The place to start in this review is Our Band Could Be Your Life. Because Ruland writes this in the Bibliography:
"Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, by Michael Azerrad (2001); Enter Naomi: SST, LA and All That, by Joe Carducci (2007); and Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag, by Stevie Chick (2011) form the foundation for any serious consideration of SST Records. If this book is your introduction to SST Records and its many sagas, they are required reading." (401)
So, do I have to read the other two books now? I wouldn't necessarily mind. The experience of reading this book was affected by trying to read it at the same time as A Little Life. Eventually, I realized it was more efficient for the purposes of this blog to just pick one and finish it first. This one was shorter, but also more amusing.
We have to start with Our Band Could Be Your Life because this is, essentially, Our Band Could Be Your Life, Part 2. But that wouldn't be accurate--a true part 2 of that book would feature a dozen different bands. Thus, an effective "part two" would be a 25th anniversary edition of it, with a new introduction or afterword, as well as revised histories of the bands featured to capture their activities post-2001.
This is not that book, but it is close to that book. This is because about half (if not more than half) of the bands from Our Band Could Be Your Life are featured similarly in this one. Most prominently, this involves Black Flag and the Minutemen. Then Husker Du, to a lesser extent. And then finally Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., in somewhat cursory sketches. Every other band in that book is also mentioned (not 100% clear on Mudhoney or Fugazi, but you certainly get Green River (in conjunction with Soundgarden) and Ian Mackaye/Teen Idles/Minor Threat (in conjunction with Henry Garfield and Bad Brains, who must have been one of the "outtakes" of that predecessor volume, and command more space here than Dinosaur or Sonic)). Many familiar figures, such as Roger Miller from Mission of Burma, releasing a number of solo items on SST, the Replacements as major label jumpers with Husker Du, Big Black and Steve Albini and his writings in zines, and Calvin Johnson and K Records (in conjunction with Screaming Trees), show up throughout the text. Perhaps only Butthole Surfers are left out, but they are an anomaly in any case.
This came out in 2022 and since 2001, the stories on these bands have evolved in sometimes surprising ways. Certainly, Fugazi's presence, influence and status ("on hiatus") has not changed. While Black Flag never jumped to a major label, Azerrad did not spill much ink on Greg Ginn's multitude of side and solo projects. The competing reunions of FLAG and persistence of Black Flag itself as a known quantity are briefly detailed here. There is not a great deal of material on the Minutemen/Mike Watt post-2001, and the same for Husker Du (in fact their role in this book is almost exactly the same as that earlier one). This is also the case for Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., whose major label efforts are deemed irrelevant to the story. But we really should get to the substance of this book, which essentially is Greg Ginn.
OBCBYL opens up with Ginn as the progenitor and founder and CEO of SST Records, which is totally appropriate, really the only place that book could start, and Corporate Rock Sucks begins in almost the same place, before quickly taking the deeper dive into SST and SST alone.
Ginn is, to put it simply, "an enigma," which was how Mark Lanegan defined him, shortly before Lanegan passed away, far too soon. He is an iconoclast that started from the bottom, perfected his brand and commissioned several masterpieces, and spent the last 25 years mostly in a state of maligned repose. SST crushed all competition up until about 1988. Nirvana really wanted to be on the label (Ginn wasn't impressed), and who knows how that might have affected the life cycle of the band and/or changed history. It was cool, it had its own aesthetic, its own philosophy and attitude, and most importantly, it was a sign of the quality of the record. Many fans would simply buy every album that SST put out, in its earlier years, because they were hand-picked and curated by Ginn, whose tastes were respected.
There is no SST without Greg Ginn, but SST would never have become as successful without his brother, better known as Raymond Pettibon. Ginn and Pettibon have not spoken to one another in about 30 years, not even when their father passed away. Both of them are expert keepers of grudges, apart from being groundbreaking artists. Pettibon comes off better than Ginn, because the source of their estrangement was Ginn's unauthorized use of some of Pettibon's work, as their partnership became frayed towards its end. Black Flag would never have become as big a concept without Pettibon. Pettibon made the logo, and that logo accounts for 50% of Black Flag's legacy and continuing appeal. Pettibon also made the artwork that adorned many covers of the early SST releases. While some may consider his work gruesome or unnecessarily dark, it is unmistakably iconic. The artwork informed the lyrical content, and as the subject matter was generally ugly, they complemented each other beautifully.
Hardcore is seen by the general public as music for neanderthals and skinheads and lunkheads, but this belies its intellectual foundations. Ginn got his degree from UCLA. Kira Roessler got a graduate degree from Yale after playing bass for Black Flag. Mike Watt read Ulysses and wrote the song "June 16th" as a tribute. Pettibon had his first gallery shows after cutting ties with the label. Much of it sounds like "low art," but that is intentional (sometimes), and that makes it easy to misinterpret.
To be sure, the earliest releases had serious limitations in terms of budget and studio time and equipment, but more often than not these limitations proved inspirational. While Ruland sometimes writes in a sort of sensational style, this tone seemed to fall away after about 100 pages, and he does not balk at criticizing the music (both he and Azerrad express their disdain for "Slip it in," which I still believe is misplaced). Damaged and Zen Arcade are good examples of inspiration out of limitations. The lesser quality of all Black Flag material post-Damaged is not ignored.
***
On the subject of Zen Arcade, the release that put Husker Du into the spotlight, Ruland makes a fascinating interpretation of the album, quite different from Azerrad's. Azerrad's is rather brief and seems to position this "concept album" on similar grounds to what Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness would later define: depressed teenager comes-of-age. This is Ruland's reading:
"No one leaves home without a reason. The opening tracks on Side 1 focus on the courage it takes to put a bad situation behind ("Broken Home, Broken Heart") and how empowering it can be to make a clean break with the past ("Never Talking to You Again"). But things get more challenging for the young protagonist after he leaves home, and he entertains thoughts of joining the military ("Chartered Trips") or a cult ("Hare Krsna")--systems of control that provide the comfort of structure but risk leading him away from his dreams.
Side 2 explores the wild world outside the safety of home ("Beyond the Threshold"), which tries to lure him back with promises of security ("Pride"). He has a very particular dream to create a video game. He lands a dream job developing this project in Silicon Valley, but he can't escape the pull of the past ("The Biggest Lie").
Although Side 2 is far from mellow, on Side 3 things take a chaotic turn for our hero. He throws himself into developing a game called Search. The game's title implies that its creator still hasn't found what he's looking for, and his journey continues on a deeper level ("Somewhere"). After his girlfriend overdoses ("Pink Turns to Blue"), he ends up in a sanitarium and questions everything from the state of the world ("Newest Industry") to his own tumultuous past ("Whatever").Zen Arcade concludes with just two "songs" on Side 4: the galloping "Turn on the News" and "Reoccurring Dreams," a sprawling fourteen-minute instrumental that returns to the motifs expressed on Side 2 in "Dreams Reoccurring." While "Turn on the News" suggests a mental patient's interest in returning to the concerns of the world, the shimmering guitars of "Reoccurring Dreams" signifies a return to consciousness. Our hero's search was all a dream. Husker Du preferred to 'leave things up to people's imaginations instead of making concrete definitions,' Mould said. 'We didn't want it to be a rock opera.'" (138)
Ruland goes off even more about the album, but, seriously, WTF, developing a video game called Search? Perhaps this demands another listen*. Suffice to say, what Ruland considers a "wake up call" at the end of the album, Azerrad considers the flatlining of a heartbeat on a life-support machine. The album can be whatever the listener makes of it, and these wildly diverging interpretations illustrate the difference between the two books: this is the more passionate one.
Of course, Azerrad is clearly a big fan of the music, but these are very different books. I would say this is better than OBCBYL, except that book is intended more as a survey of bands, while this one is far more detailed about one specific label. The book's appendix lists every single SST release, and nearly all of these are referenced in the text, if only for a line or two. Azerrad's is more engaging because he can pick and choose the most interesting parts of many different bands' stories. Ruland's is more evocative and authoritative in terms of the intricacies of the label and many of the "forgotten" bands that had their albums released on it. Some of these stories are just as good as those about more "famous" bands.
***
For example, to start with Ginn again, few probably know just how many bands he "ran" apart from Black Flag. Some of these bands are "imaginary" and most of the albums are glorified jam sessions. We might consider Gone the most prominent of his post-Black Flag activities. Gone emerged in December 1985 and put out their last release, The Epic Trilogy, in 2007:
"...a double CD that is one of the strangest releases of Ginn's post-Black Flag career, which is saying something. The trilogy consists of three instrumental songs on the first disc, each approximately fifteen minutes long, and the exact same songs on the second disc with vocals from H.R. that had been tracked many years before when Batwinas was running Casa Destroy." (350)
It would probably take me an hour to itemize all of these bands, such as October Faction, Mojack, Greg Ginn and The Taylor Texas Corrugators, Good for You, the Killer Tweeker Bees (who put out The Killer Tweeker Blues), Bias (who put out Model Citizen), and Get Me High (who put out Taming the Underground), Hor, Confront James, and El Bad. Suffice to say, few of these releases are essential.
I daresay that while The Epic Trilogy is strange, it is worth hearing. Because in 2007 I was living in the South Bay and super into Black Flag and Bad Brains and bemoaned the lack of new music from either (Apparently, I missed it when Bad Brains released an album in 2007 that probably would have been super exciting at the time - Ed.). Yet while this is not a Black Flag/Bad Brains collaboration, it is a side-project for each. It doesn't sound all that great but it's interesting at the very least.
***
There is also SWA, which is Chuck Dukowski's band. For all of the many members of Black Flag over the years (which is oddly akin to The Fall in this respect, Greg Ginn as Mark E. Smith if he ran his own record label), Dukowski is #2 to Ginn's #1. Henry Rollins may be the most famous, but he clearly was just following orders, though he did something with the music (which had become far less "catchy" than the material recorded before he joined) that was undeniably special and elevated the band into legacy territory. It wasn't just Greg Ginn, it was also Raymond Pettibon, and Henry Rollins--and Chuck Dukowski, who was not only #2 in Black Flag, but #2 at SST.
Dukowski was fired from Black Flag but maintained a working relationship with Ginn and the label. SWA commands a fair amount of space in this book, and it was unfortunate that I could not locate any of their albums on Apple Music. Because I'd want to listen to at least one (Sex Doctor, SST 073):
"While concepts for SWA had been percolating for years, Dukowski teamed up with Ward to write some songs and record an album with guitarists Ray Cooper and Richard Ford and drummer Greg Cameron (a.k.a. Nazi Sex Doctor). Ward worked at a bookstore with an adult section, and he would occasionally bring titles to the office at Global. While waiting for rehearsal, Cameron perused a novel about a German commandant of a labor camp who fell in love with one of his prisoners. When Rollins and Davo returned from getting coffee, they found Cameron engrossed in the book. They were delighted to discover its title was Nazi Sex Doctor. 'Boom that was it,' Cameron said. 'I was the Nazi Sex Doctor...Of course, it was so opposite of who I was. In fact, I was still a virgin, but the nickname stuck like glue.'
His friends at SST would call him Naz (prounced 'Knots') or Nazi for short, which created some uncomfortable situations for the young drummer. On tour, Dave Rat did SWA's sound, and during soundcheck one day he addressed Cameron by his nickname through the talkback mic, which was also going through the house sound system. Cameron recalled, 'He actually said, "Okay, Nazi, go ahead and hit the kick drum." Everybody that worked at the venue just stopped what they were doing and all eyes were on the stage.'" (191-192)
***
I've listened to a bit of the band Leaving Trains, and they are relatively accessible, perhaps worth hearing, but perhaps just a curious footnote:
"Like Divine Horsemen, the Leaving Trains started out on Enigma Records before jumping ship to SST. Founded by Falling James Moreland in the early 80's, the original lineup featured future SST artist Sylvia Juncosa on keyboards. Starting with Kill Tunes (SST 071), the Leaving Trains issued a slew of grungy pop records for SST, including Fuck (SST 114) and Transportational D. Vices (SST 221). A productive run, considering Moreland was married to Courtney Love long enough to produce Hole's first single for Sympathy for the Record Industry before the relationship crashed and burned." (256)
Painted Willie is another fairly accessible band, noteworthy for featuring Dave Markey on drums. Painted Willie opened for Black Flag on their final tour, and Markey made a documentary about it, which I watched on YouTube a while back. While not as essential, it clearly set the template for the seminal The Year Punk Broke, which was also shot and directed by Markey:
"Later that year, Ginn ventured up to North Hollywood to produce Painted Willie's debut, Mind Bowling (SST 057), at Spinhead Studios. 'It was just a play on mind blowing,' Markey said of the album's title. 'It was just mind blowing to be welcomed into that world, to be invited into that by Greg Ginn himself.'
The album opens up with '405,' an instrumental with multiple time changes that builds to a gallop and slows to a crawl--just like driving on L.A.'s most infamous freeway. The dynamic nature of the song must have caught Ginn's ear right off the bat. Like all of Markey's projects, Painted Willie has a sense of humor that comes across in songs like 'Chia Pet,' in which the eponymous plant grows into a jackbooted Nazi, and 'Monkey Mia,' a whimsically weird tale of cannibalism. Side 2 includes a spirited cover of 'My Little Red Book,' a faster, fuzzed-out version of the 1965 hit by Burt Bacharach and Hal David that was made famous the following year by L.A.'s Love. Painted Willie's take on 'My Little Red Book' wouldn't be out of place on a Husker Du record." (210)
There are many more of these short-lived, semi-forgotten bands memorialized in the text, and suffice to say, one of the virtues of the book is that while it may not give these bands a "second life," it will at least provide readers with knowledge of them, and some of those readers will become listeners.
***
There is a lot more I could say about this book, and I haven't even touched on Negativland, which is not so much a band as an art project. The story of SST and how it "disrupted" the record industry, along with Ginn's litigiousness and penchant for writing angry letters telling his side of the story, is epitomized in the Negativland material. It would take too much space to get into this in the review (which is already running long), but it is truly one of the more fascinating sections of the book. For just a small taste, we may excerpt the band's first foray into controversy and irreverence:
"Michael Whittaker was working in the office at SST when one of the members of Negativland called to ask whether he knew anyone in the Minneapolis press. A sixteen-year-old boy named David Brom had murdered his father, mother, brother, and sister with an axe. One detail in the shocking tragedy seemed like it had been planted to provoke a media firestorm: Brom's murderous rampage was instigated by an argument between Brom and his conservative Catholic father abotu music. Negativland wanted to know if Whittaker would tell the media that the music in question was none other than 'Christianity is Stupid' from the band's SST debut Escape from Noise (SST 133)." (286)
This would not be the first "prank" the band would play, and because the label often had to pay for them in court, Ginn's relations with the band were contentious, but also complicated, because while Negativland later tried to capitalize on the popularity of U2 through a stunt, SST later tried to capitalize on the controversy by printing up t-shirts that read "Kill Bono." (The members of U2 and Brian Eno seemed to have some understanding of what Negativland was trying to do and did not take major offense; Island Records, however, did.)
***
This book is not perfect. Like many other works of non-fiction charting the entire history of a business, there are many players, and many references to those players' last names that will be lost on the reader, particularly without proper context in the preceding 2-3 paragraphs to "remind" the reader of who they are (i.e. "Ward" above, in the excerpt about SWA).
As noted previously, this book is really all about Ginn, because Ginn's baby was SST. And one wonders how Ginn must feel about this book. It bears a striking resemblance to The Contrarian, and while Greg Ginn is not Peter Thiel, they have many similarities. They are enormously influential, and given credit for their numerous accomplishments, but also widely reviled for different reasons. Ginn did not espouse vile politics (occasionally questionable lyrics aside), but many of these bands left SST because of so-called "accounting irregularities." SST was a good place to put out an album, but not a good place to get paid. Ruland's mission with the book, it seems, is spelled out in the final chapter, which advises the label to give the rights to the music back to (some of) its creators. Ruland wants Ginn to redeem himself. And it seems totally possible.
Ruland did not interview Ginn for this book, and it seems obvious that he tried. Thus, it is an "unauthorized" history, and probably the better for it. One can imagine that Ginn would not like it very much, but Ruland gives credit where it is due. Perhaps somewhere, Ginn is writing a letter, debunking many of the "facts" in the book, or perhaps filing suit for defamation. Or perhaps not, for he should know as well as anyone: even bad press is still good press. This book will not cancel him, and he should not be cancelled; it merely encourages him to try to do better by the artists he signed, and one hopes it will lead the way towards better outcomes for all.
*Open invitation for comments that directly link lyrics of songs from Zen Arcade to the interpretation provided here.
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