When was the last time you sat down with an entire Anthology?

I will be honest. About three years ago, I drove from Minneapolis to Glenwood Springs, CO and listened to everything Annihilator has ever recorded. It did not change my opinion that Schizo-Deluxe is still my fav Annihilator album. I have done the same to a different destination with Van Halen, and Fair Warning still rules my ears.

Anyone else attempted this silly experiment?

Entire catalogue of one band in one go? That's just too much to digest. You'll wear your ears out.

Maybe one track from each album. Just enough to remind you of the sound and feel of the record.

Lari wrote:

Entire catalogue of one band in one go? That's just too much to digest. You'll wear your ears out.

Maybe one track from each album. Just enough to remind you of the sound and feel of the record.

Nah Lari - Balls Out!

Earlier this year I listened to Diamond Head's entire discography including singles, EPs, live albums, demos and compilations. I did this for my two part article on their CD releases for my blog. It was a fun exercise and a cool research project.

I have listened to Black Sabbath the Ozzy years, Dio years and Born Again all in one go, if that counts.

The Beatles. When we drove from Sacramento to San Diego.

The last time I remember doing the entire discography for a band was a couple years ago when I listened to all the Steely Dan albums in the course of a day.

I have never done that, expect with the Doors studio album many many years ago

It's been a few years that I've done it but I remember listening to all of Artillerys stuff.

I run my ipod all day every day at the office, so I get plenty of opportunities to listen to music and I STARTED off by often putting on entire discographies...

...And then I noticed that later albums in any discography, even ones I knew I enjoyed, were becoming taxing, so I'm left to assume I just lack the intestinal fortitude to listen to 4+ hours of ANY band, no matter how much I like them.

It's like reading a book. Sometimes you end up digesting more by putting the thing down for a day or two and then going back into it. Same with discogs. You can pick up more from each album if you're not blasting yourself with hours of music by the same people.

I run my ipod all day every day at work as well. I usually just let the songs play out as a shuffle but I have done whole discography plays before. Probably some time last year was the last time.

007 wrote:

I run my ipod all day every day at work as well. I usually just let the songs play out as a shuffle but I have done whole discography plays before. Probably some time last year was the last time.

I do something similiar on my MP3 player. At separate times, I've loaded The Beatles, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith's discography on it and then let it shuffle through with no rhyme or reason.

I've also gone disc-by-disc in chronological order for certain groups over the course of a few weeks. For example, starting with Megadeth's Killing Is My Business... and then taking another disc or 2 each week when pulling my music for the week. I tend to do this when an artist has a new album on the horizon and want to reacquaint myself with their past efforts.

There's something really awesome about having access to an entire discography (or several of them) and letting them run on shuffle. I've had more songs I'd ignored brought to my attention that way than via all kinds of extended listening sessions.

Though, there is something to be said for the weird "WTF?" moment when you don't recognize a song playing from your own music collection...

To psyche myself up prior to seeing Overkill last Fall, I lugged all of their CDs back and forth to work with me over the course of a couple of days and listened to it all in chronological order.

That is one point of digitizing my music that I do dislike when on the go. While it's a hell of a lot easier to toss an iPod in my backpack than to box up a band's physical discography on CD, there is something cool about pulling the liner notes out and given them a quick read when you throw a disc in that I miss in the fully digital realm.

I did it a lot with my records as a teen, play a band discography back to back in chronological order while doing homework and bong tokes.

I recently played the entire Heathen catalogue (basically 3 studio albums if I am not mistaken). Well worth the listen. Wouldn't do it with a band that has an extensive discography though.

I do this often, although I usually allow a few days with bands that have a more extensive catalogue. The last time was Dokken back in May.

I do that all the time with bands like Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Priest, etc. I'll grab a different album each day and listen to it in my car on the way to and from work.

Last one I remember doing was At War and Anvil in preparation for my videos on those bands.

If you try it at your workplace, you'd have to put in a lot of overtime to get through the entire Saxon catalogue in one day.

Or if you're driving, it'd have to be a pretty damn long trip. I don't know if even DallasBlack drove for that many hours!

ultmetal wrote:

I do that all the time with bands like Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Priest, etc. I'll grab a different album each day and listen to it in my car on the way to and from work.

Last one I remember doing was At War and Anvil in preparation for my videos on those bands.

If doing it over the course of several days counts, then yeah, I do that all the time. One album, one day. Usually a couple of bands in parallel.

I like a lot of bands that haven't got a lot to go at (2 or 3 albums) so quite often.

One day I'll attempt the Tangerine Dream anthology (103 albums & 34 soundtracks!!)

I think Duke Ellington has Tangerine Dream beat. His recording career spanned from 1927 to 1974. That's a discography that would take a long time to get all the way through. I know my friend has over 200 Ellington CDs and it's not a complete collection.

I've never actually listened to a band's entire discography straight through; I don't have the patience for that.  But what I do do is create my own Best Of said band I listen to those a lot when I'm driving and walking.  It's interesting to put a Best Of folder on random and get a mix of stuff I'm familiar with and stuff I've overlooked for whatever reason.

Today I listened to my Best Of Dropkick Murphys and stumbled across "The Burden" from their Warrior's Code album which I don't think I ever even heard before because I was so disappointed in that album.

Anyway, the short answer to the actual question is "never".  But I've created several Best Ofs on my own that come pretty damn close.

tohostudios wrote:

I've never actually listened to a band's entire discography straight through; I don't have the patience for that.  But what I do do is create my own Best Of said band I listen to those a lot when I'm driving and walking.  It's interesting to put a Best Of folder on random and get a mix of stuff I'm familiar with and stuff I've overlooked for whatever reason.

Today I listened to my Best Of Dropkick Murphys and stumbled across "The Burden" from their Warrior's Code album which I don't think I ever even heard before because I was so disappointed in that album.

Anyway, the short answer to the actual question is "never".  But I've created several Best Ofs on my own that come pretty damn close.

I create similar compilations for my ipod. I usually pick tracks I don't remember at all, based on titles mostly.

Too bad I rarely listen to the ipod.