Earworms

I spent part of Sunday going through my CD collection in a ruthless purge. One has been necessary for some time, given that there is just not enough room for what I already have, let alone anything new.

The tribute albums fared worst of all. Countless things bought on impulse testify to the days when I did that sort of thing. It is also possible that I still have far too many CDs by the New York Dolls and the MC5 -- who, after all, did not produce all that much material to begin with, and the distinct charm of live performance is usually not that rewarding given the limited space. (Some of the Dolls stuff sounds like the mic was planted in the nightclub's toilet.) I will probably thin those sub-sections out a bit next time around.

On the other hand, my collections of hillbilly, Western swing, skinhead reggae, and Benny Goodman recordings all remain intact. Likewise, the anthologies of British-invasion imitation bands from Fort Worth circa 1965 are staying put. The craving might return and it's not like replacing them is an option.

In the meantime, I learn that Peter Terzian has just started a blog called Earworms. "Each post will be about a song," he says, "and there will be videos and, once I figure it all out, streaming music." Peter edited a collection of essays called Heavy Rotation: Twenty Writers on the Albums that Changed Their Lives, published last summer, which I highly recommend.

But just to be clear, this does not mean that I am going to be getting any more CDs now just because there is actually some room on the shelves. No, it does not. I will take note of Peter's enthusiasms from a distance and leave it at that. Being too prone to enthusiasm is how I ended up with all those Ventures albums. That'd better not happen again.