New Wave Outpost Forum

I admit it - - there's more in my collection than I'll ever have a chance to listen to in this lifetime. And that's if I promise to only listen to things not listened to yet; I don't have the time to go back and listen to self-established classics.

(I can't remember the last time I put on something like Gang of 4 'Entertainment'....it's so ingrained that it's almost not necessary for me to actually play it - - and that's a crime).

When I was a kid in the new wave heyday you had only a few albums, and you listened over and over and made them a part of you. To copy a friend's lp you had to buy cassette tapes ($5 for two I think) and on a longer lp like XTC's 'Black Sea', you couldn't fit it in 45 minutes (and it took the length of album time-wise to copy it).

Now everything's too damned easy. Download a million songs instantly, burn a 75 minute-CD instantly, you know the drill. I feel like I'm missing an important part of the music-listening experience. I'm collecting more than I'll EVER HEAR.

Do you ever feel the same way, and a little bummed about it? (it's almost like a 'loss of innocence'.....)

...and I didn't even bring up the way box-sets bring everything together in one neat package (something like the Joy Division 'Heart and Soul'). The effort of hunting all that down MADE you listen to it repeatedly...

I've been trying to keep up with my downloads by downloading them into a "New" folder then after I burn them print the graphics and sleeve and put them all in a printed jewel case I then move them to the proper file on my hard drive. Problem is I'm going through jewel cases a hundred at a time as I was downloading about 5 or 6 cd's a day for about 8 mos.You do the math. I have to admit that I myself very rarely listen to the standard new wave fare anymore and I can't think of anything I don't have that I need.

<img src="http://www.ibiblio.org/mal/MO/eno/memot.gif"><p><font face="small Fonts">brain one</font></p>

Glad to see this topic. I thought I was the only one.

Yep, I have too much stuff, but I can't stop collecting.
I suppose it's a sickness![;)]

I seem to go through listening phases though. I'll concentrate on one genre for a month or two, listen to as much as I can, archive it and then move on. This seems pretty cyclical for me. Every couple of years I'll go through a disco phase, then a trance phase, etc. Throughout it though, New Wave/Punk remains the foundation & it's the one I continually return to for extended periods of listening.
I guess my obsessive collecting is just "storing up for the next phase.."

funny you bring this up, I was just realizing this myself, I seem to be filling up hard drive space at a phenomenal rate and finding "lost classics" that truly I may only listen to once and realize it may not have stood the test of time or things I liked back then I don't particularly care for now. I have also been getting so many referrals...."hey check this out" on the hub or on here and I've found so much stuff I like that I figure, what's the big deal, it's not like it's taking up room in my house, just need to go buy more hard drives.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/htik.png" border="0" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket"></a>

Right now I don't have the memory or the money to buy memory to download stuff, much less buy albums. As a listener and a collector, I have to have the inserts. I can't get that with downloads and to print one out would probably end up being as much as if I were to buy the album used (which I do). I don't care too much if the case is not in pristine condition, so long as I can listen to the cd (99% of my collection is on cd now[xx(] ). I can't get used to mp3s... mebbe in ten years when everyone has moved on to neuron and synapse technology I'll move on to mp3[:I]

I FINALLY set up my Dj rig in my garage so I am re discovering all the bsides and buried tracks I wasnt playing as much when I was djing --its great---- but now have put a moratorium on the collecting side.

It's a real problem, but a nice one to have. I finally got an mp3 player hooked up in my car so I can start working through my collection during my morning and evening commutes. I started going through alphabetically at the beginning of January. I'm just starting on the C's this week. This morning on the way to work I heard

Cabaret Voltaire - Smooth,
Cactus World News - Years Later,
Camper Van Beethoven - Take the Skinheads Bowling,
Candy - Whatever Happened to Fun
and
Car Crash Set - Outsider.

Yep, I sometimes don't even listen to the stuff I get anymore. I just have it there because I know I want it.

Bpdp3, I couldn't have said it better myself. I was driving to work today, thinking about how much music I have accumulating over the past few years, and how I would be able to listen to it all. I have been diligent about putting together a music database of all my vinyl, CDs and CDrs, so that makes me feel better, but I still need to listen to about 400 more vinyl records so I can list them in my Database. And I have hundreds of CDs that I need to listen to, that I forgot what they really sound like..... Oh well, at least I know I have some amazing stuff, and it's at my finger tips. Nice post!!

Fortunately my hobbies have become my business. I can never have enough quality junk...it pays my bills.


If any of y'all decide to throw out any old comics, toys, books, albums, etc, let me know. I might be able to use them.


Shameless plug over.

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." - Hubert H. Humphrey
<a href="http://electricdreams71.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">My Blog: <FONT COLOR="CCFF33">E</FONT><FONT COLOR="0000CC">l</FONT><FONT COLOR="CC00CC">e</FONT><FONT COLOR="003300">c</FONT><FONT COLOR="FFCC33">t</FONT><FONT COLOR="9999CC">r</FONT><FONT COLOR="003399">i</FONT><FONT COLOR="FF3333">c</FONT><FONT COLOR="CC00CC">D</FONT><FONT COLOR="003300">r</FONT><FONT COLOR="FFCC33">e</FONT><FONT COLOR="9999CC">a</FONT><FONT COLOR="003399">m</FONT><FONT COLOR="FF3333">s</FONT></a>

I work at home so I do listen to all my CDs as fast as I buy them. However, I buy vinyl sometimes for collector's sake that I don't always make a priority to listen to. I've got tons of MP3s I haven't listened to yet, mostly radio shows. I rarely download music now, but did so five+ years ago when I had less money. When I first got DSL, I remember thinking that it made downloading more work, because you leech it so fast that you have to think of new stuff to look for, and then you have to find the time to listen to it all. (This was back in the good old days before everyone had broadband and became cheap with sharing. Interesting how as people's speed is inversely proportional to the amount they share.)

It's a worse problem with my DVDs and off-air DVD-Rs, but yeah, I'm sure everyone who owns over 10,000 albums (not particularly well catalogued, at that) has this problem in a big way.

It's harder when you come back from the thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets and used record digs with 100 or more vinyl albums at a time. Don't have time to plow through all that, so often I just listen to the one song on the LP I'm familiar with and forgo the rest. Often, I don't even bother to listen to the B-side of a 7" single.

With downloads with me, it's a lot different -- maybe because I don't think I've ever downloaded a million songs at a time. Let alone instantly! There is -- how can I put this delicately -- a lot of atrocious music posted here on a regular basis. I do listen to all that I download. But if it doesn't catch my ear in 30 seconds (or, worse, if it makes my ears bleed), into the recycle bin it goes. Of course, I still appreciate the time somebody took to make that mp3. And if the song means something to them, hey, who cares what I think of it.

Don't forget, just because you own it and have never listened to it before doesn't mean you can't "discover" it when somebody posts an mp3 from it here. And isn't it nice to know you don't have to run out and buy it when that happens? It's right there under your nose.

If I download it, then I try and listen to it right away. Once listened to, if I don't like It, I toss it. If I like it, I go to allmusic.com and try and get the info tags (name, artist, year, track # and I paste in the allmusic url to refer back to if I need) and art correct -- sometimes using different resources (Amazon, Gemm, ELI, Musicstack, etc) for the art.

If I really like the song, beyond just a general appreciation of "liking it" then I have folders in my itunes and make mix cds as I go.

Just discovered a band called The Weepies http://www.theweepies.com/ http://www.myspace.com/theweepies they have sample on the site and are available from itunes if you like them -- kind of folk rock, great harmonies and easy to lisen to. I love the song Take It From Me -- just beautiful.

http://www.indie911.com
Finding some good bands here btw.

But yeah, collecting gets overwhelming. I'm over lps and cds -- I don'tcare about the physical disc anymore... I just want the good music and I want it to sound good. I think mp3s are great -- the next car I get is going to have a hard drive and I won't listen to radio except for NPR.

---------------------------
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com

I found a few years ago I had so many albums I only liked one song off of. So I took all those songs made mix cd's and got rid of all those albums. I made 59 mix cd's so you can see I got rid of quite a bit. It really freed up my collection to listen to the stuff I truly love every song on. I still have a box of vinyl I kept for the cool album covers. All the stuff I listen to is on cd now. There are only a few albums that have not been issued on cd that I want, but I have pretty good copies of those from vinyl I had. Now when I buy stuff I'm not thrilled with I just instantyly get rid of it. I don't allow myself to keep stuff thats just going to sit around and gather dust.

The sun never sets for those who ride into it.