Don't know how I got here, but I just kinda, sorta fell in love with listening to "live" music, performances full of mushthakes, bum notes, off-key singing, garbled lyrics, ear-shattering amplifier feedback and alcohol-induced (or ego-fuelled) stage banter. It's about that little bit of ourselves that extends beyond the elevator: collecting & enjoying music. Apart from scavenging for books and kicking a football on Sundays, this is my other hobby.
Music trading is one of those things that no one plans for: much like a car accident or dialing a wrong number. It's probably something that grew out of attending and listening to live music. Sharing music via trading can shed new light on familiar music, even bringing a different tone to songs well known or previously lost & forgotten. For the more serious fan, this hobby also allows you to chart the evolution of particular songs or phases; the audiophile amongst you will appreciate authentic live performances without the aid of over-dubs, re-mixes and such like. There are other shows which will make more sense to the obsessive compulsive amongst you. Don't lower your expectations, though: you'll hear hecklers and drunks, gossip and fights, pick-up lines and under-paid waitresses, amid the songs.
Most of the performances you come across in the trading community were taped by fans using basic (sometimes archaic) equipment under less than ideal conditions. Others were recorded for broadcast and subsequently circulated. A few were nicked straight from the Soundboard.
Three years and a thousand discs into my collection, I don't really need anything - although there are concerts by favourite bands that I long to find. I don't consider trades as forms of exchange; in fact, precisely the opposite. To consider one CDR as equivalent to another CDR is plainly too simplistic. Music is something that one cannot reduce to what Marx called "exchange value". The upshot of all this is that sometimes discs get sent out just because.
Note: none of the discs listed here are commercial releases. It's illegal, and I think also immoral, to trade official releases which deprive the copyright owner of proceeds. These discs, by contrast, are meant solely for private, aural enjoyment.
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In urgent need of: Game Theory, The Reivers, The Neighbourhoods
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LAST UPDATED 31st May 2005
Keywords:
CDR trading, CD-R trading, live music, trades, nice guy, bootlegs, home recording, trees, weeds, sharing music, taping, recording, good music, Singapore, Asia.
Action Ryan Adams Afghan Whigs The Alarm Luther Allison Ambulance LTD American Music Club Asia Aztec Camera The Band Lester Bangs Bash & Pop Brendan Benson Big Star Black Flag Blake Babies Blondie Blue Cheer Bodeans Jeff Buckley Buffalo Tom Built to Spill Butthole Surfers J. J. Cale Camper van Beethoven The Cars
Peter Case Cat Power Alex Chilton Cole Lloyd The Connells Continental Drifters Elvis Costello Marshall Crenshaw Evan Dando Dandy Warhols Danny & Dusty The dB's Dead Boys del Amitri Doobie Brothers Dramarama Bob "Slim" Dunlap Dwight Twilley Band Bob Dylan The Faces The Firm John Fogerty Game Theory Girls vs. Boys Go-Betweens Golden Smog Grant Lee Buffalo Green on Red Guided by Voices Juliana Hatfield Jimi Hendrix Bill Hicks Iggy Pop The Jayhawks Jim Carroll Band
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Jules & the Polar Bears Tommy Keene Greg Kihn Kinks Knack Knitters The Last The Latin Playboys Peter Laughner Lemonheads
Let's Active Lone Justice Long Ryders Loose Fur Los Lobos Lou Miami & the Kozmetix Mahavishnu Orchestra jesse Malin Aimee Mann Chris Mars Doug Martsch
Curtis Mayfield he MC5 Scott McCaughey Maria McKee ian McLagen McLaughlin John & Carlos Santana Minor Threat Minus 5 Minutemen Mission of Burma
Moon Martin Mooney Suzuki Scott Morgan Van Morrison Mr. Mister The Neighbourhood The Nerves Willie Nile Paul Collins' Beat Perfect Sam Phillips Plasticland
Pleasure Barons The Plimsouls The Posies The Pretenders The Rationals The Real Kids The Records The Reivers The Replacements Paul Rodgers Rolling Stones Santana Schoolboys Scruffy the Cat Bob Segarini The Serfers The Shirts Silos Elliott Smith The Smithereens Smog Some Girls Sonic Youth Soul Asylum Spoon
Bruce Springsteen Tommy Stinson matthew Sweet Teenage Fanclub Television Johnny Thunders Tobin Sprout Tommy Tutone Tonio K True West Jeff Tweedy
U2 Stevie Ray Vaughan Tom Waits Paul Westerberg The Who Wilco Ronnie Wood Steve Wynn Yes Young Fresh Fellows Neil Young
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visitors have chanced upon this site since records began in September 2004.
