From the Oct 7 – Oct 13, 1999 issue

Pullout

Reject Roundup

Media Necrophilia

by Rick Levin

In 1992, at the most fevered pitch of international Nirvana mania, Geffen released Hormoaning, a limited-edition CD comprised of six songs which were hand-selected from various obscure B-sides, including certain cuts from the band's raucous John Peel sessions. The disc clocks in at just under 19 minutes. It consists of four cover songs (including two Vaselines songs) and two original compositions ("Even In His Youth" and "Aneurism"), the majority of which can be found on the easily-obtained DGC compilation Insesticide. Initially, Hormoaning was available only to rabid Nirvana fans in Australia and Japan, with each country receiving its own particular packaging format. It was only a calculated matter of time before copies of Hormoaning started showing up in record stores stateside, displayed on walls and behind glass cases, tantalizingly out of reach and expensive as hell.

Hormoaning was a collector's item in the U.S. even before Cobain bought the farm. This was due in large part to the disc's rare, "import-only" status, which -- we can only assume -- is exactly what Geffen intended. After April 8, 1994, when the creative door was loudly and definitively slammed shut, the valuation of Nirvana's extant recordings (especially the hard-to-find stuff like Hormoaning) was drastically altered. It's no big surprise that the untimely death of a celebrity is a lucrative affair for brokers trading in the quasi-religious cult of personality, but beyond the more disturbing aspects of media necrophilia, the literal or figurative death of a band draws a bold circle around that band's existing catalogue. That circle defines the parameters of availability; depending upon a band's output, and the quantity of their rare, banned (as with Ice-T's Body Count CD), imported, out-of-print, or bootlegged releases, a hierarchy is created in which scarcity takes on the aura of value. In the case of Hormoaning, supply will steadily and necessarily decrease over time, while demand asserts itself as the qualitative prestige of cost. -- RICK LEVIN

Reject Roundup has compiled the definitive utilitarian list of those CDs, like Hormoaning, which will bring top-dollar in the resale market (they range in value from $20 to $100, depending on the mood of the retailer and the buying guidelines of the store). This incredibly profitable list of CDs which only a fool would part with is sorted in no special order.

1. Nirvana, Hormoaning (import CD)

2. Swans, (any title, most of which are out-of-print)

3. Boys Next Door, Door, Door (Nick Cave's first band, out-of-print)

4. Pixies, Return of the Fat Man (bootleg)

5. Ice-T, Body Count, with the song "Cop Killers" (WEA/Warner Bros.)

6. Metallica, Garage Days Revisited (Elektra)

7. Bob Marley, Catch a Fire, boxed set (MF)

8. English Beat, Special Beat Service (IRS)

9. Samhain, (3 titles which are out of print)

10. This Mortal Coil, '83-'91, boxed set (4AD)