has Sonic Youth the largest discography??
 

hello!

do you think Sonic Youth has the largest discography or will have it? who could match?? the rolling stones??

uhh no. Dylan has a bigger one.

are you kidding?
wolf eyes have released over 400 tapes, cds and records over a period of ten years (not including side projects). merzbow's discography stretches into the 100s as well. there are many many more projects/artists and groups which have similar looking discogs.

Tom Waits
Rolling Stones
who else?

i was gonna mention merzbow but i couldnt be bothered to edit mah post.

there are too many to list. ones that spring to mind include art blakely, ornette coleman, sun ra, john zorn, evan parker, derek bailey..... all of these artists can be said to have released (solo or collaboratory) over 100 records... there are hundreds and hundreds more however.

I think the fall are probably the kins aren't they? and yes wolf eyes re fucking amazong at releasing anything and everything on any label!

Neil Young has a massive discography doesn't he??, sonic youth doesn't even come close.

doesn't ryan adams release an album every month?

I'm not sure if Wolf Eyes actually have four hundred releases (I'm thinking 200), and I'm more willing to bet Merzbow actually has well over 400 releases..

though an interesting point was raised with Wolf Eyes.. I've long said that for a noise group to get popular, they just need to release a lot of shit on a variety of labels.. that always seems to work.. because certainly, lots of that Wolf Eyes shit isn't very good.. (though there's a good chunk of it that is good)

Anywho, Sunn O))), Boris and Throbbing Gristle both have a wide variety of actual releases (TG has a 24 CD box set afterall and both Sunn and Boris have a ridiculous amount of live albums and collaborations and such; they seem to release about 3 or 4 albums a year). The Ventures, the Fall, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, John Cage, The Residents, Steven Reich, and Frank Zappa also stand out in my mind as having large discographies.

Though, yeah, the winner has got to be Merzbow...

wolf eyes releases a ton of CRAP. their shit does not count. Any fool can replicate most of their output.

If you hang out making noise, recording everything, and releasing everything, as far as I am concerned you are wilfully releasing SHIT.


as far as rock bands go, there have been many mentioned that exceed the sonic youth.

most bands that last over 20 years are gonna have a large discography.

sonic youth rule all.

yeah, wolf eyes have released some good stuff, i've heard about 100 releases by them...

most of it is complete and utter garbage... even their hardcore fans will admit that..

i got this one thing by them, "helloween holocausts", and i'm pretty sure it's 2 90 minute tapes long (with both sides of the tape filled) (so it fits comfortably on 3 cd-r's) .. and all it is them playing halloween "sppooky soundzzzz" cd's with feedback in the background.

just embarassing.

Thurston Moore alone has a shitload of stuff out.
these are not updated past 2003 I think

thurston's discography
http://www.saucerlike.com/discograph...y&cat=thurston

Lee's discography
http://www.saucerlike.com/discograph...isplay&cat=lee

sonic youth albums and EP's
http://www.saucerlike.com/discograph...lay&cat=albums

sonic youth singles and interviews
http://www.saucerlike.com/discograph...ay&cat=singles

LOL

Coil ))) I have at least 100 CDs

Doesnt Sun Ra's recorded output approach the 3 or 4 hundred mark? including all the unreleased bootlegs

the reason sonic youth seem to have a large discography is because most of their contemporaries only managed to release 3 or 4 albums before breaking up and sonic youth kept going strong.

they have an average number of releases considering their career.

another thing is that, unlike many mainstream-ish bands, fans of the band are much more aware of their side projects, making it seem like the band themselves release more albums then they actually do.

i wouldn't be at all surprised.

Bob Marley 825
Bob Dylan 635
Chuck Berry 565
Frank Zappa 330
Lou Reed 272
Grateful Dead 265
Sonic Youth 125
Bunny Wailer 120

Magik Markers released over 25 albums in a 4 years period. Sweet.

I don't know about the noise acts but the Residents here in SF have over 30 albums since '72.

The Melvins

uh anybody forgotten Frank Zappa?

no me and some other dude said zappa..

I have forgotten Frank Zappa since 1992 and it has been nothing if not a BLESSING upon my life.

and bob marley and the wailers discography is only around 14 records.

all that other shit is rehash, re-release, or bootleg shit released after marley's death.

that shit does not count to me.

smegma also have a shit load of albums.

Surely its The Fall?

they do?
i've only come across about 20/25 releases.

slim dusty released over 100

that Merzbox beats pretty much everything hands down in terms of being available, i got a look at it and i havent ever listened to Merzbow but its nuts how something like that can exist.

i'm sure they have, or are getting to around 40 albums.

and how about guided by voices? especially for the time they were together, they had like a lot; i'm no expert but i think robert pollard solo alone might have more than sy.

Nurse With Wound and the Legendary Pink Dots have obscenely enormous discogs. Merzbow for sure. Cock ESP have released a shit-ton of noise too.
Psychic TV once released 13 full-length albums in one year.

hahah psychic tv

The band began publishing a monthly series of 23 live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after only 17. The tenth, a picture disk most commonly referred to as Album 10, could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year.

I think the simplest answer to the title of this thread is "No."

a-fucking-men. i don't see the big deal about wolf eyes at all. it's garbage to me...and i like noise.

with that said, most jazz musicians especially within the free and avant-garde scene have larger discogrophies than sonic youth.

sun city girls

If we're counting the subscription only releases of Einstürzende Neubauten (which Mr. Sonicl can testify to) then they're extremely prolific as well.

acid mothers temple, bitch.

it's so hard to meticulously compose noise, though, because that would almost defeat the purpose of creating something that's formless and structureless. when it gains form or structure or any sort of quality like that, it begins to venture into the realm of that electro-acoustic stuff that can be a little too intellectual for its own good at times. noise is primitive and spontaneous, which lends to the improvised nature of the works. i don't know. it's all sticky, because at the same time, something may be conceptually structured but sonically unstructured, like many early electronic compositions, that weren't technically called "noise".

i don't even know what the fuck i'm talking about. max/msp has fried my brain.

Bring on more SY releases