SST Records
Encyclopedia
SST Records is an American
independent record label
formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California
by musician Greg Ginn
. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment. Ginn repurposed the company as a record label to release material by his band Black Flag
.
Music writer Michael Azerrad
wrote, "Ginn took his label from a cash-strapped, cop-hassled store-front operation to easily the most influential and popular underground indie of the Eighties". SST initially focused on releasing material by hardcore punk
groups from Southern California
. As many of the bands on the label sought to expand beyond the limitations of the hardcore genre, SST released many key albums that were instrumental in the development of American alternative rock
, including releases by the Minutemen
, Hüsker Dü
, the Meat Puppets
, Sonic Youth
, and Dinosaur Jr
. After a peak release schedule in the late 1980s, SST began venturing into jazz
releases. SST is now based in Taylor, Texas
. Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and the Meat Puppets have reclaimed the rights to the SST material after leaving the label.
surplus radio equipment. The business was small but thrived well into Ginn's early adulthood.
In 1976 Ginn formed the punk rock
band Panic. Panic recorded eight songs in January 1978, but no labels were interested in releasing the music aside from Los Angeles, California
record label Bomp! Records
. By late 1978 Bomp had still not formally agreed to release the music on record, so Ginn decided he had enough business experience with SST to release it himself. Pressing records turned out to be a simple matter; "I just looked in the phone book under record pressing plants and there was one there", Ginn recalled, "and so I just took it to them and I knew about printing because I had always done catalogs." SST Records released the music recorded by Ginn's band (now named Black Flag
) as the Nervous Breakdown EP
in January 1979.
Many early Black Flag shows ended in violence, often involving the Los Angeles Police Department
. As a result the police tapped the label's phones and kept the SST office under surveillance. Ginn claims undercover police posing as homeless people sat close to SST's front door. The band were unable to hire a lawyer because of a lack of money; Ginn later explained: "I mean, we were thinking about skimping on our meals. … There was no place to go". By 1980, L.A. clubs had begun to ban hardcore punk shows, adding to SST's troubles.
SST issued the Minutemen's
debut EP Paranoid Time
as its second release in 1980. The songs were recorded and mixed in a single night for $300. Minutemen bassist Mike Watt
recalled, "It was at that point we realized all you had to do was pay for the pressings, that records weren't a gift from Mount Olympus . . . Maybe it was from Greg's experience with ham radios, but he believed if you try, you can get things beyond your little group." Facing hostility towards hardcore punk, SST groups like Black Flag and the Minutemen played wherever they could, mainly at house parties and in basements early on. Black Flag began traveling up the California coast to play Mabuhay Gardens
in San Francisco, making seven trips in total. SST house record producer
Spot
went along as sound-man and tour manager, a job he would perform for several years, along with helping to record much of the label's music.
SST sold its releases to small distributors at a deliberately low price; however, since the distributors typically sold import records, the records usually ended up in specialty shops where they would sell for high prices. Ginn decided to release the first Black Flag album Damaged
(1982) via a mainstream distributor. SST struck a deal with MCA Records
to co-release Damaged on Unicorn Records, a smaller label distributed by MCA. Just prior to the album's release, MCA decided not to release Damaged, citing its "anti-parent" subject matter. SST sued Unicorn claiming the label did not pay rightful royalties and expenses for the album. Unicorn countersued and obtained an injunction preventing Black Flag from releasing further material until the case was settled. When SST released the Black Flag compilation Everything Went Black
, Unicorn took SST to court in July 1983. Ginn and Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski
(who had become a co-owner of SST) were found in violation of the injunction and were sent to the Los Angeles County Jail for five days. Late in 1983 Unicorn went bankrupt and Black Flag was able to release records again.
, and the Meat Puppets
. In 1982 Minneapolis hardcore group Hüsker Dü
became the label's first non-West Coast signing. Following the resolution of the debacle with Unicorn Records, SST released four Black Flag albums in 1984. The multiple Black Flag albums, along with the double album
releases Zen Arcade
and Double Nickels on the Dime
by Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen, respectively, stretched the label's resources. While SST believed Zen Arcade would be a sizable underground hit, pressings of over 5,000 copies were unknown territory for the label, so it erred on the side of caution and did not print over that number in its initial pressing. Awarded critical acclaim by several mainstream media outlets, Zen Arcade sold out quickly and remained out of print for months. Ginn decided to cut the promotional costs of the Black Flag albums by issuing them in quick succession and having the band tour solidly behind the releases.
During the mid-1980s Hüsker Dü became SST's star attraction, their strong songwriting and increasingly melodic music becoming the key link between hardcore and the developing sound of college rock
. The steady recording and release of records by the band (which released three albums over the course of 1984 and 1985) created an influx of income for the label and afforded it leverage to gather payment from distributors for other releases. However, the band felt that SST did not devote enough attention to its releases; Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart
said after the band left the label, "I think there's a little reluctance on their part to let anything get a little more attention than Black Flag." In 1985, Hüsker Dü wanted to self-produce its third studio album, New Day Rising
. Ignoring the band's wishes, SST assigned Spot to supervise the sessions. Grant Hart later explained: "We had no other choice but to work with him. SST made us work with him". Aware of the tension, Spot "had to do what the record company wanted". New Day Rising, as a result, became one of the last recordings Spot did for the label, and the band soon signed to major label Warner Bros. Records
.
SST's roster was further diminished by the 1985 demise of the Minutemen (the result of the death of guitarist D. Boon
) and the 1986 breakup of Black Flag. The label replaced these bands with new signings Sonic Youth
, Dinosaur Jr
, and Bad Brains
. Sonic Youth mentioned SST often in interviews and in music writer Michael Azerrad
's estimation, "seemed to be actively campaigning to get signed to the indie powerhouse"; in turn, Sonic Youth was instrumental in getting SST to sign Dinosaur Jr. Gerard Cosloy, owner of Dinosaur Jr's previous label Homestead Records
, said, "SST was the label everyone wanted to be on [. . .] Everyone's favorite bands were on the label; SST was funnier and cooler and it also had the machinery."
In 1986, Ginn bought New Alliance Records
from Mike Watt
, who had founded the label with D. Boon
. Ginn and SST proceeded to reissue some of New Alliance's key releases - albums by Descendents
, Hüsker Dü's Land Speed Record
, and all of The Minutemen's non-SST releases - on SST. He then converted New Alliance to a label based around unusual jazz, rock, and spoken word releases.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Ginn started two SST-distributed sub-labels. The first, Cruz Records
, which started in 1987, released three solo records by Ginn in the space of a year, and also released records by ALL
, Big Drill Car
, and Chemical People
. The second, the short-lived Issues Records, concentrated on spoken-word releases, including a double album by former NBA player Bill Walton
with music by Ray Manzarek
.
said, "SST's accounting was a bit suspect to us", and the group's other guitarist Lee Ranaldo
criticized the label's "stoner administrative quality". The band was also dissatisfied with Ginn's newer signings. Unhappy that income from their records was ultimately helping to fund "lame-ass records", Sonic Youth unamicably left the label and signed with Enigma Records
in 1988. Dinosaur Jr left SST for Blanco y Negro Records
in 1990. Frontman J Mascis
said, "I like Greg Ginn and stuff, but they wouldn't pay you."
In 1987 SST released over 80 titles, a "ridiculous amount even by major label standards", according to Azerrad. SST's prestige declined and by 1990 Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop
had upstaged SST. SST's reputation was damaged severely when sound collage group Negativland
fought a long legal battle with SST in the wake of its sampling
lawsuit over their notorious "cover" of U2
's hit "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
", on the 1991 U2 single. The case was settled when Ginn and SST agreed to fully release most of Negativland's masters (mainly their Over The Edge series of cassettes) in exchange for completing work on a live album that had been planned long before their legal battles began, as well as keeping Negativland's three SST releases on the label for a short period (the copyright in those has since reverted to Negativland). This entire battle was later the basis for Negativland's 1995 book/CD, Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2
.
SST went into near-hibernation in the mid-90s, deleting much of its jazz output, and releasing little new material apart from Ginn's projects (including Confront James
, Mojack
), but still keeping the catalogs of Black Flag, The Minutemen, fIREHOSE
, Hüsker Dü, The Descendents, and Bad Brains in print. Several artists formerly on the label, including Sonic Youth
and the Meat Puppets
, sued SST to reclaim their master recording
s, claiming unpaid royalties. The label had ceased releasing any material by the end of the 1990s. Ginn blamed this on the bankruptcy of the label's distributor, DNA. The label eventually resumed releasing new material in the mid 2000s. However, these new releases have been restricted to Ginn-related projects like Gone, Hor, Jambang, and Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators.
In 2002, Ginn signed a new distribution deal with Koch Records
and promised that new material by his various musical projects was forthcoming http://www.citizinemag.com/music/music-0306_gregginn1.htm, these releases eventually appeared on their homepage. In 2006, independent digital music distributor The Orchard
announced that 94 titles from SST's back catalog would become available on digital services like eMusic
and the iTunes Music Store.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
by musician Greg Ginn
Greg Ginn
Gregory Regis Ginn is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He is best known for being the leader of and primary songwriter for the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986....
. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment. Ginn repurposed the company as a record label to release material by his band Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
.
Music writer Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad is an American author, journalist and musician. He grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983...
wrote, "Ginn took his label from a cash-strapped, cop-hassled store-front operation to easily the most influential and popular underground indie of the Eighties". SST initially focused on releasing material by hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
groups from Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. As many of the bands on the label sought to expand beyond the limitations of the hardcore genre, SST released many key albums that were instrumental in the development of American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, including releases by the Minutemen
Minutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
, Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
, the Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets
The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...
, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, and Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984. Originally called Dinosaur, prior to legal issues that forced the group to change their name, the band disbanded in 1997 until reuniting in 2005...
. After a peak release schedule in the late 1980s, SST began venturing into jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
releases. SST is now based in Taylor, Texas
Taylor, Texas
Taylor is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census; it was 15,191 in the 2010 census estimate. Taylors largest employers include the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , Durcon Inc, and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, an immigration...
. Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and the Meat Puppets have reclaimed the rights to the SST material after leaving the label.
Early years
Greg Ginn created Solid State Transmitters (SST) at the age of twelve. SST was a mail-order business that sold modified World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
surplus radio equipment. The business was small but thrived well into Ginn's early adulthood.
In 1976 Ginn formed the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Panic. Panic recorded eight songs in January 1978, but no labels were interested in releasing the music aside from Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
record label Bomp! Records
Bomp! Records
Bomp! Records is an Los Angeles-based indie label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw.-History:The label has featured punk, pop, powerpop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres, and its roster has included artists such as The Modern...
. By late 1978 Bomp had still not formally agreed to release the music on record, so Ginn decided he had enough business experience with SST to release it himself. Pressing records turned out to be a simple matter; "I just looked in the phone book under record pressing plants and there was one there", Ginn recalled, "and so I just took it to them and I knew about printing because I had always done catalogs." SST Records released the music recorded by Ginn's band (now named Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
) as the Nervous Breakdown EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in January 1979.
Many early Black Flag shows ended in violence, often involving the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
. As a result the police tapped the label's phones and kept the SST office under surveillance. Ginn claims undercover police posing as homeless people sat close to SST's front door. The band were unable to hire a lawyer because of a lack of money; Ginn later explained: "I mean, we were thinking about skimping on our meals. … There was no place to go". By 1980, L.A. clubs had begun to ban hardcore punk shows, adding to SST's troubles.
SST issued the Minutemen's
Minutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
debut EP Paranoid Time
Paranoid Time
Paranoid Time is the first EP by American hardcore punk band Minutemen. It is also the second ever release by the SST record label, founded by Black Flag's Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski.-History of the record:...
as its second release in 1980. The songs were recorded and mixed in a single night for $300. Minutemen bassist Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
recalled, "It was at that point we realized all you had to do was pay for the pressings, that records weren't a gift from Mount Olympus . . . Maybe it was from Greg's experience with ham radios, but he believed if you try, you can get things beyond your little group." Facing hostility towards hardcore punk, SST groups like Black Flag and the Minutemen played wherever they could, mainly at house parties and in basements early on. Black Flag began traveling up the California coast to play Mabuhay Gardens
Mabuhay Gardens
The Mabuhay Gardens was a San Francisco nightclub located at , on the Broadway strip of North Beach, an area best known for its strip clubs....
in San Francisco, making seven trips in total. SST house record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Spot
Spot (producer)
SPOT, , was the house producer and engineer for the influential independent punk record label SST Records. He recorded, mixed, produced or co-produced for most of SST's pivotal acts between 1979 and 1985...
went along as sound-man and tour manager, a job he would perform for several years, along with helping to record much of the label's music.
SST sold its releases to small distributors at a deliberately low price; however, since the distributors typically sold import records, the records usually ended up in specialty shops where they would sell for high prices. Ginn decided to release the first Black Flag album Damaged
Damaged (Black Flag album)
Damaged is the debut studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released in December 1981 through SST Records. In 2003, the album was ranked number 340 on Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time....
(1982) via a mainstream distributor. SST struck a deal with MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
to co-release Damaged on Unicorn Records, a smaller label distributed by MCA. Just prior to the album's release, MCA decided not to release Damaged, citing its "anti-parent" subject matter. SST sued Unicorn claiming the label did not pay rightful royalties and expenses for the album. Unicorn countersued and obtained an injunction preventing Black Flag from releasing further material until the case was settled. When SST released the Black Flag compilation Everything Went Black
Everything Went Black
Everything Went Black is a compilation album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag, released in 1982. It comprises early songs recorded before Henry Rollins became the band's vocalist in 1981, and released initially without the band's name on its cover, due to their lawsuit with MCA/Unicorn...
, Unicorn took SST to court in July 1983. Ginn and Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski
Chuck Dukowski
Chuck Dukowski is an American punk rock musician, best known as a founding member and bass player for Black Flag. Dukowski wrote some of Black Flag's most popular songs, including "My War," "What I See," "I've Heard It Before" and "Spray Paint." He left the band before the release of My War, and...
(who had become a co-owner of SST) were found in violation of the injunction and were sent to the Los Angeles County Jail for five days. Late in 1983 Unicorn went bankrupt and Black Flag was able to release records again.
Expansion and diversification
Despite its legal troubles, SST continued to release records by artists including the Minutemen, Saccharine TrustSaccharine Trust
Saccharine Trust is a post-hardcore band from California that was started in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza.The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. Drummer Rob Holzman appeared on their 1981 debut Paganicons but left the band to play in...
, and the Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets
The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...
. In 1982 Minneapolis hardcore group Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
became the label's first non-West Coast signing. Following the resolution of the debacle with Unicorn Records, SST released four Black Flag albums in 1984. The multiple Black Flag albums, along with the double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
releases Zen Arcade
Zen Arcade
Upon its release Zen Arcade received positive reviews in many mainstream publications, including NME, The New York Times and Rolling Stone. In his review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke described Zen Arcade as "the closest hardcore will ever get to an opera .....
and Double Nickels on the Dime
Double Nickels on the Dime
Double Nickels on the Dime is the third studio album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the Californian independent record label SST Records in 1984...
by Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen, respectively, stretched the label's resources. While SST believed Zen Arcade would be a sizable underground hit, pressings of over 5,000 copies were unknown territory for the label, so it erred on the side of caution and did not print over that number in its initial pressing. Awarded critical acclaim by several mainstream media outlets, Zen Arcade sold out quickly and remained out of print for months. Ginn decided to cut the promotional costs of the Black Flag albums by issuing them in quick succession and having the band tour solidly behind the releases.
During the mid-1980s Hüsker Dü became SST's star attraction, their strong songwriting and increasingly melodic music becoming the key link between hardcore and the developing sound of college rock
College rock
College rock is a term that was used in the United States to describe 1980s alternative rock before the term "alternative" came into common usage. The term's use of the word "college" refers to campus radio stations located at institutions of higher education in Canada and the United States, where...
. The steady recording and release of records by the band (which released three albums over the course of 1984 and 1985) created an influx of income for the label and afforded it leverage to gather payment from distributors for other releases. However, the band felt that SST did not devote enough attention to its releases; Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart
Grant Hart
Grant Hart is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the influential alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü. After the band's breakup in 1987, Hart formed the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar...
said after the band left the label, "I think there's a little reluctance on their part to let anything get a little more attention than Black Flag." In 1985, Hüsker Dü wanted to self-produce its third studio album, New Day Rising
New Day Rising
New Day Rising is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Hüsker Dü, released in 1985 on SST Records. Though less ambitious than prior album Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, in some ways, helped set the template for alternative rock for the next decade...
. Ignoring the band's wishes, SST assigned Spot to supervise the sessions. Grant Hart later explained: "We had no other choice but to work with him. SST made us work with him". Aware of the tension, Spot "had to do what the record company wanted". New Day Rising, as a result, became one of the last recordings Spot did for the label, and the band soon signed to major label Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
.
SST's roster was further diminished by the 1985 demise of the Minutemen (the result of the death of guitarist D. Boon
D. Boon
d. Boon born Dennes Dale Boon, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Californian punk rock trio Minutemen.-Youth:Dennes Boon...
) and the 1986 breakup of Black Flag. The label replaced these bands with new signings Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984. Originally called Dinosaur, prior to legal issues that forced the group to change their name, the band disbanded in 1997 until reuniting in 2005...
, and Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of...
. Sonic Youth mentioned SST often in interviews and in music writer Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad is an American author, journalist and musician. He grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983...
's estimation, "seemed to be actively campaigning to get signed to the indie powerhouse"; in turn, Sonic Youth was instrumental in getting SST to sign Dinosaur Jr. Gerard Cosloy, owner of Dinosaur Jr's previous label Homestead Records
Homestead Records
Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...
, said, "SST was the label everyone wanted to be on [. . .] Everyone's favorite bands were on the label; SST was funnier and cooler and it also had the machinery."
In 1986, Ginn bought New Alliance Records
New Alliance Records
New Alliance Records was the record label founded by The Minutemen's D. Boon and Mike Watt and longtime friend and associate Martin Tamburovich after the example of Black Flag's SST Records...
from Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
, who had founded the label with D. Boon
D. Boon
d. Boon born Dennes Dale Boon, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Californian punk rock trio Minutemen.-Youth:Dennes Boon...
. Ginn and SST proceeded to reissue some of New Alliance's key releases - albums by Descendents
Descendents
The Descendents are an American punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California. As of 2011, they have released six studio albums, three live albums, three compilation albums and three EPs. The Descendents broke up and reformed several times over the years, sometimes with different musicians...
, Hüsker Dü's Land Speed Record
Land Speed Record (album)
Land Speed Record is the first full-length record by Hüsker Dü, released in January 1982. It was recorded live on August 15, 1981 at the 7th Street Entry, a venue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The album is a fast and furious hardcore workout that bears almost no resemblance to the melodic post-punk...
, and all of The Minutemen's non-SST releases - on SST. He then converted New Alliance to a label based around unusual jazz, rock, and spoken word releases.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Ginn started two SST-distributed sub-labels. The first, Cruz Records
Cruz (recording label)
Cruz Records was an off-shoot record label of SST Records, owned by the Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The label was founded in 1987. It's roster consisted mainly of pop-punk and grunge bands, along with Ginn's solo records...
, which started in 1987, released three solo records by Ginn in the space of a year, and also released records by ALL
ALL (band)
All is an American punk band originally from Los Angeles, currently residing in Fort Collins, Colorado, formed by Descendents members Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez, and Stephen Egerton.-Formation and Cruz Records Years:...
, Big Drill Car
Big Drill Car
Big Drill Car was a pop punk/melodic hardcore group from Huntington Beach, California, who were active from the late 1980s to mid-1990s and briefly again in the mid-2000s...
, and Chemical People
Chemical People
Chemical People were a punk rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1986. The band toured the US, Canada and Europe and broke up in 1997.-History:...
. The second, the short-lived Issues Records, concentrated on spoken-word releases, including a double album by former NBA player Bill Walton
Bill Walton
William Theodore "Bill" Walton III is a retired American basketball player and television sportscaster. The "Big Red-Head", as he was called, achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early '70s, winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, while...
with music by Ray Manzarek
Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100...
.
Decline in prominence
Several artists left SST in the late 1980s. By 1987 Sonic Youth had grown disenchanted with the label. Guitarist Thurston MooreThurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
said, "SST's accounting was a bit suspect to us", and the group's other guitarist Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
criticized the label's "stoner administrative quality". The band was also dissatisfied with Ginn's newer signings. Unhappy that income from their records was ultimately helping to fund "lame-ass records", Sonic Youth unamicably left the label and signed with Enigma Records
Enigma Records
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...
in 1988. Dinosaur Jr left SST for Blanco y Negro Records
Blanco y Negro Records
Blanco y Negro Records, a subsidiary of WEA Records Ltd., was established in 1983 by Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records.Blanco y Negro was home to such artists as Bananarama, Everything But the Girl, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Dream Academy, Dinosaur Jr., Bernthøler, A House, Catatonia, The...
in 1990. Frontman J Mascis
J Mascis
J Mascis is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr.. In 2011, he was ranked in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.- Biography :...
said, "I like Greg Ginn and stuff, but they wouldn't pay you."
In 1987 SST released over 80 titles, a "ridiculous amount even by major label standards", according to Azerrad. SST's prestige declined and by 1990 Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
had upstaged SST. SST's reputation was damaged severely when sound collage group Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
fought a long legal battle with SST in the wake of its sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
lawsuit over their notorious "cover" of U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's hit "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's second single in May 1987...
", on the 1991 U2 single. The case was settled when Ginn and SST agreed to fully release most of Negativland's masters (mainly their Over The Edge series of cassettes) in exchange for completing work on a live album that had been planned long before their legal battles began, as well as keeping Negativland's three SST releases on the label for a short period (the copyright in those has since reverted to Negativland). This entire battle was later the basis for Negativland's 1995 book/CD, Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2
Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2
Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2 is a 270 page book and ten track CD released in 1995 by Negativland detailing their lawsuits with U2's record label Island Records for their EP U2, including many legal documents and correspondences....
.
SST went into near-hibernation in the mid-90s, deleting much of its jazz output, and releasing little new material apart from Ginn's projects (including Confront James
Confront James
Confront James is a Los Angeles musical group. Its leader is Greg Ginn, who plays guitar and bass on all records. It also includes Richard Ray on vocals, and Andy Batwinas on Percussion. All Confront James records were released by SST Records...
, Mojack
Mojack
Mojack is an instrumental rock band, formed by ex-Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The music of Mojack is similar to another one of Ginn's instrumental projects, Gone, however, it is much more jazz-oriented...
), but still keeping the catalogs of Black Flag, The Minutemen, fIREHOSE
FIREHOSE
Firehose was an alternative rock band consisting of Mike Watt , Ed Crawford , and George Hurley .-History:...
, Hüsker Dü, The Descendents, and Bad Brains in print. Several artists formerly on the label, including Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and the Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets
The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...
, sued SST to reclaim their master recording
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
s, claiming unpaid royalties. The label had ceased releasing any material by the end of the 1990s. Ginn blamed this on the bankruptcy of the label's distributor, DNA. The label eventually resumed releasing new material in the mid 2000s. However, these new releases have been restricted to Ginn-related projects like Gone, Hor, Jambang, and Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators.
In 2002, Ginn signed a new distribution deal with Koch Records
Koch Records
E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
and promised that new material by his various musical projects was forthcoming http://www.citizinemag.com/music/music-0306_gregginn1.htm, these releases eventually appeared on their homepage. In 2006, independent digital music distributor The Orchard
The Orchard (music label)
The Orchard is a New York City based digital distribution and entertainment services company that works with independent artists and labels, and content providers...
announced that 94 titles from SST's back catalog would become available on digital services like eMusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
and the iTunes Music Store.