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SST Records

Los Angeles1978–19905 bands

Greg Ginn's Los Angeles label turned hardcore into a distribution network for the country's furthest-out guitar music — a room as much as a roster.

  1. Minutemen

    San Pedro locals and part of Ginn's own South Bay circle, touring the SST network constantly on almost no money alongside Black Flag.

  2. Black Flag

    Greg Ginn's own band and the reason the label existed in the first place; its relentless touring schedule set the operating template every other SST act followed.

  3. Hüsker Dü

    Signed in from Minneapolis, plugging a Midwest band into a Los Angeles-run circuit and helping prove SST's network extended well past California.

  4. Descendents

    South Bay labelmates connected to Black Flag directly through drummer Bill Stevenson's stint in that band, keeping the label's family of players tightly overlapping.

  5. Sonic Youth★ Named as an influence by 27 artists on the map

    New York outsiders who toured the SST circuit despite no California roots; Lee Ranaldo has voiced admiration for Black Flag, more a mark of the label's camaraderie than a direct sound-influence claim.

The room

Los Angeles · 1978–1990

SST started as Greg Ginn's ham-radio parts mail-order business, run out of Hermosa Beach and San Pedro, before Ginn turned it into a record label for his own band, Black Flag. From there it became less a single room than an operation: Ginn signing and releasing bands he wanted to hear, then booking them onto shared bills and shared tours so a national hardcore circuit existed where none had before. Bands with no connection to Los Angeles at all — Hüsker Dü from Minneapolis, Sonic Youth from New York — plugged directly into that SST-run touring network alongside the label's own South Bay acts.

Room to room

The bands here shaped 8 bands in 6 other scenes; 15 bands from 5 other scenes shaped them.

Red: who a band here shapedBlue: who a band here learned fromPoint at a band to see only its links; click a scene to go there.

  • Detroit–Ann ArborMinutemen learned from The Stooges.Black Flag learned from The Stooges.Descendents learned from The Stooges.Sonic Youth learned from The Stooges.
  • 4ADBlack Flag shaped Pixies.Hüsker Dü shaped Pixies and Lush.Sonic Youth shaped Pixies.
  • DC HardcoreBlack Flag shaped Minor Threat.Black Flag learned from Bad Brains.Descendents learned from Bad Brains.Sonic Youth learned from Minor Threat.
  • SeattleBlack Flag shaped Nirvana and Mudhoney.Sonic Youth shaped Nirvana.
  • No WaveBlack Flag shaped Swans.Sonic Youth learned from Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions, Mars and DNA.
  • CBGBBlack Flag learned from Ramones.Hüsker Dü learned from Ramones.Sonic Youth learned from Television, Patti Smith and Talking Heads.
  • ManchesterHüsker Dü learned from Joy Division and Buzzcocks.
  • Lower East SideSonic Youth shaped Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
  • Riot GrrrlSonic Youth shaped Sleater-Kinney.

What came out of it

SST's shared-bill touring model built the infrastructure American underground rock ran on for the rest of the 1980s, and its example — a working band's label distributing whatever else it wanted to hear — became the template college and indie labels followed afterward.

Who they learned from 25

Who learned from them 43