Who are your "blind buy" bands & who have fallen from that status?

[J-Dubya 777]

Blind Buys:
Freak Kitchen
Any post Mothers Zappa releases
Mike Keneally
Bryan Beller
Kira Small
Iron Maiden
Pagans Mind
Nocturnal Rites
ANthing John Sykes related (even after being burned by Nuclear Cowboy)
DSO
Spheric Universe Experience
Primal Fear
Gamma Ray
Tarot
Morglbl
Guthrie Govan
Bumblefoot (Ron Thal)
Molly Hatchet

No longer blind buys:

Stratovarius
Judas Priest
MSG
Helloween
Megadeth

 

[tenebre]

you know i would say that every band i still buy anything from is a blind buy.

I bu the new release because i like that band.

only band that i can think of that "fell" from that status is Queensryche.

of I have never heard a band before of course i sample. But form established bands that I like i always blind buy.

I do have a few select bands that i will acquire every song that they make (like exclusive Japanese, Russian, digipak tracks) but outside of that delineation I dont.

 

[tenebre]

So for your blindbuys, do you listen to songs when they release them or do you purposely avoid everything until the album is released?

I will listen to the released video/single and thats it.

I love breaking open the booklet and listening to the whole albums that first time.

 

[skyrefuge]

Let's say you're browsing in a record store or you're walking around by the vendor tables at a festival, and you see a CD by one of your favorite bands, who you didn't even know had a new CD coming out. Do you go home and listen to the samples before buying it

Go home? What is this, 1953? No, I'd just take out the internet-connected computer that I keep in my pocket, and listen to some samples right there (or at least read some reviews, which I actually *do* do when shopping for other stuff). Then, if I liked what I heard, I'd slap myself in the head, say "wait, why the heck am I looking at CDs anyway?", click "buy", and download it straight to my phone to listen to on the way home, while peripherally marveling at the fact that places as old-fashioned and inefficient as CD stores/vendor tables still exist.

Neil

 

[J. Golden]

It doesn't even have to be a band that I'm familiar with. I try to still buy CDs like I bought albums as a kid. If it looks cool I'll pick it up. It is more of a thrill that way.. Of course with the internet I could cheat myself of this.

 

[No Username]

None.

I'm with Cheiron here...what's the point of making a blind-buy in this day and age? Because you want to revel in the "fanboy" experience? You like the rush you get from risk-taking?

In the old days, sure, blind-buys were a necessary evil, since it was often difficult/impossible to get a sample beforehand. But now the situation is the opposite, it almost takes work to *not* hear something from the album before you make a purchase.

If Kraft introduces a new cheese flavor, and there is someone at the grocery store offering a taste, do you say "no thanks, I love everything Kraft has made before, so I don't even need to try it, I'm just going to buy the jumbo size straight away!"? Why not just taste it to avoid disappointment in case they totally f'ed it up?

Neil

I buy albums from bands that I feel deserve support. Look at it this way, some bands might be one record away from oblivion...and it the last record is bad, and nobody buys it, you may never hear from them again.

For instance, I pre-ordered "MMA"
What if word had gotten out about how bad the disc was and nobody had bought it? Could that have spelled the end of Evergrey?
Probably not; it is an extreme example. But if true, you would not have gotten the live album or "Torn" both of which were winners.

So yeah, I will buy them either way.

I personally find the "what have you done for me TODAY" attitude distasteful. Buy the damn album if you want to help keep the band in business. Go to the shows. Buy the damn shirts.

 

[TheLongshot]

It is hard to avoid hearing new music from your favorite bands. Even seeing them live, Iron Maiden and Rush are both playing songs from upcoming albums.

Bands that it would have to take an absolutely horrible album not to buy blind:

Rush
Dream Theater
Porcupine Tree
Therion
The Flower Kings
Echolyn
Iron Maiden
Pain Of Salvation
Lacuna Coil
King Crimson
A.C.T
Enchant
Symphony X
Vanden Plas
Jag Panzer
Falconer
And the list goes on....

For those who I'd need to listen to before buying?

King's X
Yes
The Gathering
Nightwish
Threshold
Marillion
Spock's Beard
Iced Earth
Edguy
Live
Journey
Paradise Lost

 

[skyrefuge]

This made me remember, oh, probably around 1994 or so, before I had my own Internet access (but I already had a couple Rage albums), I came across a Rage CD on one of my epic day-long expeditions scouring record stores.

I knew the logo was different, but bands (including Rage) change their logos all the time, so I said, what the hell, and took a shot. Turned out to be this:

[ame]http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJaOsP0cgg[/ame]

Whoops!

It's crazy to remember how in-the-dark we were back then compared to now!

Funnily enough, since then, the real Rage has released 11 studio albums, and I've bought every single one of them, making them a blind-buy band for me if I was to ever have one. But I don't think I bought a single one of those albums blind.

Neil

 

[dcowboys311]

I buy albums from bands that I feel deserve support. Look at it this way, some bands might be one record away from oblivion...and it the last record is bad, and nobody buys it, you may never hear from them again.

For instance, I pre-ordered "MMA"
What if word had gotten out about how bad the disc was and nobody had bought it? Could that have spelled the end of Evergrey?
Probably not; it is an extreme example. But if true, you would not have gotten the live album or "Torn" both of which were winners.

So yeah, I will buy them either way.

I personally find the "what have you done for me TODAY" attitude distasteful. Buy the damn album if you want to help keep the band in business. Go to the shows. Buy the damn shirts.

Everyone only has a certain amount of disposable income, though. Why continue to spend it on bands who used to be good to continue a tradition and withhold your money from bands who are currently doing things you like? Don't they deserve it more?

 

[TribunalRecords]

Come on... Do you really need to listen to a song from your favorite band before you buy it? There must at least a band or two that are absolute blind buys.

ok, Marillion and Journey. there you got it out of me. haha.

 

[skyrefuge]

I buy albums from bands that I feel deserve support.

I'm right there with you on buying stuff from bands that deserve support, but I disagree with your approach. In my mind, a band that releases a crap album *doesn't* deserve support, and, assuming that my purchase sends *any* sort of message, it would be the exact opposite of the message I want to send. "ooh, sweet, Neil bought that crap album? I guess we must be on the right path!" Noooo!

There is far too much music out there for me to mourn the death of any single band. Sounds cold, but that's the cold reality.

If I supported bands I liked by buying all their albums, I'd have no money, because I listen to way too many artists. Some stats:

Between 2007-2009, I bought 147 albums, from 132 different artists. Which is quite close to 1 album per artist (1.11 to be exact). There are only 11 lucky artists who got multiple purchases from me. And note that I'm going by purchase date, not release date, so it's not like the numbers are almost 1:1 because bands only released 1 album in that period; I could have picked up whole discographies for the bands, but in most cases, I don't do that.

I feel that there's such a variety of music out there to explore, and spending too much time with multiple albums from the same band gives me too much of the same. The spaces between bands are usually larger than the spaces between albums from a single band, so buying 100 albums from 100 bands allow me to cover a lot more ground than buying 4 albums each from 25 bands. So, I guess even if I didn't do the sampling/previewing that I talked about earlier in the thread, I still wouldn't have much of a blind-buy list, because I just tend not to be a dedicated subscriber to the output of any one band.

For the record, here are those lucky 11 artists:

Dillinger Escape Plan (Miss Machine, Ire Works)
Enid (Seelenspiegel, Gradwanderer)
The Gathering (Souvenirs, A Noise Severe)
Gogol Bordello (Gypsy Punks, Super Taranta!)
Hammers of Misfortune (Fields, Church of Broken Glass...doesn't really count)
Heavens Gate (In the Mood, More Hysteria)
Iced Earth (Framing Armageddon, The Crucible of Man)
Negura Bunget ('n crugu bradului, OM)
Novembre (Dreams d'Azur, Classica, Materia, The Blue)
Tomahawk (Mit Gas, Anonymous)
Tyr (Eric the Red, Land, By the Light of the Northern Star)

Surprisingly, a lot of those albums are pretty similar to each other, sort of contradicting what I would have expected. But the bands themselves tend to be pretty unique, so I guess the multiple albums fill the spots that albums from similar bands would fill, if bands similar to Tyr or Negura Bunget existed.

Neil

 

[TheLongshot]

ok, Marillion and Journey. there you got it out of me. haha.

 

[Imagikafan]

Blind Buys:

Kamelot
Nevermore
Mystic Prophecy
Symphony X


Ex:

Evergrey
Brainstorm

 

[Taliwakker]

atm
On-
Seventh Wonder
Pagan's Mind
Van Halen (hehe)
Symphony X
The Dear Hunter
Imogen Heap
Frost*
Allan Holdsworth

Off-
Freak Kitchen
Dream Theater
Queensryche
Scar Symmetry
Soilwork
Jorn solo albums
Kings X


only other blind buys would be bargain bin jobs at $5-10aus

 

[Yippee38]

I'm a big impulse buyer when it comes to music, especially if I'm in a music store. I used to stop at Impulse Music on the way home and would usually come home with something new that was a complete impulse/blind buy. I have quite a few CDs on the shelf that I never listen to. I still do it though (usually only at PP since there are no good metal stores near here anymore). However, there are some bands that used to be on my "see it - have to buy it now" list who no longer are.

Iced Earth
Blind Guardian (I think)
Ayreon
Epica
Evergrey
Within Temptation
Threshold
Sonata Arctica
Rush (though their status changed a LONG, LONG time ago)
Riverside

Bands who've gone from "blind buy" status to "won't buy" status (though removal from this list is ulikely, it's always possible):
Dream Theater
Queensryche
Nightwish
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden

Any band not listed has either never been a blind buy for me, or has always (after the first blind buy or two) been on the "won't buy" list. But as I tried to articulate above, if a band isn't on my blind buy list, doesn't mean I won't do a blind buy of one of their CDs (unless listed above).

 

[BenMech]

None.

I'm with Cheiron here...what's the point of making a blind-buy in this day and age? Because you want to revel in the "fanboy" experience? You like the rush you get from risk-taking?

In the old days, sure, blind-buys were a necessary evil, since it was often difficult/impossible to get a sample beforehand. But now the situation is the opposite, it almost takes work to *not* hear something from the album before you make a purchase.

(snipping the weird Kraft Cheese example)

Neil

Q4T

 

[Magius]

For those who said they wouldn't blind buy anything, because of the ease of downloading/sampling, let me phrase this another way...

Let's say you're browsing in a record store or you're walking around by the vendor tables at a festival, and you see a CD by one of your favorite bands, who you didn't even know had a new CD coming out. Do you go home and listen to the samples before buying it and or do you just buy it, right then and there? I know if I see a new Nevermore CD in the store, I'm buying it right then and there so I can listen to that bad boy on the way home.

Now I know some of you are going to say that you would never be caught by surprise by one of your favorite band's releases, because you follow their forum, you've "Liked" their Facebook page, etc. Just play along. Do you buy it right then and there or wait till you get home and listen to it first?

I already know Neil's response, as his CD collection is governed by some odd rules.

I usually have a list of CD's I'm looking for at vendor tables. If by chance I saw something I hadn't known about before hand I would make a note of it and check it out first.

Honestly I can't think of any band I'm so enamored with that I'd have to have it right then.

As for "blind support," well... no. It's not so much about "What have you done for me Today," as no username suggests. Rather it's about "Did you produce something worthy for me to spend money on?" If not I'm leaving it on the shelf.
New bands deserve support also, and if their debut is better than an established band's third or fifth album, the new band gets the support. There's likely someone's debut that is better, so why not support the new band? They could potentially be, or eventually become, better than the established band.
For example, which deserved to be supported based on same year releases: Sonata Arctica's "Unia" or Serenity's "Words Untold... ?" With $15 in hand which CD deserves to be bought: "Stratovarius" by Stratovarius, or "The 1st Chapter" by Circus Maximus?

Clearly the answers are subjective. As far as I'm concerned, if the established two went under because of a flop, well... they had their shot. Personally, I'd hate to have lost the younger bands due to lack of support.
Your milage may vary.

 

[RagePSV]

Blind Buys
Rage
Overkill
Ayreon

Fallen
Iced Earth
Hammerfall

 

[Diabolik]

For me....I used to blind buy all the time at Metal Haven. I have a good eye for picking out good stuff. But now that I order online for my stuff I usually will listen to samples on the bands myspace or on youtube. It takes a lot for me to stop getting releases by bands...usually after 2 bad disc I drop them.

here are some of the most current bands that I have dropped....

Iced Earth
Primal Fear
Leave's Eyes
Magica
Nightwish
Folkearth
Serenity
Labyrinth

 

[nomisofsiman]

This made me remember, oh, probably around 1994 or so, before I had my own Internet access (but I already had a couple Rage albums), I came across a Rage CD on one of my epic day-long expeditions scouring record stores.

I knew the logo was different, but bands (including Rage) change their logos all the time, so I said, what the hell, and took a shot. Turned out to be this:

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJaOsP0cgg

Whoops!

It's crazy to remember how in-the-dark we were back then compared to now!

Funnily enough, since then, the real Rage has released 11 studio albums, and I've bought every single one of them, making them a blind-buy band for me if I was to ever have one. But I don't think I bought a single one of those albums blind.

Neil

That's awesome. I almost did the same thing with the band Jet, which I liked a number of years ago. At the time though, I saw another band by the same name, thought it might be them and then noticed the date of the disc was in the 70s.