Are you a Sonic Youth completist?
 

Do you strive to own everything Sonic Youth have ever done? Did you pay $550 for that copy of 'Dirty', with the writing in Swedish? If there was an ultra-rare 'Satan is Boring' super-supermix that was ten seconds longer than the normal supermix, would you get on a plane to collect a copy?

Tell us about your colection, if you like. Or don't bother, it's up to you.

Everything released on CD (except SYR3), Sonic Death, some solo stuff, and lots of live shows. It was definitely compulsive (completist) buying, but I get like that with bands I really like (first Pink Floyd, then Beatles, Radiohead, Pavement, Tool, and SY).

I would consider myself a completist in as much as when I love a band, I want to hear everything they've done. And this goes for Sonic Youth.

But I don't want the anything that doesn't include new recordings. So I can happily live without the mis-pressings, ltd edition digipacks, picture discs etc. if they don't have any new music on.

i kinda buy what i can afford really, i'm not that interested in singles, i dont buy CD Singles at all, i think they are kinda a rip off, if i like a song by any band i'll just but the album that its on, i do have all the SYR and all that, thats kinda different.

I dunno.

Does owning 100+ SY and related items count as completist?

i want to be a completist, but i cant afford it.
i have all their main studio albums and a few of them on vinyl too, i have alot of their CD singles mostly from around the goo/dirty era, i have a few of their singles on vinyl too.

i dont have any of the SYR's or rare stuff like the silver sessions or made in usa, but i want them.

i have mostly all stuff they did downloaded except live vids etc, which im trying to find out how to save from youtube to my pc. i'm going to buy all the albums and stuff around, idk probably off ebay, or in record and tape traders, i cant seem to find all the albums in best buy cause they only have recent stuff. ;|

I buy what I can afford, no more or less is me.

I don't feel the need to own the same thing on multple formats, so I'm unlikely to double up on stuff, but I admit that if I were to see a nice old ltd edition of something, I'd consider it.

i've never been a completist with any band if you exclude getting near that point with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Velvet Underground.I don't really see the point in owing everything a band has done and then not playing the thing because you don't want to ruin the package.Besides,my best friend back home has a record shop and such a huge record collection that his parents gave him the loft on top of their house to store them all.He owns every single thing that Current 93,Nurse with Wound and Death in June have ever put out(and that's saying something).I owe him for getting to know SY as i used to sell him porn and music magazines when i did a stint as a newsagent and in return he used to lend me tons of records.

I agree, wholeheartedy.

edit: how can a poll have twelve votes, but only have been viewed nine times ?!?!?

Isn't it 9 replies. The shy ones vote but don't say anything!

verging on completionist.... at times... and then it all seems absurd and i spend my money on records i haven't heard before... but i feel another completionist streak welling up inside me...

Jeezus H Christ on a bike. The First NWW album goes for extortionate amounts.

I think the only way to be a completist is if you get into a band early on in their career. I got every Placebo release from the first album period because it's easier to get ltd editions and such when no one knows the band. I have everything Urusei Yatsura did, but that's only 3 albums worth of multiple format. At this stage in the game, there's absolutely no way I could ever find a complete SY collection.

I have got all of the Blast First LP's, the Geffen CD's, The SYR series (mostly on CD, but when I find them all on LP I'll probably sell/ give them to someone on here) and a couple of 12"s, but nothing that important.

As if he would even let me touch it................

And our friendship is so good that i have been known to hunt for Yellow 6 coloured vynils around London for him.

I am a backcatalog kind of man, but I don't buy stuff I hardly like, and I like buying stuff cheap, so I just try to be patient and search the internet. Just this year I was able to buy the beautiful Nine Swimming Pools (the book) for 37$ (inc. shipment) whereas the past couple of years I've had numerous occasions of buying it for 450$.

Urusei Yatsura maaannn!I used to find their promos for such cheap prices that at one point i was buying singles and all.They had some good tunes but they didn't really do it for me.Yummy Fur sounded more exotic to me(even though they didn't in reality).At one point i had it in my mind that i was gonna buy only and exclusively scottish bands for the rest of my life.

I am in the limits of affordability and availability. In the stores of my country you can only get regular CD albums. and I don't consider purchasing rare items and CD singles via internet THAT exciting.

that means that I have all the regular albums on original CDs.
and that's about it.

If you want to sell anything on, I'm actually sad enough to own more than one copy of things... 3 copies of their first album on vinyl, because one day one of them will break.

Wasn't chappy chap out of Franz Ferdinand in the Yummy Fur? Or did I entirely imagine that?

There was a great golden age of Scottish pop - Arab Strap, Mogwai, Delgadoes, Yummy Fur, Urusei Yatsura, early Belle and Sebastian, the Pastels... Fuck me, do you remember Prolapse? No one ever remembers them, they were fucking ace. I remember Mick (who's a professional archaeologist, apparently) getting us drinks when we were lowly 14 year olds. They gave to me and signed a 7" for me with a load of strangeness. Excellent band, lovely (albeit incomprehensible) people.

Prolapse maaaannnnnnnnn!!!I had the 'Tricolore' lp and a few singles.Yes,they were a good band and you have perfectly described that moment in time when Scotland could do no wrong in my eyes.A couple of the Franz guys were indeed in Yummy Fur.

I remember Prolapse supporting SY at Kentish Town Forum on the Washing Machine tour.

04/19/96 - London, England @ Forum
Date: Friday, April 19th, 1996
City: London, England
Venue: Forum

OTHER PERFORMERS
Prolapse
Ascension

The only thing I remember is them being totally chaotic, and, yes, totally incomprehensible.

This wasn't really worth my posting was it?

I only get what I can afford for now. So far I only have all the main albums, a couple SYR's and some solo albums. I'm hoping to expand my collection alittle at the SY show next Monday.

wow, Ascension that's a blast from the past. Me and Chris Corsano had a conversation about this duo last year... they were killer guitar/drums improv ala Rudolph Grey. Stefan Jaworzyn whatever happened to that guy (isn't he a writer/critic for Wire? er something like that).

anyways, completist sorta maybe but no... i do not have a few things i nearly have everything some of the more hard to find and less interesting stuff i have on cdr, usually compilations and soundtracks i do not buy because the rest of the bands on them are usually shit.

I own what I can afford.
I have the major releases and some other stuff.

I try to buy everything, but I really just buy what I can afford.
I have all the studio albums.
I downloaded the SYR's, but I'm saving up to get them.

Like others have said, I would be a completist if I could afford it.

I have 39 items. Its not much, but in 3 months, I think its pretty good.

Pretty much....except for some of the sweet ultra rare vinyl that you guys have.

if i'm counting o'rourke stuff too i have more then 300 items...

i would like to get hold of rare stuff I would enjoy, If I had money I would pay top dollar for the Flower EP or Kill Yr. Idols EP


i pretty much have nothing though just Confusion is Sex, a bunch of bootleg cdrs, and Gila Monster Jamboree VHS. Nothing else is really worth it but I do plan on getting the SY EP reissue.

Oh, and I also had Goo but burned it with a cigarette and threw it in a river....

300 items? Holy fuck!

What criteria are we using when defining "completist"? Does one count every piece of vinyl, cd's, video's, dvd's, t-shirts, books, posters, buttons, etc? And what about solo works, side bands (like Free Kitten, Dim Stars and Harry Crews), and other people's cd's they've played on (Epic Soundtracks, Christina Rosenvinge, etc)?

I've got all their studio full lengths and SYR1. I'd like to get the rest of the SYR's, at least.