Confess Your Collecting Tics

[eine]

Most plussers have invested a lot of resources into buying records.

I am typically guided by what comes up in charities/junk shops, online bargains, my actual tastes and inclinations, and then also getting into 'collecting projects' often abandoned (TOTP sleeve, Fairground records) or still ongoing (Annie Get Your Gun records).

Some of these last categories are a bit nonsensical and approach hordeing. It took me a long time to jettison my Fairground records and now I don't understand quite why I bothered.

Any tics?

[ginghamkitchen]

I like albums recorded 'Live At The Talk Of The Town'. I also like 'My Fair Lady' and 'Oliver' records of all kinds.

[eine]

Did you read my latest post GK?

Which reminds me that my latest tic is buying records only for the sleeve notes. I wonder how long that will last. I keenly regret selling my copy of Mexicana Holiday by Pepe Jaramillo (to Mexico no less) which boasted the classic "The world of dentistry in Mexico and elsewhere undoubtably lost an able exponent and practitioner when the lure of music proved too much for Pepe Jaramillo..."

[Expiry2011]

I have in the past tried to confine my collecting to geography - Eastern Europe, to artist, Shake Keane or to period - 1955 - 1960
All of these approaches have lead to some fascinating finds as well as a fair amount of dross
At the moment I'm strangely attracted to Stan Tracey - particularly records where he was only one of the band rather than the leader - don't ask me why
I'm also slowly trying to build up a complete collection of Mose Allison LPs but I refuse to pay more than about a fiver for any of them
However, recent culls have seen me get rid of a lot of records I've picked up just for the sleeves - particularly cheesecake covers

[babycart]

Did you read my latest post GK?

Which reminds me that my latest tic is buying records only for the sleeve notes. I wonder how long that will last. I keenly regret selling my copy of Mexicana Holiday by Pepe Jaramillo (to Mexico no less) which boasted the classic "The world of dentistry in Mexico and elsewhere undoubtably lost an able exponent and practitioner when the lure of music proved too much for Pepe Jaramillo..."

My current favourite sleevenotes are for Los Indios Tabajaras

It's a long way from the jungles of northern Brazil to Hoagy Carmichael, but that's just part of the path followed by the guitar duo known as the Tabajaras Indians in what must surely be one of the greatest off-trail adventure stories in the whole history of music.

The story began in the jungle of the State of Ceara, up in the northeastern shoulder of Brazil. Here an Indian tribe called the Tabajaras lives well isolated from the world of the white man. While peaceful enough, the Tabajaras have been generally unfriendly to the white man's civilization, which they have considered inferior to their own.

One of the leaders of the Tabajaras was a tribesman by the name of Mitanga who was the father of thirty children. One day, twenty-odd years ago, Musaperi, his No. 3 son, and Herundy, the next oldest boy, found a guitar lying in a path in the woods along which a party of white men had passed. Not knowing what it was, they carried it home and kept it hidden for a couple of weeks.

When it failed to explode as had firearms found by some of their fellow tribesmen, the two young boys took it out and examined it more closely. The sound that the strings made as they were touched by their exploring hands excited the boys' curiosity, and in some unexplained manner the brothers learned to play the instrument. They loved it enough to want to follow it into the white man's world from which it had come.

Rio de Janeiro was their first important stop...

I also love the Portuguese ones on Dorival Caymmi´s Cancoes Praieras, which describe the singer's early years as a drinks salesman, whne he had to take a display case to various bars. "One day , Dorival finally got bored, drunk the display case, and became a painter."

[Ronnies-Pockets]

I always end up buying foreign language courses, cant leave them alone.
Though I haven't a clue what they are on about.

[Tsundoku]

I have been guided a bit before by what I want to put on mixes. My CD for this year definitely led to me checking out more post-punk stuff, and I'm planning one for Waxidermy which will take things in another direction. I have various other different trends that I seem to follow and sometimes abandon with the rise and fall of interest - variously popsike, Acid Archives stuff, private presses, field recordings and no doubt some others that I've forgotten. So looking at that list, I'd say I'm very influenced by what I read about online. I guess

For reasons of cash money, I did recently decide I was going to embrace the joys of serendipity and random finds which I did for a while - mix here - but I haven't stuck solely to this, though it does make sense, and leads to lots of interesting discoveries.

[Sonovox]

Some of these last categories are a bit nonsensical and approach hordeing.

Records with tiny people dancing on keyboards on the cover.
Records that have faces on the labels so you can get hypnotized by the spinning heads.
CRI records featuring award winning composers you have never heard of. And you never heard of the award they won, either.
Any records that mention elephants (Hannibal Brooks, Elephant Steps, versions of Baby Elephant Walk, etc.)
Medieval instruments in non-medieval settings.
Instrumental Electrecord records.
Spineless easy listening records showing people in formal clothes on the cover.

[babycart]

Covers with African masks and swimming pools on them. Not necessarily both at the same time.

Currently obsessed with flamenco/rumba that has strong Moorish/Arabian touches.

Carmen dances a zambra

A very young Lole Montoya (from Carlitos' swap CD) and her Algerian mum sing Om Khalsoum.

[Ian Townsend]

1. Swap CDs
The ultimate filters. Illegal, unlicensed compilations, every single one crammed with tracks you know other people either
a) are desperate for you to hear and 'discover' for yourself ( great!) or
b) want you to know they own. (Not so great, but useful for hearing sought after raers!)
Either way the most remarkable collection of music that over time have evolved from the 2003 period of US / UK 'funk, soul, jazz' crate-digging of the 80s and 90s into a perfect encyclopedia of directions in digging in the 00s (private press / school band / library / Argentinian folk / 80s PINA / Peruvian psych etc etc etc blah blah blah )

2. 90s Fanzines
Mod / Soul / EZ / rave etc ( Note to self: I still have yours Craig!) Fanzines didn't die after punk and post- punk, they diversified and as desk-top publishing evolved they became easier to read!

3. Private Burns
Bored y'all enough with them. Not an investment (very few will have any value in the future) I just can't resist picking them up and love them as much as I love private press records. Human frailties like conceit and humility are writ large across the covers and sleeve notes are endlessly entertaining and revealing. Wonderful things.

4. Rave Flyers
Growing market evidenced by proliferation of fakes / reprints. Can still get them in bulk cheaply and whenever I see a big bundle cheap enough I buy them. I love the naff Sci- fi, Utopian, cod-Surrealism of them. I find the crapness of imagery utterly beguiling.

5. Magazines generally
Especially the more esoteric. I spent half a day last year idly reading through a stack of Bottle Collector monthly reading the same collecting fervour as i do on music forums lime this ( storage / prices / values / flossing / Ebay steals / raers / condition issues..absolutely everything, but all related to bottles, jars and lids.

[Mang]

Anything overtly gay (as in homosexual) from the 60s/early 70s. The records by drag queens are usually well worth avoiding but the cash-ins (if such items could be termed, given that they were catering to what must have been a very small audience) generally have some interesting and curious bits on. Most are obviously the work of straight comedians sending up the affectations of both butch and effeminate men (the Mike Curb/Teddy & Darrel album on Mira for one) although nearly all are fascinating sociological artefacts. In a way.

[Plainstone]

( storage / prices / values / flossing / Ebay steals / raers / condition issues..absolutely everything, but all related to bottles, jars and lids.

Matchmaker threads as well?

1960s Robertsons marmalade pink rim lid, expiry date 11/7/67. Need upgrade on strawberry jam label (staining)

[Shere Khan]

Matchmaker threads as well?

"1960s Robertsons marmalade pink rim lid, expiry date 11/7/67. Need upgrade on strawberry jam label (staining) "

That made my day

[Cacapo]

I dont buy dutch pressings. Yuk!

[someblokecalledfuz]

I pretty much buy anything I don't know between roughly 1965 - 1975 (although there are plenty of exceptions) which catches my attention... I cast a broad and deep net, and boy do I bring home some stinkers...

I love any record which makes me stop and stare and go "what where they thinking? Who did they think would buy this stuff?" then I reaslise the answer is "me"!

I find it very hard to narrow my search, and definately believe in serendipity.

Is there a record buyers anonymous?