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<= A D V I C E =>

I have bought many cds...and I have made many mistakes...but making mistakes is a good way to learn...through the years, I have acquired over 6 years of experience with cds, here's a few things I think you all should know...

Cheapest way to increase your CD collection...
steal...but if you don't want to do that, how about joining a CD club?...I recommend BMG...I think their current deal is something like 10 for the price of 1...they charge about $3 per cd for shipping and handling...then, your one CD will cost about $16...thats $46 total...or $4.60 per cd...not a bad deal...but make sure you just get in and get out...if you want more cds, just join again...if you wait a few months before you buy your 1 cd they will give you a deal like buy 1 get 2 free...take that deal and you will end up getting 12 cds for the price of one.
DRAWBACKS: selections are limited, and each month BMG will send you a thing that you have to send back to them in 10 days or they will send you a cd...very annoying...but, if they send you a cd you don't want, you can just write "Return to Sender" on it and throw it back in your mailbox...they don't like this, however, and if you do it a lot you will get kicked from the club(i've been kicked 3 times)...personally, i think BMG is stupid for doing this because it makes being in the club a real nuisance...
How can they sell cds so cheap and not go out of business?...well, most people probably buy more than the required 1 cd...also, all the cds you get are at least a few months old...i think they figure that if you don't think a cd is worth the money when it comes out, you probably never will...so a few months later, after everyone has bought it who thinks it was worth what they initially asked for it, they offer it for cheaper and widen their market...its like movies, they always come out in the theater first and that costs about $7, they leave it there for awhile until all the people who are willing to pay $7 for it go and see it...then, they put it out on video for about $2 and they get all the people who are willing to pay $2 for it...then, they sell it to the cable channels to reach the people that wouldn't pay $2 to see it...it is all a finely tuned equation for sucking as much money from people as they can from a single movie, or cd...

If you borrow someones CD(s)...
a few simple rules:

• Make sure you return it...not a year after you borrow it, 1 week max, unless you have arranged another deadline...there is nothing more annoying than loaning something to someone and them never returning it
• Don't play frisbee with it...you'll end up putting someones eye out
• Don't use it as a pizza cutter...it doesn't work well
• Remember, not only did you borrow a CD, but you borrowed a case, use it

NOTE: these rules do not apply if cd is by "Spice Girls" or "New Kids On the Block".

Buyer beware...
Don't you hate it when you buy a CD based on a few songs and you find that they are the only good songs on the CD?...I do...everyone has their own opinion, so reading reviews doesn't always help...one thing i recommend is going to this site and listening to the 30sec sound bytes of the cd you are thinking of buying, it's hard to tell if a cd is good based on 30secs of each song, but it's better than nothing...before you can listen to the song bytes you will need to download the"RealAudio Player" from here and install it...another thing you could do is borrow the cd from someone before you buy... if you are going to do this, please adhere to the rules above...

<= R E V I E W S =>

the rating system:

A - money well spent
B - im not pissed i bought it
C - i could have lived without it
D - what was i thinking
E - look, its a frisbee

Red Hot Chili Peppers- californication (6/08/99)

grade: A
comments: well, john frusciante is back in the band as the guitarist (he had left the band after "blood sugar sex magik") and the redhotchilipeppers sound like the redhotchilipeppers again...the album is a bit softer sounding than "blood sugar sex magik"...some songs your grandma may even like...you should visit her more often, she thinks you dont like her...

Pearl Jam- yield

Not a bad cd...i would describe most of the songs as mediocre, but i wouldn't say they suck...i don't think the album will knock your socks off, but it also probably won't make you want to throw a rock through the record stores window for charging you money for it...most of the songs are on the slow side...like out of 12 songs i think only 2 could be classified as fast...its a good album people...not great...just good...(opposite of Frosted Flakes)

Matchbox 20- yourself or someone like you

Good cd...im not sure what else to say...damn, i suck at doing reviews...i quit...

Try this link if you want CD reviews

Ah, what the hell, ive bought a lot of cds lately i cant help but share my thoughts on them

<= R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S =>

John Frusciante- niandra lades and usually just a t-shirt

When i bought this album i thought it was just john playing his guitar since he is the former guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers...when i heard john singing it surprised me and scared me...i thought his singing was real bad, everything about the album was bad, it sounded like he had made it with a $10 tape recorder from Kmart, and his voice just sounded so off...those were my first impressions...now it is one of my favorite cds, if not my favorite cd...his singing may not be that pretty, but he sings with feeling...and the guitar playing is inspirational...its a far different cd than any i have ever heard and i really dont know how to describe it, other than to say: his singing is real bad, it sounds like he made it with a $10 tape recorder from Kmart, his voice just sounds so off, and its my favorite cd...so just go buy it...

The Afghan Whigs- gentlemen

One word: cool.

Frank Zappa- strictly commercial

This is kinda like a greatest hits album for frank zappa...frank zappa's songs are mostly polictal satires...he was a cool guy...fought censorship, and came up with some excellent music...some of which you can find on this cd...

Filter- short bus

Three words: dont buy it.

More...

Nine Inch Nails- downward spiral
Counting Crows- august and everything after
Pearl Jam- all of them
Ani DiFranco- living in clip
Alice In Chains- dirt, jar of flies
Radiohead- the bends
Smashing Pumpkins- all of them
Blind Melon- blind melon
Tool- aenima
Colective Soul- disciplined breakdown

Number of bad cds ive bought to date:

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