The modern music industry is defined, in large part, by major labels and centralized digital services. To try and imagine a world without (or at least around them), we’ve been looking backwards to the 1980s, when a thriving underground economy enabled a remarkable flood of American rock. If one label could be said to define that moment, it would be LA’s SST Records. Founded in Hermosa Beach by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn, SST would spend the decade releasing an unbeatable string of albums from acts like Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, St. Vitus, and Meat Puppets. To try and understand how SST did it— and why it more or less vanished by the turn of the 90s, we talk to Jim Ruland author of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records. Come for discussion of Spot, the best punk producer of all time. Stay for a takes on semi-thriving undefground economies , megalomania, and “weeding out.”

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