Corporate Rock Sucks
The Rise and Fall of SST Records
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
A no-holds-barred narrative history of the iconic label that brought the world Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, and more, by the co-author of Do What You Want and My Damage.
Greg Ginn started SST Records in the sleepy beach town of Hermosa Beach, CA, to supply ham radio enthusiasts with tuners and transmitters. But when Ginn wanted to launch his band, Black Flag, no one was willing to take them on. Determined to bring his music to the masses, Ginn turned SST into a record label. On the back of Black Flag’s relentless touring, guerilla marketing, and refusal to back down, SST became the sound of the underground.
In Corporate Rock Sucks, music journalist Jim Ruland relays the unvarnished story of SST Records, from its remarkable rise in notoriety to its infamous downfall. With records by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and scores of obscure yet influential bands, SST was the most popular indie label by the mid-80s--until a tsunami of legal jeopardy, financial peril, and dysfunctional management brought the empire tumbling down. Throughout this investigative deep-dive, Ruland leads readers through SST’s tumultuous history and epic catalog.
Featuring never-before-seen interviews with the label's former employees, as well as musicians, managers, producers, photographers, video directors, and label heads, Corporate Rock Sucks presents a definitive narrative history of the ’80s punk and alternative rock scenes, and shows how the music industry was changed forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ruland (My Damage, with Keith Morris) offers an illuminating if baggy look at SST Records, which signed some of the most successful alternative bands of the 1980s yet struggled to stay afloat. Greg Ginn, a ham radio enthusiast from Southern California, began SST in 1966 at age 12 as an electronics business before using it to release the 1979 debut EP of his band Black Flag. Chapters on other well-known SST bands, such as Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen, intrigue, particularly where Ruland shows how the former's ambition inspired the latter. However, accounts of groups that never took off, such as hardcore-thrash hybrid the Stains, are sunk with a bit too much minutiae. Other top-selling bands on the roster—notably Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth—left for major labels and eventually reclaimed rights to their SST recordings after years of missed royalty payments. The trailblazing Seattle grunge band Soundgarden's relationship with SST was brief, but it stands out here thanks to a dynamic interview with guitarist Kim Thayil, who fondly recounts the label's "open-mindedness and... progressive embrace of the indie ethos." Unfortunately, though he notes many bands' reasons for leaving (including being forced by the label to tour endlessly), Ruland never fully elucidates how the label imploded so spectacularly. While a bumpy ride, the insights still make this worth the effort.
