Bosley and the Cats would be a great band name.

As the partner of an avid record collector and music buff, I have found my own interest in music slipping over the last few years. You might think that the opposite would happen, maybe I’d get super in to music and music collecting and my husband and I would happily spend hours in record stores together. Not so.

Brad and I have such different taste in music, and he is so domineering with his music choices, that I usually just let him have full control of the stereo. The only time I get to listen to my own music is on my 10 minute drive to and from work and for the couple hours on weekend mornings when he is still sleeping. Maybe I’m in the mood for Peaches or maybe I’m in the mood for Dolly. Chances are, I’ll be listening to Madonna and Tina at some point on a Sunday morning.

I used to spend so much energy and so many damn dollars trying to stay on top of what was cool. Now I just listen to my old records and dance around the house with Bosley and the cats while Brad is still sawing logs. Or, if he’s awake, I try to ignore the fact that Brad is listening to Pavement for the 100th time and I go about my business. Not that I don’t like any of Brad’s music. He’s introduced me to a lot of cool stuff. He’s also introduced me to a lot of dude music that I could really do without. Mothers of Invention? Yeah, no.

There are certain current artists that I know I love and when they release something I will make a point to purchase it. Peaches newest album kicks ass and so does the Yeah Yeah Yeahs latest release. I just don’t go looking for new bands to like. They have to be dropped in my lap.

If a friend wants to burn me a CD they think I would like, that’s great. I just don’t feel like putting in the money and effort it takes to find new music when I know I’ll rarely get the chance to listen to it. This might bother some people, but eh. I’m cool with it. I’m a lazy person and making sure I know about all the good music out there sounds like a lot of work.

If you’re a total music nerd or you want to be hipped to stuff you should be listening to, you should check out Brad’s Stallion Alert blog. He’s going through all his albums one by one and writing reviews on them. He’s a writer/editor by trade, so it’s quality stuff. Even if you don’t like or don’t know the album he’s writing about, it’s still entertaining. He has a way with words, which is why I fell in love with the doofus in the first place.

Since Brad is such an avid music collector, for his birthday this month I am accompanying him to The Eugene Record Convention. I have no idea how long we will be in that meeting room in the Hilton flipping through records, but I get the feeling it will be long enough to constitute the 2 hour drive to Eugene from Portland and back. So, to keep myself occupied I’ve decided to make a list of cheap records to look for so I can try not to get bananacakes with boredom while Brad spends our mortgage payment on more music.

When it comes to cheap records, I’m always on the lookout for Madonna, Tina Turner and Dolly Parton. Are they any other artists that have been around for a while that I need to own? I’m looking for records that would be in the dollar bin, not stuff that I have to drop 20 bones on. I’m already thinking I should be more aware of Dusty Springfield and Nina Simone…is there anything else I should look for?