Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 17, 2023

In the BCD years, I got some of my best vinyl record albums from the cutouts.

Quantity has a quality all its own.

Algorithms are great at finding stuff that’s like the stuff you already known, but really bad at that serendipitous finding of something you would otherwise never expect to like in a million years, but somehow becomes your favourite album.

Full price, baby, no notches in my album covers!

Cut-out bins is where I learned the band’s one big, catchy hit often sounded nothing like the rest of the album.

Which do you believe? Empty recycled recitations from the media, including this media, or the experience of actually using an app and having it actually present music to you that is new to you? I prefer my reality unrecycled.

38 million tracks on music streaming services were played ZERO times in 2022.

EJ Korvettes had the best selection of cutouts in our section of Detroit, and we shopped there religiously for them.

Algorithms on tv or music bands are only geared to keep a user traveling in one direction. For instance, after I have viewed a movie or two on Prime, the list, ‘movies we know you would enjoy.’ pops up.

Unfortunately for them, I rarely even look at the listing anymore because I found they also list some of the worst films ever made in that genre. I also don’t use it because I have been a movie goer for over 75 years and I refuse to be ‘boxed’ into a single category as a user.

Then, there ae the misplaced movies. Under the ‘comedies’ heading I found at least two Transporter films. Other than the sheer ridiculous scenes and script, has anyone ever seen anything resembling comedy?

The discount bin at Woolworths is where I discovered Rory Gallagher!

Frazz’s shirt is from Flat Black & Circular, East Lansing’s prime used record store.

Diversify your exposure. Two of the five presets on my car radio (one of the buttons is broken) play modern or alternative music, and I found more than a few songs on my playlist from snippets used in YouTube videos.

Random purchases from the cutout bin served me very well. That’s how I discovered Tangerine Dream, and Planet P Project, both of which have remained favorites for going on 40 years.

How many youngsters don’t know what the cut out bin is/was. Many know vinyl though. They can’t buy a Joe Walsh album for $3.99.

You don’t know what “everyone” does. Music appreciation and listening habits vary too much.

I’ve found that a good sign that something may be worthwhile is if it is not popular.

My brother had a personal rule: when he bought music he would always include at least one choice that he had never heard of. He had some disappointments but overall got enough delight from the practice to continue it as long as he lived. After a while the owner of the little music store he frequented would set aside things that he thought my brother might have missed. It was a great collaboration (since, after a while, my brother could not resist whatever the owner suggested and thus became a very good customer).

Flat Black and Circular – still my favorite record store.

If (per Sturgeon’s Law) 90% of everything is crap, then the more of everything you listen to, the more opportunity you have to find some of that 10% that’s great.

The only drawback is that you end up spending 90% of your listening time listening to crap.

Sounds like the Eagles 1972 record. I bought the first copy in the South Korea PX and everyone said they had never heard of them. After one playing it was the favorite album of everyone.

One of my favorite records was from the bargain bin: Ginger Baker’s Air Force 2.

I listen to radio stations that give me a wide variety of music: 1. SiriusXM channel 27 “Deep Tracks”, 2. WDET Detroit Public Radio, especially Saturdays, 3. CBC Canadian music channel, 4. WBFH Bloomfield Hills High School station plays everything.

Every few weeks I send my daughter-in-law a list of new, and some old, music to listen to. I asked how she heard new music other than what her normal station provided (which was more of the same). She asked me to send her some suggestions for other things to listen to, of all kinds of music, which I have been doing.