Among jazz enthusiasts, there are sites practically dedicated to all things Blue Note (e.g. jazzcollector.com), and don't get me wrong, my Blue Note CDs and vinyl own special places on my music shelves. However, I wanted to spend a minute contemplating the first label I considered from a more holistic vantage point and maybe provide some basis for why I think it deserves more attention.
I'll be honest, my first exposure to SST was a used copy of Black Flag's Damaged on cassette way back in the mid 80's. I loved that thing, but I didn't "get it" at first. It took a few years to fully understand what Greg Ginn and company were trying to do. Once I did begin to grasp the concept however, or at least what I believed their intentions were, I never looked back. It was Black Flag's music that made me want to know more about music in general, led me to things like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and from them to Iggy & The Stooges. It made me curious about music's history, starting with Led Zeppelin, then the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and finally the jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Along the way, Raymond Pettibone's often shocking cartoon images taught me to consider the artwork as part of the packaging, another element comprising the whole. D. Boon's "art" for the Punch Line album (shown) added still another element. Looking back on it now, I see where SST had its iconic artist in Pettibone, much like some of the Blue Note releases featured cover work by Warhol.
But don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that SST as a label deserves a spot next to Blue Note or Impulse! or even the Capitol Records of yesterday, only that it deserves more acclaim. In a sense, SST is much closer to the more renegade labels like DIY favorite, Dischord, and it can't be denied that its influence looms heavily over modern stalwarts like Drag City and Southern Lord, Kill Rock Stars and Hydra Head.
Anyway... None of the above are first editions, only "cherished" versions. I love the symmetry of having (and seeing in the photos above) Nervous Breakdown both on CD and LP (blue vinyl!), Minutemen's Paranoid Time, shown in similar fashion, and finally The Punch Line.
I purchased many of these on CD before conducting my own vinyl revival years ago, and unfortunately that's how I first heard them -- on cassette or CD. Yet I still learned to love them, and they became a vital part of my journey from confused adolescent on a skateboard to somewhat responsible adult. My CD copy of What Makes A Man Start Fires? looks like somebody used it to play Frisbee. It's been through a lot; so has my copy of Husker Du's Zen Arcade and Bad Brains' I Against I.
There are albums from other labels that I like just as much as any of these. There are other labels that I respect deeply, admire greatly, but nothing holds a more special place in my musical past than the first few Black Flag and Minutemen albums on SST.
