SST Records is a Lawndale, California based independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by Black Flag founder/guitarist Greg Ginn. Lawndale is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. ... An independent record label is variously described as a record label operating without the funding (or outside the organizations) of the major record labels, and/or a label that subscribes to indie philosophies such as DIY and anti-corporate art. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... County Los Angeles County, California Area  - Total  - Water 170. ... Black Flags logo, often found spraypainted in various places in L.A. in the 1980s Black Flag was a hardcore punk group formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is a guitarist, songwriter and singer. ...

Early Years

SST was originally an electronics company called SST Electronics that specialized in the production of ham radio components. Ginn founded the company during his high school years, and it continued in this capacity well after Ginn began persuing a career in music. The name SST stood for "Solid State Tuners" although the abbreviated form became the predominant name as time went on. SST Records is a record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by Black Flag founder/guitarist Greg Ginn. ... Amateur radio, commonly called ham radio, is a hobby enjoyed by many people throughout the world (as of 2004 about 3 million worldwide, 70,000 in Germany, 5,000 in Norway, 57,000 in Canada, and 700,000 in the USA). ... In physics, the solid state is one of the three phases of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). ...

SST Electronics became SST Records in 1979 when Greg Ginn required an outlet to release Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown 7". The single had been recorded in 1978, and Ginn shopped it around to various labels. Only Bomp! was interested, but Ginn though they were dragging their feet, so he decided to release the single himself, as well as the following year's Jealous Again EP. Embracing a DIY ("Do It Yourself") ethic, SST's employees included Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski, their roadie Mugger, Joe Carducci (who also ran his own micro-label Thermidor Records), and The Minutemen's Mike Watt. Although not a medical term, the phrase nervous breakdown is often used by laymen to describe a sudden and acute attack of mental illness—for instance, clinical depression or anxiety disorder—in a previously outwardly healthy person. ... Jealous Again was an EP released by Black Flag in 1980 on SST Records. ... The DIY punk ethic refers to the idea of doing it yourself, i. ... Chuck Dukowski is the stage name of Gary McDaniel, born February 1, 1954. ... Mugging may refer to: A type of robbery. ... The Minutemen were a punk rock band from San Pedro, California comprising singer/guitarist D. Boon, singer/bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley. ... Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a bass guitarist, singer and songwriter, best-known for co-founding the punk rock bands The Minutemen and fIREHOSE; as of 2003, he is also the bassist for the reunited Iggy Pop & The Stooges. ...

The label was a prominent figure in the L.A. punk scene around 1980 and 1981, releasing more albums by Black Flag as well as The Minutemen, The Descendents, and The Stains. The classic Descendents lineup left to right, Frank Navetta, Tony Lombardo, Milo Aukerman, and Bill Stevenson. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Middle Years

After a few years, SST quickly branched to release albums by bands outside of the southern California area. The company was one of the key American independent record labels of the 1980s, releasing well-regarded albums—including a few undeniable classics—by Soundgarden, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Negativland and others. Soundgarden was a seminal Seattle rock band who helped to define the sound that came to be called grunge. ... The Meat Puppets were a three-piece punk rock cover band in Scottsdale, Arizona, formed in January 1980, originally calling themselves the Bastions of Immaturity. ... Top: Publicity photo distributed by SST Records, 1985. ... The Bad Brains are an American all-black hardcore punk and reggae band, originally formed in Washington, DC in 1977. ... Sonic Youth is a rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ... Dinosaur Jr is an American indie rock band. ... Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. ...

In 1987, Ginn bought New Alliance Records from Mike Watt, who had founded the label with his best friend and Minutemen bandmate D. Boon. Ginn/SST proceeded to reissue some of New Alliance's key releases - albums by The 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. New Alliance Records was the label founded by The Minutemens D. Boon and Mike Watt after the example of Black Flags SST Records. ... Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a bass guitarist, singer and songwriter, best-known for co-founding the punk rock bands The Minutemen and fIREHOSE; as of 2003, he is also the bassist for the reunited Iggy Pop & The Stooges. ... D. Boon, born Dennes Dale Boon (April 1, 1958 - December 22, 1985) was the guitarist and lead singer of punk rock group The Minutemen. ... 1970 land speed record being set at Bonneville Salt Flats by Gary Gabelich Land Speed Records 1898-2002 The information below is for self-propelled wheeled vehicles travelling over open ground. ...

In the early 90's, Ginn started two SST-distributed sub-labels. The first, Cruz Records, released three solo records by Ginn in the space of a year, and also released records by All, Big Drill Car, Chemical People. The second, the short-lived Issues Records, concentrated on spoken-word releases, including a double album by basketball player Bill Walton with music by Ray Manzarek. ALL Promotional Photograph (Epitaph Records) ALL is a spin off punk band formed by members of The Descendents. ... Big Drill Car was a later punk group from Huntington Beach, California. ... Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005 Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls attempts to score. ... William Theodore Walton III, better known as Bill Walton (born November 5, 1952 in San Diego, California), is a former American basketball player and current television sportscaster. ... Raymond Daniel Manzarek (born Raymond Daniel Manczarek to Helena and Raymond on February 12, 1939 in Chicago). ...

Legal Troubles

With the rise of alternative rock in the early 1990s, SST might have greatly benefitted by presenting themselves as godfathers of the scene, somewhat like Sub Pop did. However, a series of draining legal troubles nixed this possibility. The terms alternative rock and alternative music were coined in the early 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired music genres which didnt fit into the mainstream genres of the time. ... Sub Pop logo Sub Pop is an independent record label in Seattle, Washington famous for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, and many other bands from the local scene. ...

One of the earliest signs of trouble was not due to lawsuits, but due to what might have been a poor business decision. In the late 1980s, SST began releasing jazz records by several southern California ensembles. Some of it was quite good (Bazooka and Brother Weasel) while others were of dubious quality (Hotel X). This new direction was generally of little interest to fans expecting more punk rock from SST, while jazz fans were unlikely to look to a punk rock label, and those who did might have been put off my some of the middling records. Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Bazooka was a jazz group active in the 1990s, and led by drummer Vince Meghrouni. ...

SST began to suffer an exodus of much of its classic back catalog because of royalty disputes with some of the artists, who had to regain their masters from SST after pursuing legal action. The Meat Puppets were the first to sue; their albums were rereleased by Rykodisc. Sonic Youth claimed back their SST masters and sold them to Geffen Records, the major label they have been signed to since 1990. Dinosaur Jr's SST releases have been reissued on Merge Records, and in 2005, Hüsker Dü made similar claims of accounting irregularities, and are pursuing legal action against SST. Rykodisc was one of the first CD-only record companies in the late 1980s. ... Geffen Records was founded by David Geffen in 1975 (after having founded Asylum Records in the 1970s). ... Merge Records is an indie-rock record label based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. ...

In the most agonizing (and expensive) trial for SST, Negativland fought a long legal battle with SST in the wake of their sampling lawsuit over their notorious U2 single. The case was settled when Ginn and SST agreed to fully release most of Negativland's masters (mainly their Over The Edge cassettes) in exchange for completing work on a live album that had been planned long before their legal battles began, and keeping Negativland's three SST releases on the label for a short period (the copyright in those has since reverted to Negativland). Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. ... hello Sampling (music) Sampling (signal processing) Sampling (statistics) This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

SST went into near-hibernation in the mid-90s, deleting much of their jazz output, and not releasing much in the way of new material, but still keeping the catalogs of Black Flag, The Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Hüsker Dü, Soundgarden, The Descendents, and Bad Brains in print. Indoor firehose A firehose is a thick, high-pressure hose used to carry water or other fire retardant (such as foam) to a fire to extinguish it. ...

In 2002, Ginn signed a new distribution deal with Koch Records and promised that new material by his various musical projects was forthcoming, but these releases have yet to materialize. 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Koch Entertainment is an American entertainment company, based out of New York City and Nashville, Tennessee. ...

See also

• List of record labels
• List of independent record labels

The following is a partial list of record labels, both past and present. ... This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...

External links

• Official site
• The SST Records Story by David Lang (1998)