THAT tell you about going in unprepared.
But on the plus side, my random music buying in the 80's did help me stumble across one cool record. An album of perfect aussie pop called (ironically enough)Wishlist by a band called the Falling Joys. It was kinda like if like Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians didn't suck, or if the Sundays came from South Outback, Queensland. And I've never found a CD copy of it. Bummer.

'License To Kill' on 'Infidels' is a GREAT song. Of course it would've been a much better alb if Bob hadn't left 'Blind Willie McTell' off of it.

The first Duran Duran album - good record, good cover. Ditto 'Rio'. Seven And The Ragged Tiger - oh, the tools have escaped from the toolbox. Mind you it does have "The Reflex".

If I researched before buying, I'd have discovered that Lydia Lunch in Teenage Jesus and The Jerks is only fifteen minutes long. So I wouldn't have bought it. And my life would have been much poorer.

What frustrates 'method' = "it's out of stock, can I order it for you?" (No, I want it now, or never)
What infuences 'whim' = the dreaded 3 for 20 quid sticker.

So I usually do what Stirling does. Most of my purchases are 'on spec' buys in fact, but since I never part with anything once bought, I do rely on reviews, word of mouth - and now ILM - a lot.

oh, the tools have escaped from the toolbox Tom, Are you wathcing a Disney movie or having an acid flashback?

If I researched before buying, I'd have discovered that Lydia Lunch in Teenage Jesus and The Jerks is only fifteen minutes long. So I wouldn't have bought it. And my life would have been much poorer.

Well, if it got really good reviews, I would've probably bought it ANYWAYS, without even knowing the running time. But this is actually a non issue. Most CD's nowadays collect two or more mini albums/EPs onto one disc. You could've gotten a CD with three EPs worth of TJ&TJ if you knew there was one. (Or more likely, a CD with the entire recorded output of TJ&TJ. Kinda like how Minor Threats Complete saves you the hassle of looking for Out of Step and In My Eyes)

Knowledge is your friend, Sterling. Without such knowledge neither of us would've even known who Lydia Lunch is.

Side note: Her spoken word stuff is deranged, too. Especially Conspiracy of Women and the first half of Uncensored Oral Fixation.

Not to be a prick, but the 15 minute CD is the entire recorded output of TJ&J. & I discovered her not thru canon or word of mouf but rather coz I go a collab w/ thurston moore which I liked.

That would be sweet. Put "Death Valley 69" plus her 8 Eyed Spy work plus TJ&TJ on the same CD and you'll get a whole disc full of kewl music.

And did Tom get those tools back in the toolbox. Inquiring minds wanna know.