Blind Idiot God self-titled LP from 1987. Total powerhouse shit. Splits the difference between instrumental noise rock, hardcore, metal, and music school. I can even get down w/the dub tracks a little more as I age. Also, one of the two or three loudest bands I've ever seen live (like, up there w/pre-reunion Swans).

Slovenly's Thinking of Empire is a close second. For me, nothing about it falls flat. Superb intertwined guitars, even better drumming, and unique and hilarious singer. The vocals aren't everyone's cup of tea, I get that. But I actually find them easier to take at this point in my adulthood than, to use two comparable examples, David Byrne or Ian Curtis. Mainly b/c of the underlying humor and the fact that Steve Anderson looks more like this big, drunken surfer than some wiry post-punk intellectual. There's something unselfconscious, ridiculous, and great about them.

Sac Trust's Paganicons is a rager but I rarely want to listen to it these days, for no particular reason.

That Opal album is fucking great, smokey, downer psych. But the singles collection on Rough Trade might be better.

I also appreciated the These Immortal Souls LP but I don't think I've revisited it since the early '90s. Does it hold up?

BTW, These Immortal Souls is one of those bands I had no idea was an SST act until MUCH later similar to how follow aussies like Lubricated GOAT and King Snake Roost were apparently on Amrep and I had no idea about that either until later (my vinyl copies are on other labels). I dig their album too but yet again, ain't no way in hell I think of it as SST (tm)... I think that's the main issue with SST as they progressed; they lost all identity and instead wanted to be an edgy version of a major label who put out all kinds of music and while there are LOTS of hidden gems in there amongst a lot of crap, it's very hard to compare with, say, Touch&go, Dischord, amrep, Sub pop etc. since the approach was so different; less about "branding" and "trademark of quality" and more about offering a little something "interesting" for everyone including the hundred or so people around the globe who care about some free improv by Fred Frith (ex Henry Cow); while I can appreciate the ambition, it was a stupid move from a previously acclaimed indie-label...

It's Screaming Trees, but Fatso Jetson ain't nothing to sneeze at. Once a "Solo..." break kicked in? It was whatever the opposite of "Telegraphed..." is.

jakethesnake wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:36 pm I think that's the main issue with SST as they progressed; they lost all identity and instead wanted to be an edgy version of a major label who put out all kinds of music and while there are LOTS of hidden gems in there amongst a lot of crap, it's very hard to compare with, say, Touch&go, Dischord, amrep, Sub pop etc.

May have just come down to having a lot of cash on hand (or at least, credit with distros and pressing plants) and something like 40 people working there at its peak. Inevitably it expanded stylistically and geographically and it couldn't all be recorded by Spot (who quit working with the label by '85-ish). It's pretty nuts that there are almost 400 SST titles and the bulk of it came out between about 1984-1989! And all of those labels had some version of Big Bands bringing home the bacon so they could afford a small run of Dennison/Kimball Trio records or whatever.

I didn't even factor in non-musical stuff like Negativland, spoken word albums into the poll.

Not familiar enough with the full roster, but I LOVE Slovenly.

penningtron wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2024 7:20 am
I didn't even factor in non-musical stuff like Negativland, spoken word albums into the poll.

Ja, the Negativland stuff totally slipped my mind, but those are important records.

penningtron wrote:May have just come down to having a lot of cash on hand (or at least, credit with distros and pressing plants) and something like 40 people working there at its peak. Inevitably it expanded stylistically and geographically and it couldn't all be recorded by Spot (who quit working with the label by '85-ish). It's pretty nuts that there are almost 400 SST titles and the bulk of it came out between about 1984-1989! And all of those labels had some version of Big Bands bringing home the bacon so they could afford a small run of Dennison/Kimball Trio records or whatever.

As I understood it, via someone loosely affiliated w/the label, SST's insanely ambitious but only marginally successful "expansion" in the late '80s and early '90s came down to two factors:

1. Weed plus general disorganization, causing a major loosening of artistic and bookkeeping standards. (The departure of more organized and aesthetics-minded nonstoner employees like Carducci and later Mugger also contributed.)

2. A sort of anarchist-meets-communist payroll system in which the larger, best-selling bands were given sketchy or nonexistent accounting. Which, in turn, financed many of the nowhere acts on the label but led to others getting totally ripped off. I suppose this is part of why, for a while there, every Dinosaur, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Descendents, and Bad Brains release on SST was being re-pressed in every format possible on countless colors of vinyl? (Like, you might see a 7-inch, 12-inch, 10-inch, 3-inch CD, regular CD, and cassingle of the same record, in a rainbow of variants.)

Great thread. I gotta go with Saccharine Trust. Of the dozen or so SST bands I got to see in my backwater hometown the set I saw was the best/most memorable. it was right around the time We Became Snakes came out, me & my friends went from what the fuck is this to WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS in about 100 seconds.

Tar Babies’ Fried Milk is a killer record. Their others don’t do much for me, but man that one is a top 20 SST record for me.

Some of my other favorites other than the big 5 bands you don’t think about or think about being on SST:
Buffalo Tom - s/t
Screaming Trees - Even If and Especially When
Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby
Blind Idiot God - s/t
Grant Hart - Intolerance
Bad Brains - I Against I
Bl’ast - It’s in My Blood
Soundgarden - Ultramega OK
Das Damen - Triskaidekaphone
Negativland - Escape From Noise

For some reason I never viewed Saccharine Trust as an "underdog." Maybe it's because the Minutemen connect, but to me, Paganicons is an absolute "SST Classic."

Always loved Tom's playing in Slovenly, something to truly aspire to.