I Bought Some New Compact Discs!

I know, right?

Can't remember the last time I did that. 2 years ago? Feels like a lifetime...

what about used compact discs?
I picked up a Fly Ashtray used cd in Memphis last week.

Last time I bought a new CD was early 2008?

i buy the occasional brand new CD by a much-loved band or a rarities boxset but beyond that it's all used CDs, really.

I'm certainly glad I picked up the Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall 4 disc Omnibus edition.
I will probably buy This Nation's Saving Grace, too. I still buy new cd's pretty regularly. Mostly reissues/deluxe jobs like this.

I bought two new CDs last month, but not from a store - I bought Monarch's two most recent releases from their merch table. And I'd already gotten a promo of one of those from the label, but I wanted the full packaging and they'd only sent me the disc itself. I occasionally buy CDs at Target when I'm there picking up other stuff.

i still buy cds. my turntable set up isn't good enough to really justify buying new vinyl, and i'm still not nuts about just downloading from itunes/amazon, tho that is starting to change, thanks to some of amazon's low prices.

do tell about these purchases

i bought a copy of the new kanye west last week. felt so damn weird, probably the first CD i'd purchased in at least a year, maybe two. now i sort of regret it.

I bought a bunch of new CDs last weekend in NYC, Other Music, Rebel Rebel, Bleecker Records...I just can't help myself!...in fact, if I went a week without buying a new CD (or at least a used CD, or some combination thereof), that would be worth me starting a thread over...

I'm guessing this puts me in the minority around these parts?...("these parts" being "the world", I guess)...look at the freak!

Here are the new ones I bought:

Joe Bataan - Lost Sessions
Jermaine Stewart - Frantic Romantic
Sebastien Tellier - Sexuality
Dam-Funk - Adolescent Funk
Russian Futurists - The Weight's On The Wheel

I almost never binge like that, but something about being in NYC during a long holiday weekend...

I got the new agalloch cd last week and electric wizard just before that. I hate cds in generic jewel cases though.

I still buy quite a few of them and would buy more if they didn't come in digipaks. Usually if I see one in a digipak I put it back and just look for something else.

i dont get why people hate digipaks. Much better looking than jewel cases. Why do you hate them?

Because in a matter of days, they wind up looking like junk

If you look after then like you would with vinyl then they shouldn't! Just don't push them in small places they don't fit or put cups on them!

this is what i bought today. the other night i was listening to t.i. on vinyl and it sounded so good and then yesterday i took rufus to the fye store (they took over all the old strawberrys locations. its kind of a sad store. its just so dead inside. and the stuff they fill it with is, i think, picked out and shipped by robot computer programs. so impersonal.) to let him pick out a birthday gift for himself and i noticed the waka flocka cd. i knew i needed it. i needed to hear something new and shiny and loud. so i got that today for $7.99 on sale and then i couldn't stop so i bought the new devin the dude and illmatic tenth anniversary edition. they were both $9.99.

i would have bought a little metal but they didn't have anything i really wanted. i did kinda contemplate getting some slayer cds. cuz i own all their albums on tape. i still might. i probably will. then i'm not going in their for, like, 6 months. i don't want to encourage them TOO much. really its just a music store that exists by selling tons of video games.

Sounds like a healthy approach to me!

Nearly all new CDs I've bought this year have been directly from bands at their shows. I figure that's a good way to get them some immediate cash there and then.

I wish everything came in digipaks, in addition to looking better, they usually take up much less shelf space! I don't what you people do to your cases, but I have plenty of digipaks from the early 90s that still look great... and I've moved about 8 times with them. Maybe if you toss them around carelessly all the time or something, they just aren't that fragile. Most of my new music is bought on CD, I love that more and more new releases are coming out on vinyl, but I hate that they keep getting more and more expensive.

i do get some CDs in the mail. stuff that people send me. so, i guess those hold me most of the time. don't get a jones to buy any. plus, i'm just consumed by and covered in records all week. so, you know, i've got more than enough to listen to. but sometimes that feeling of newness is fun.

I buy CDs. Because paying for mp3s is bullshit and I hate paying the cool tax on new vinyl. $5-10 extra for something that was probably mastered from digital anyway? Nahhh.

in the last few weeks i have bought more new cds than normally.
all from the artist direct.

foetus : hide
foetus : vein
the music of jg thirlwell : venture bros.

the fact i am getting parcels from the man formerly known as clint ruin pleases me immensely.

oh, and hide is a digipack, a format i normally detest/avoid, but with the advise upthread, its shiny perfection will last a little longer than usual.

hide is a digipack, a format i normally detest/avoid, but with the advise upthread, its shiny perfection will last a little longer than usual.

― mark e, Friday, December 3, 2010 12:59 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

re the durability of digipak vs. other CD formats:

it's strange the way we we treat CDs, a lot of us anyway, given their relative fragility and the fact that we live in the age of the effortlessly portable digital music file. we cart our CDs around with us in our cars and backpacks where they bang relentlessly against nalgene bottles, refuse and overnight supplies. we loan them out, leave them at work, and scatter them about the house to be chewed upon by dogs. i suspect that this cavalier mistreatment is a partial product of the medium the CD replaced. of course, the myth is that the compact disc killed the vinyl album, but that's not exactly true. the LP never entirely disappeared and currently seems to be enjoying something of a renaissance.

no, CDs killed the cassette, a transitional format that was already staking claim on vinyl's domain. and cassettes were never loved. we never really treasured them as we'd once treasured our LPs. we didn't respect them. instead, like CDs, we piled them up on the floors of our cars and bedrooms, their cases cracked and hazy, the tiny, flimsy and borderline unreadable inserts gone all wavy from the humidity. we treated them like magazines, loaning them unwashed friends of dubious character, and we didn't much worry when they failed to return. we borrowed them ourselves and left them in that one girl's car, though we really did mean to get them back or buy a new one or something. and when we became bored, we taped horrid jesus jones albums and lovelorn mixtapes over them by blocking off the little holes.

when CDs came along, they too were a sort of bastard medium. trumpeted by the industry and quickly seized upon by a generation of music buyers, but also sneered at by aging audiophiles and grunge-besotted hipsters. in their portability and shiny-object youth appeal, they were doomed to treated much as cassettes were, loved ardently but too often briefly and without a great deal of care. this casual relationship persists, even though there's now little reason to ever again disturb a CD once you burn its contents. i've never even thought to alphabetize them, much less encase them for marketable posterity in 5mm mylar sheathing.

bought some cds when i was in volcanic tongue a week or so ago:

Flashback by Hiroshi Kawani - a real fave of mine, unedited private tape involving sound art objects and disturbing vocalisations, have had a download of it for ages but im a total sucker for that old PSF obi strip (ALL cds should have obis!)
Guitars on Mars - V/A - cheapo, in the 2nd hand section - killer comp curated by david toop as part of that great 90s virgin series of dbl disc sets, worth it for 'stained angel morning' by ray russell alone
and a Sun Araw CD that i bought as an xmas present for a friend

"Guitars on Mars - V/A -"

I want this!

yeah.
those david toop double cds are mighty fine and not that easy to get these days.
somewhere hidden away in the archive, i have the r-n-b/quiet storm, sugar & poison, one thats rather nice.

Does someone know good stores in NYC to buy used CDs?

I buy CDs. Because paying for mp3s is bullshit and I hate paying the cool tax on new vinyl. $5-10 extra for something that was probably mastered from digital anyway? Nahhh.

― mini-skirt and gogol books (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, December 3, 2010 2:45 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

otm

I bought two new CDs this week

37 last month

42 the month before...

two this week

whoops

December is always a slow month for me, between catching up on year-end stuff and just generally taking a break. Unless I happen to come across decent stuff at the Border's closing sale after work, the new Ghostface will probably be the only thing I buy until next year.

I buy CDs. Because paying for mp3s is bullshit and I hate paying the cool tax on new vinyl. $5-10 extra for something that was probably mastered from digital anyway? Nahhh.

― mini-skirt and gogol books (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, December 3, 2010 2:45 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

otm

― call all destroyer, Friday, December 3, 2010 8:42 AM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This....why pay double the price for the same mastering with a few ugly clicks and pops the moment you take it out of the sleeve? Clean dollar-bin 80s LPs sound better than most new vinyl.

I will probably have bought about 3 new CDs a month by the time the year is over, either from amazon for dirt cheap or at shows, often also for dirt cheap.

I bought two new CDs this week

37 last month

42 the month before...

two this week

my #s look something like this also, although i buy probably 90% used bin stuff & 10% new

last thing i bought was the 4-cd black sabbath/dio box set, The Rules of Hell, shit was like $20 used, how could i resist??

I just read that as The Rutles of Hell

I have a decent CD player so CD's for me. And if I do download, I burn them to disc anyway. Tokyo has a an excellent 2nd hand CD market so I've been clearing up since I've been here (e.g. anything from 2 to 10 purchases a week).

Occasionally buy new stuff off've Boomkat (yesterday I bought three discounted albums). That's fairly rare though.

i bought the new Jazmine Sullivan album on tuesday

last album I bought before that was Vado's Slime Flu

I buy A LOT of vinyl tho

last thing i bought was the 4-cd black sabbath/dio box set, The Rules of Hell, shit was like $20 used, how could i resist??

Love when that happens. I found Judas Priest's Metalogy box used for $16 once.

i don't buy cds anymore unless it's at a show, just mp3s and occasionally used vinyl. bought a tape at a show too, only because my gf still has an old boombox around.

for my own stuff, i think i've sold more cds at shows than i have digital downloads, which is surprising.

The one vinyl thing I wish I bought more of is 7" singles, but the mail delivery to my house is so horrible and lazy that I'm afraid to order any.

Just bought six Blue Öyster Cult CDs (the first five studio discs, plus Fire of Unknown Origin) from Barnes & Noble.com.

These are all the CDs I bought this year, as far as I can remember:

Miranda Lambert – Kerosene
Maria Rita – Segundo
Nina Kaur Virdee – Gurbani Keertan
Wisin y Yandel – P’al Mundo

Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto – Urdimbres y Maranas
Steve Peters – The Webster Cycles
Sun Ra – Live in Detroit
Marina & the Diamonds – The Family Jewels

Ghada Shbeir - Qawaleb (2008)
Ahmed Al Hifnawi - Memories of the Beach
Ahmed al Hifnawi – Rhythms
Ahmed Al Hifnawi and the Om Kalsoum Orchestra - The Grand Melodies of Om Kalsoum

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Daddy Yankee – Mundial
Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
La Lupe - Con El Diablo En El Cuerpo

Fania All Stars - San Juan 73
Sun Ra – Helsinki 1971
Marshall Allen – Matthew Shipp – Joe Morris – Night Logic
Khaled Abdul Rahman – Khalediat 2010

Oum Kalthoum – Ansak
Oum Kalthoum – Aghar Men Nesmat El Janoob
Oum Kalthoum – Hallet Layali El Amar
Various: Pacifico Colombia

Various: Afrosound of Colombia
Various: Beginners Guide to Cumbia
Taylor Swift: Speak Now
Lou Harrison: Scenes from Cavafy

Juliana – La Reina
Calle 13 – Entren Los Que Quieran
Benny More – Grabaciones Completas 1953-1960 [4-CD set]
Xiomara Laugart – La Voz

On order:

Scanner with the Post Modern Jazz Quartet – Blink of an Eye
Rashed Al Majed - Jalsat Wanasa 2010 - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

I resent the fact that I have to provide my own storage medium if I pay for mp3s, plus I have a real stereo, even if I rarely use it (since the walls and floors in this building are too thin to really play things at the volume I'd like to). I have paid for a few downloads this year, but very few.

I kind of wish my purchases, in general, wouldn't be so collection-buildy. Sometimes it's like I feel compelled to build some sort of reference collection for the areas of music that interest me, but that's not necessarily what I really want to listen to. On the other hand, I grab stuff like those Ahmed al Hifnawi CDs partly because that's the sort of stuff that goes out of print pretty quickly.

that's a great list of CDs. i have a benny more vinyl box set.

lately i've bought a lot of rap, techno, and classical on CD, just because those genres seem to fit well with those formats. probably will buy more metal on cd, too, since metal vinyl is for me prohibitively expensive for the most part. everything else is generally vinyl.

i steal cds

I cannot really remember all of the CDs I've bought this year because I've reduced so much for economic and conservation reasons.
I believe this is what I have bought:

Weird Al - The Essential and Polka Party
Faith Evans - The First Lady and Keep the Faith
No Doubt - Self Titled and Beacon Street Collection

I was finishing my ND collection, so there was a reason for that.
Don't mind the Faith CDs, although I would have preferred Faithfully because it's her best one but her albums seem hard to come by in retail.
The Al CDs are in my car.

For physical media in general, I spend more time in the Big Lots $3 DVD bins these days than I do staring at a music rack.

i have a benny more vinyl box set.

Awesome, seriously. Is it old vinyl? What the fuck don't you know about, musically speaking?

Lou Harrison: Scenes from Cavafy

I admit I haven't listened to this all the way through. The instrumental part is great, but I can't deal with the Javanese style chorus in English.

Slightly off topic but how are people consuming their digital files if they're not burning them to disc? Listening through shitty computer speakers or plugging an ipod into an amp? Seems like a regression to me.

Um, with good headphones?

yeah, or running a computer through an amplifier & speakers. it's a regression in terms of audio quality, perhaps, but i can't often distinguish between CD-quality sound and high-bitrate MP3s made by someone who knows what they're doing. plus digital files have huge advantages over analog media like tape and vinyl in terms of portability, physical space required, ease of access, ability to replicate & edit, the fact that playback doesn't degrade the source or automatically introduce noise/error, etc.

last cd I bought tho was a repurchase of Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted.... I already have in my possession a copy of the original but like all my CD's it's cracked and dirty looking from just moving place to place. Plus I really wanted to see what these 60pg booklets were all about. I was blown away at first from the sheer amount of quality that went into the packaging & really really wish this sort of detail would be picked up by record companies as something that should come as usual, not as post-20-years-later deluxe editions.