How do you manage the inevitable piles of music that grow on your desk? I generally grab at random and listen passively when I have time (ie, not often), then once a month take the rest home and give each a 3-song listen to see if it gets pitched or gets further consideration later.
I'm spending most of the night doing this because I can't in good conscience throw discs away without giving them at least a small chance.

Am I crazy? Is there a better way to handle all this?

Send them to Dearborn?

You going to that Fuse In thing this weekend?

Ill probably hit the F*cking Champs show this sat..

The Flaming Lips Documentary is tonight too, dont know if you knew about that

i generally can't throw them out until i've listened either. i generally give stuff a passive listen and then an aggressive one. the passive one is a good indicator because i'll be doing other crap and if something sticks out in the back of my mind like, "haven't i already listened to this song? oh, its just a really repetitive song" or "my foot is tapping, how strange" etc., then i put it in a pile to listen to aggressively later in the day, when i can pay attention more (or toss it out if i'm just like, this sux).

i listen to stuff that i get from reputable publicists first (for example, for my personal tastes, i know ill like whatever XYZ puts in front of me more than i will what ABC puts in front of me).

another good thing to do is organize your stacks by order release date. its way more important for me to listen to this here langhorne slim disc than it is for me to listen to oneida fink (which is out in late august). but then again, for my more featury bands, if my lead time is a month or two months, and a cd comes out in negative one week, then ill listen to the band that fits my lead time best.

priorities, man. look at your lead time, the star power, the publicists, etc. then let your ear take over once you're organized. and don't be afraid to just let some stuff go. i can't let this awful craig morgan disc just mold on my desk...

I wish I had this problem.

Katie, I'm more of an ABC man myself. What is you like so much about XYZ?

clear. simple. baby eaters.

I was contemplating The Hard Lessons @ The Lager House, but I just got word this morning of this month's Dorkwave party on Sat. night @ the 555 Gallery in Tha D®. I think this one's gonna be even more ridonkulous than normal since there'll be shitloads of people in town for FUSE-In. So I'm going to that. There's a Flint guy who I'm friends w/ DJing @ FUSE-In on Sunday, but I don't wanna do that drive twice in 2 days.

So, to make a long reply longer; Dorkwave on Sat., BBQ w/ friends and watching the Pistons on Sun., the rest is up in the air.

I'm a little different than you in that rock criticism/feature writing isn't an active part of my life any more. But I'm still on some mailing lists from my stints w/ CMJ and AltPress and get like 3-6 discs a week.
I guess my question was more, how do you decide whether something is a keeper, a crapper or a maybe. I find the three-song rule is the most practical way to do things, unless it's an established artist I know I'll have plenty of time to.
My problem these days is with no job motivation to find the next newsworthy act, it's hard to push myself to sift through the crap in search of a few gems.

i listen to the first three tracks most of the way through and then ill skip to, like, track 7. normally ill know if it doesn't do anything for me if i listen to about minute through each song. when me and some collegues sit down to make selections for the, independent music world series, that's about all we have to work with anyway -- a minute per song.

I recieve about 7-12 CD's a week on my desk. I think I have grown ot the point of being able to listen (even passively), and know within 5 songs, whether the CD has:

1. goes into my immediate rotation and plan to listen more intently.
or
2. doesn't strike me right away, but has something I may wanna re-visit soon or somewhere down the line.
or
3. not my thing. I know it has no future.

If it's '3', it goes either right on www.half.com, or into my www.spun.com pile.