Me No Like This Music

I have about 200+ c.d.'s, unequally divided between work and home, and unequally divided between new (90%), used (8%), free (1%) and homemade (1%). Today I would like to talk about used music.

Used music is great as it's the best way of exploring new artists without shelling out an arm and a leg for a c.d. I mean, let's face it, how many times have dropped your hard earned wampum on a new c.d. from someone you'd never heard of before musicwise only to find out afterwards that the music sucked major moose testicles.

C'mon now, 'fess up.

I'll be the first to admit that I've dropped wampum on a artist that I've never heard before only because I've read a little bit about the artist and wanted to hear what they were all about, and the music didn't live up to my expectations (ex. Robert Plant & Allison Krause).

So over the years, I've come to appreciate the used c.d. I found it's a great way to experience a new artist, and if anything, if I don't like, all it costs me was the equivalent of a gallon of gas.

I've also come to appreciate free c.d.s as well. Ain't nothing more satisfying than getting free c.d.s from someone. Only drawback to that, is if the person took crappy care of their c.d.s. I got about a two dozen from a former co-worker and sadly, she did not take too good care of them. Especially the ones that piqued my curiosity, like the ones from local artists. The ones that she did take good care of, were of artists that I don't like.

Be that as it may, I do own a few clunkers, both new and used, that have graced my c.d. player but once, and in some cases, twice before being buried in a far corner of my sock drawer (really) never to be played again.

These clunkers are the end result of making a purchase base on reputation and reputation alone. Let me know what you think, chime in your two cents, the perhaps afterwards, share a few of your clunkers.

1} All Saints: I found this c.d. at a Salvation Army thrift store and for the life of me, I thought it would be a decent girl group vocal thingy. I'm all into stretching my musical horizons, but I give on this c.d. after trying to listen to their version of "Under The Bridge".

2} Best of Bluegrass Gospel: I enjoy bluegrass gospel, so I thought this would be a good box set to try. Boy was I wrong. Basically, it's four musicians playing their version of bluegrass gospel. Lasted until I popped in the 2nd c.d., which began skipping all over the place.

3} James Taylor At Christmas: Unlike the "A Snoopy Christmas" c.d. I picked up just before Circuit City went the way of Eastern Airlines, this c.d. was more of the same tripe that most artists put out every Christmas season. Fortunately, I didn't spend any money on this. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have swapped for it.

4} The Knife Project by Knife Dinero: A serious local c.d. performed by some wannabe faux prog guitarist, I purchased this at Border's, which became one of the few misfires purchases that came out of Borders. A $7 waste, I couldn't even get through the first track without ripping my headphones off.

5} The Chi-Lites: This was one of those greatest hits packages put by some European music company that decided it would be a good thing to digitally remaster the tracks. Feh.

6} Folks by the Nixons: I bought this one used as I was going through my artistic experimental phase. Didn't pique my curiosity for whatever reason and into the sock drawer it went.

7} Mediofano M Capta Est by Mayhem: Death metal at its worst. I read quite a bit about Mayhem, the "premier" death metal band out of Europe (Original bass member ate a gun, his crime scene was used as a record jacket, parents successfully sued to have his music removed from one of their albums) and I was really interested in listening to their music.

Whereas some bands, no matter what the genre, are good recorded live, some are not. This was not. I simply could not get past the first three minutes of the c.d. I tried twice, but the sound was atrocious. Makes my bootleg of the Sex Pistols sound positively professional. Anyways, I spent $17 on this piece of crap new, from FYI, and FY want to give me only $1 when I'd tried to sell it back to them.

8} The Richard Burgin Vanity Project: I devoted an entire blog post to this c.d. Pleae checkout this link to it.