EPs, singles, bootlegs... Do you bother?
 

It seems that a lot of peopple are content with collecting full-length studio albums of artists they enjoy. This is surprising to me.

EPs:
They're usually mini-albums filled with lots of new material. I always get them when I can. Sometimes Discogs will call a CDM an EP which I don't quite understand, but that's not really relevant. EPs are essential.

Singles:
Hit and miss. Some bands only recycle LP tracks on their EPs (like Modest Mouse). Other bands like to fill them with lots of tasty non-LP b-sides (like Muse).

Sometimes, singles are filled with remixes. These can turn great tunes into rubbish house music (ahem - U2). They can offer some decent variations (Massive Attack) or even blow the originals right out of the water (Björk).

Then there are the live b-sides. They're usually very high quality, and are always nice to hear.

Bootlegs:
More often than not, they aren't worth it in my opinion. I do enjoy hearing live music, but audience recordings just don't do it for me. The few bootlegs I do have are either wonderful soundboard recordings, or are taken from radio shows.

So what about you? Do you go above and beyond to get "full" discographies of your favorites? Why or why not?

EPs? I always buy EPs by bands I like. Why wouldn't I? They're just short studio albums.

Singles? Rarely. Only if they have B-sides that can't be found elsewhere.

Boots? Meh. I've almost never heard a bootleg that appeals to me. On the rare occasions that I wind up with one I usually listen to it once and then never listen to it again.

There's a another category here that you left out though: live albums. By and large I don't buy these either but sometimes they can be pretty great. The Roots' Come Alive and Alien Sex Fiend's Too Much Acid? are two incredible examples of live albums IMHO. And I'd go as far saying some of the best jazz albums are live.

EPs Never used to buy them, but now I do. Mostly by new bands, who haven't got the money or experience or material to put a full studio album together.

Singles Sometimes, if they come with decent b-sides.

Bootlegs Not really. Poor quality generally. Will buy properly recorded live albums though.

EPs: Every single time, sometimes it's the best part of the discography. But definitely for me not something I would ever exclude.

Singles: Very, very rarely- and if so then it's always by accident. I think I have a single from The Arcade Fire and a single from Dead Can Dance and that's it out of 140gb's.

Bootlegs: I think I got some Bowie boots, but I got those by accident, usually I try to avoid getting them. The only time I would go out of my way to get a bootleg is if I listened thoroughly to a discography and wanted more.

B-side albums: It really, really depends on a few factors. With PJ Harvey I have her B-sides album, some live albums, etc. With most bands I wouldn't really bother getting the b-sides, but if the artist is especially good there might be some great stuff there.

Live albums: I thought I would mention I always try to get one live album in the discography somewhere, to me it really adds something. Usually no more then one or two though.

E.P's - I like them, I use them a lot to get into new bands. It's like you can say you've legitimately heard something by a band that takes a fraction of the time it takes you to listen to an album. You can't really say the same thing if you've only heard half an album.

Singles - Depends on what singles. If they're just songs taken from albums then no. However a lot of bands I like have only made a couple of singles so I'll just enjoy those & find it a shame they never got a chance to record more.

Bootlegs - I'd much rather listen to a muddy sounding bootleg than some official live album that's been overdubbed to fuck in the studio. In some cases (like with The Clash) I only listen to their bootlegs and virtually ignore their studio albums. As long as it's listenable and of a reasonable standard I don't really care about sound quality.

see, this surprises me. sound quality means quite a lot to me. but i really don't listen to much rock or other organic music. most of the stuff i enjoy is very clean and artificial, and it lends it self very well to impeccable digital recordings.

i guess that's why i really don't care for vinyl very much. sure it's good when listening to to something with soft sounds like Beatles or Doors. but for stuff like Pink Floyd, i dig my flac rips of japanese remastered gold discs :D

Thats the thing I guess, the type of music you're listening to.

There are some types of music that's done far better in the studio than they are live. But those type of bands hardly ever record live albums anyway. But basically if i'm listening to either rock, metal or punk i'd much rather hear it in a live environment on a bootleg as it should be rather than a tarted up version in a studio done on a live album.

I don't know, sometimes I like my music tarted up. :D

I've been surprised by a lot of EP's in the past, namely the first one I would say was the Zero EP by Smashing Pumpkins. I cannot believe that those songs were left off Melon Collie & The Infinite Sadness because they were all pretty good.

Bootlegs I don't really care for that much unless they're by artists that I really like, or if it's something totally obscure. Say for instance if someone were to say they had a WarsawpacK bootleg album I would be all over that like Robbie Coltrane on a plate of chips.

Singles I could really care less for, sometimes the B-Side turns out to be good, most of the time you understand why the band decides to leave it off the record.

EPs? Definitely, there are bands like Stereolab that rarely produce worthwhile LPs but glorify their shorter brethren. Not to mention the oodles and oodles of early punk bands that never had the capital to invest in an LP.

Singles? Not so much, unless there's a song I really like I tend to shy away from that medium.

Bootlegs? Unfortunately my collection is somewhat sparse, I don't really listen to them often either. Just difficult to get in the loop, I suppose.

Live albums? Absolutely. Where would we be without Kick Out The Jams?