Wesley A. Kose, over at Jaguaro, has a list of the "Features: One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately". Records that are "critic-mandated vanity archives", were at one point The Next Big Thing, or nostalgic favourites that you don't actually listen to all get the blindfold and high wall. I've not got all that many of them, which you might think is encouraging, but it's not; I don't have all that many albums (however many you have, I have less), so these are a correspondingly greater slice of my collection. Consider me humbled, and I'll do my best to get rid of:
- U2 - The Joshua Tree
- Nirvana - Nevermind
- Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
- Oasis - What's the Story, Morning Glory?
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- Chemical Bothers - Dig Your Own Hole
- Pulp Fiction - Original Soundtrack
- The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
- R.E.M. - Out of Time
- Beastie Boys - Check Your Head/Ill Communication
So, 10% of the not-to-possess albums are here at Castle Langridge. In my defence, I haven't got one of these on CD; they were all taped off other people. Does this make me feel better? No. What does make me feel better is that I'm sure Tim and Andy have both got more of these than me, although they will gleefully point it out if they have not.
It is important that, in spite of all the truly insane accusations that the writers at jaguaro.org are fans of such groups/singers at Britney, the Backstreet Boys, NSync, Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton or Kenny G, the reality is that with they would never even excuse any music ever played on commercial radio beyond the heyday of AC/DC.
Beyong the "punk revolution", they believe all commercial music, indeed all major label releases, to be worthless.
However, this view is by no means unique or even original. It has been promoted by indie-rock webzines for a long time now, but has only been more widely accessible in recent years.