I’m working on an incredibly tardy (the editorial circumstances are different) piece about SST records. Last night, I performed a live radio call to accompany my work. Figuring that it would somehow aid my progress, I’m still not sure how well it went. One thing without question is that it WILL NOT appeal to those that fall outside of this demographic:

Male, 27 – 45 years old, record geek, cobweb crotch.

Here is the call. You should listen to the entire show, but mine starts around the 1:08:45 mark….the July 12 show.

Like Master Shake says: “Good luck with the casual sex, ‘cuz you ain’t getting’ any!!!”

Intro to piece:

INSIDE THE BLASTING CONCEPT

The Missteps Of SST Records, Part 1

By Andrew Earles
Roughly twenty years ago to this moment, a mind was in the throes of a total and complete undoing. A complex, blazing, revered, and some might say, beautiful mind. This noggin belonged to Greg Ginn. Hard evidence exists to support this claim. Hard evidence that has names, names like October Faction, Tom Troccoli’s Dog, Painted Willie, Angst, SWA, D.C. 3, Gone, Alter Natives, Das Damen, Universal Congress Of, Lawndale, and grossly, Mr. Zoogz Rift. They weren’t all bad, and some might even be considered ahead of their time. The unifying factor among the nooks and crannies of SST was this: The bands didn’t have a time, and Greg Ginn didn’t have a big enough paper shredder for his fistfuls of money. Because of assumed credibility or undeniable badass-ness, Saint Vitus, Saccharine Trust, Slovenly, and The Tar Babies will be omitted from this part of the examination, and not everyone mentioned above will get their turn. Wurm will make the cut. Overkill, in their pre-thrash days on SST, will bear mentioning.
SST even released a readymade, cursory window into its own marginality. It was called The Blasting Concept: Volume II, and there’s no better way to begin our no-turning-back plunge. For roughly three dollars and fifty cents, a mid-80’s indie troubadour could subject themselves to the whims of a misguided label mogul. This decision was easily made by the cheap price and inclusion of such reliable names as Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Minutemen, and Black Flag. The songs were previously unreleased, which was advantageous to the buyer, as only one of these bands (Husker Du) was in its prime around 1986, the year the compilation hit stores. Ok, Husker Du were exiting their prime around that time. There are no less then three classic rock covers on The Blasting Concept V. 2; the Minutemen butchering one minute of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” the Meat Puppets painful take on Foghat’s painful take on Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” and D.C. 3’s oddly charming adaptation of Mountain’s “Theme From An Imaginary Western.” SST must take the credit for delving into 70’s butt rock and proto metal before any of their underground contemporaries, though this prescience was more artistic suicide than groundbreaking foresightedness.