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?

I agree with a lot of what's been said.

EPs: In the 90s I never bothered with EPs, but I realized in the 00s that sometimes it's a band's best work. Not just because the tracks are better, but because there's no room for filler and it can make for a much tighter release. Also it's a great way to check out a band.

Singles: I rarely bother unless I really like the band and there's an unreleased B-side or more. If it's an album track released before the album and I'm anticipating the album, I'll wait for the album.

Bootlegs: Never cared for these. I own one bootleg, a live Ministry album from the 90s. It's ok. I prefer to stick to official releases.

B-side albums: If it's a band I love, I definitely would pick it up. Fully expecting it to be inferior to real albums, but it's still nice to hear everything a band's done.

Live Albums: They're not my favorite but sometimes they really are good. I find that I like live albums more if it's the first release I hear by a band. If I've heard studio work first, I usually don't seek out live albums. That said, of the live albums I have, I do like the funny between song banter, variations in the songs, occasional improvisation, etc.

Ah, another type of release that hasn't been mentioned! Pretty much by their very nature these are hit-or-miss but I have a few I like quite a bit such as REM's Dead Letter Office (which is actually one of my favorite releases by them) and They Might Be Giants' Miscellaneous T.

I took it from Schizotypic's post. ;)

Ha-ha. Whoops!

EPs: I love EPs, they're almost always as good if not better than a band's full albums. Plus, there's almost never filler to deal with, which is always convenient.

Singles: On the other hand, I rarely ever buy singles. There's rarely ever anything good on them and if there is, the band usually releases a B-side album.

Bootlegs: I have 2 Grateful Dead bootlegs. So no, I don't like them.

Live Albums: These are hit or miss, sometimes I like them other times I don't but regardless I rarely ever go out of my way to track them down. If I see a band and they have a great show, I might try to find some live stuff.

B-Side AlbumsLike I said above, I usually like these. I always check them out if a band I like releases one. Sometimes they can be the best in a bands collection.

lots of hate for singles here. i think that the 'real thing' is kind of lame - you'll never pop in a cd just to hear two or three remixes. but digitally - that's a whole different story. gathering a bunch of singles from a band you really like and throwing them on shuffle can be quite nice...

live albums i do enjoy on occasion. some bands sound the same live as they do in the studio (like Cake - never spend money to go to their shows). but others sound really good live. i tend to stick to official live albums though, since i'm picky about quality.

but i have a few unofficial recordings of Sigur Ros that are really quite good...

That's the thing...if it's a band I really like, I have all the singles on the proper albums. I do, however, have a bunch of singles from bands I don't really care for. Nostalgic popular tracks from my youth, for example.

If I like a band I just get any extra thing I can find.
(e.g. I have more than 2.5 gb of extra Beatles material)
This way I can mix and match my favorite version of each song... and add some other unreleased favorites.

Same here. Many of them are of the hair metal variety I must admit.

no, no. you've got it all wrong. singles are not about LP tracks, they're about b-sides. singles usually consist of 1 or 2 LP tracks, then the rest are either new songs or remixes.

example: i have 80 seperate Bjork discs. very few are proper studio albums and EPs - the rest are singles. but they are absolutely filled with remixes and non-LP tracks. lots of original material to enjoy.

So yeah, B-sides then. Many bands will put out B-side collections so I get those if they do. I otherwise don't obsess about one or two tracks here or there (with a few exceptions).

EP's: For sure, I probably have an EP for every 3 albums in my library, especially for bands that I am new to.

Singles: Don't own one, except for Bowie.

Bootleegs: Usually really ****ty quality, but if I can come across some that are of decent quality then for sure. Got some really sick ones by The Fall.

Live Albums: Try to get one from every band that I like more than averagely. Adds a whole new dimension to the band and the music.

Some of the best albums I own are live albums.
What I mean is, my live album collection is greatly outnumbered by the studio albums I own (predictably) but a good live album outdoes a studio album imo.
On the whole, I'd rather listen to a particular band on a live album as opposed to their studio efforts.

EP's: ^Couldn't have said it better myself.

Singles: I really enjoy singles and own quite alot of them. I'm pretty sure they're all remix singles of electronica songs though, from groups like Prodigy, Lords of Acid, remixes of Madonna songs, etc. I don't have any singles with b-sides from actual bands I don't think.

Bootlegs: Listened to a few. It's not something I can get into, but I can understand why some people would enjoy them though I think.

Live Albums: Live albums can be pretty great.
Only thing that really bugs me with live albums is when the singer will try to have the crowd sing the best part of an amazing song, instead of doing it himself. Was listening to the song F*cking Hostile on Pantera Live: 101 Proof a few nights ago, and Phil would turn the mic to the crowd every time the music would build up and it was time to scream the songs title. Was driving me nuts. ><

Jazz albums on the other hand sound great live, and I think I prefer them that way. Just hearing the clink of glasses and muted coughs in the audience really adds something to a jazz session for me. :thumb:

EPs-generally if they're up-and-comers, and usually for my favourite bands.Perfect listening for walking in and out to college.
Bootlega-very occasionaly
Live Albums-they're usually hit-and-miss,but there are good ones floating about.
Singles-couldn't care less.

Eh... I think it really depends on the artist. Some of my favorite artists just aren't up to par live. Leonard Cohen, for example, sucks live, and as such I would much rather listen to "Songs of Love and Hate" than "Cohen Live"

Ugh...that is really annoying.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason I downloaded that Coldplay live EP LeftRightLeftRightLeftblahblahblahblah when it came out (I mean, it's free, right? LEGALLY free!) and to my dismay Chris Martin had the crowd singing every single goddamned chorus to Fix You, which is possibly the only Coldplay song I really find myself enjoying. It was ridiculous!

Yeah I find that stuff pretty lazy. The audience will sing along regardless, if they want to, but the rest of us don't need to hear it. We came to see YOU perform. Not that asstards in the crowd.

Like what most have said, I will often check out EPs and Bootlegs if they are of a band that I thoroughly enjoy. You often come across rare gems that you wouldn't have seen/heard otherwise.

As for singles, I rarely bother unless it is or includes a b-side song that I haven't heard before.

EPs are nice and funsized. I don't tend to bother checking out bootlegs or singles unless it's a band of which I'm a rabid fanboy.

I usually only get studio LPs but I'm also starting to get EPs. The rest I don't really care for.
For the Hip Hop fans, what do you'll think of yet another release format: the mixtape?

Hit and miss.Strongly depends who and what the general reaction is.

I DL quite a few mixtapes. Some I love, but being an hour normally in length they can be difficult to sit through unless the material is top notch. I like most of the ones I get though.