Dear Greg Ginn

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We're going to have a conversation on FMU. My niece and nephews will provide me with the questions. In case they only have 5 questions, what would would you like to ask? No Grant Hart jokes, this is serious.

― john allen (john allen), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 03:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

you really should ask him about the allegations of not paying out royalties, and if he does why those sonic youth, meat puppets, etc. records ain't part of the sst catalog any more. paint it as getting 'his side of the story'. then ask if they ever thought of maybe doing some remasterting, etc.

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 03:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

Good questions all. Then ask him what was up with that Hor bullshit.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 04:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ask him if he thinks Kerry King ripped him off.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 04:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask him what the hell he thought he was doing releasing Opal on his wretched label

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 04:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll ask some bands before I bring up allegations, good point. The rights of the Sonic Youth records reverted back to them to deal with. The Meat Puppets revival is still 3 years off.

― john allen (john allen), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 04:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask greg about not releasing the Velvet Monkeys' album House Party because he was pissed off because they sold him bad weed.

― jack cole (jackcole), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 06:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ask him about Negativland. Over and over and over.

― gage o (gage o), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 13:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ask him about what happened during that week in jail.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 15:28 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask him if he actually answers the SST Superstore phone, despite claiming that he is his secretary?

if you like, I can get some questions from Grant Hart to ask him. Good ones.

of course, a lot of them would probably involve "where the fuck my money?!", but still.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 15:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask him about remastering some of those Canonized albums that sound like fucking shit.....or ask him why he is such a dick!

― ddb, Wednesday, 6 August 2003 16:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask him who is going to be in the band at the upcoming shows at the hollywood palladium. i'm particularly interested in bass, drums, and vocals. ask him if they've been rehearsing or plan to. ask him if he's heard anything lately that he enjoys. i'd skip all of the stuff that relates to him as a label owner as it's interesting only to fanboys.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 17:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'd say most of these questions = sure-fire ways to ensure a very short and uncomfortable interview.

― flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 18:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

yeah, I'd have a couple of the 'how do you plea's but focus on 'the music' for 95% of it, if only cuz it'll help you get an actual response to the other questions

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 19:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

yes let's talk about his music. ask him when his answer record 'postivland' is coming out.

― jl (Jon L), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 21:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

ask him what happened to greg norton and his moustache.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 21:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

isn't greg norton a chef nowadays?
i'm sure i read about that somewhere.....hmmm....

― joni, Wednesday, 6 August 2003 21:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

i can imagine him and ainsley harriot getting on like a house on fire.

did anyone else see ainsley being a cowboy on bbc at the weekend?

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 21:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

greg norton's a chef now, he's doing very well for himself

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 21:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

the latest from Grant is that Greg sold his restuarant, and is currently not cooking at the moment. he'll probably be back in the kitchen again soon, tho.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 7 August 2003 02:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

i bet he's making more these days than he ever made from "rock and roll"..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 7 August 2003 02:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

i wouldn't take that bet.

still, if/when the husker du finally comes out, oh the fun that will be shared.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 7 August 2003 03:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

"the" husker du?

― flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Thursday, 7 August 2003 04:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

No, 'a' Husker Du, haven't you heard...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 August 2003 04:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

oops. the Husker du BOOK.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:43 (9 years ago) Permalink

Tell me about this Husker book Kingfish... I'm all ears.

Bob Mould wrote scripts for WCW for a couple of years. This is one of my favourite nuggets of punk rock trivia of all time.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 7 August 2003 12:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

Not just Husker Du but all the Black Flag and Minutemen stuff needs to be reissued on a digital format that sounds as good as the vinyl records. (If the albums contain liner notes and bonus tracks, all the better.) I know Grant Hart wants to do it. The initial CD of Double Nickels actually remixed the sound and was terrible as a result (Mike Watt takes the blame on that one); the second CD issue of the album omitted a few tracks and still sounds nowhere as good as the record.

I'm actually of the minority opinion that the Spot productions were the best of SST's run, and superior to subsequent slicker versions of those bands.

BTW, if there's a Husker book, I'd be curious why no one at City Pages got a call for research. The story has stayed interesting in recent years, as the Mould-Hart conflict continues its McClaren-Lydon path...

― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 7 August 2003 16:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

no, no, there's no book planned. i was speaking in the hypothetical there. sorry for the false alarm.
altho, Grant did say that Spot had "VERY LITTLE" to do with how their albums sounded, and that Spot was mostly there as a watchdog for Greg Ginn. This is alluded to in the interview with the Onion from a few years back.

also, Nova Mob's "Last Days of Pompeii" was completely remixed and readied for release. However, Grant's label at the time, Pachyderm, didn't really see the owner's wife running off with the investor.

So much for Pachyderm.

Also, it was rumored that Bob was trying to secure the masters for their albums to be reissued on his own Granary Music, so that "somebody could finally get paid."

hmm. maybe i _should_ start a book...

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 7 August 2003 16:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

8 years pass...

Greg Ginn doesn't like YouTube

In recent months there have been a slew of takedowns under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on YouTube affecting numerous punk bands. Once a video has a copyright infringement claim against it, it is removed from the site.
Apparently SST Records -- owned by Greg Ginn and the home of punk legends like Black Flag, the Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Lawndale and others -- has been utilizing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to claim copyright infringement on a vast number of videos that utilize brief clips of music from Black Flag, including skateboard videos made by fans. Well, gosh, that's what copyright holders can do, though it does seem sort of mean.
However, SST has also claimed multiple copyright ownership of videos featuring bands which that have nothing to do with SST, including X, Fear, Sin 34, Lower Class Brats, Puzzled Panthers, and the Adolescents. Also affected, videos made by fans under Fair Use, utilizing snippets of songs.

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 30 September 2011 19:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

What a dick

― You're a notch, I'm a legend (Bill Magill), Friday, 30 September 2011 19:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

Greg Ginn is kind of a selfish douchenozzle, film at 11.

― Woolen Scjarfs (Phil D.), Friday, 30 September 2011 19:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

... and now he's let the entire SST catalog go out of print on vinyl. seriously, fuck this guy forever, he is a disgrace to the Black Flag legacy.

― sleeve, Friday, 30 September 2011 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

punk legends....Lawndale.

(love their Take 5 take, fwiw)

― bendy, Friday, 30 September 2011 20:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

Greg, you can take care of the cats, I can take care of the label. Fuck, anyone can take care of the label. Anyone but yourself.

― Master of Treacle, Friday, 30 September 2011 23:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

Can't hate. He's just a big old goof with shitty business ideas is all.

― master musicians of jamiroquai (NickB), Saturday, 1 October 2011 00:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah hard to hate ginn.
on the one hand, why is the sst catalog such a mess? would be cool if he could just hand it off to someone/some other label who could handle it properly.
on the other hand, would the sst catalog exist w/o greg ginn? if he hadn't asked the minutemen to record a single, would we have all that amazing minutemen music?

― tylerw, Saturday, 1 October 2011 03:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah totally. it'd be nice if everybody that made a profound impact on music was a standup guy with airtight business practices but that ain't the world works, would rather have a fatally flawed SST than no SST at all.

― some dude, Saturday, 1 October 2011 03:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

What a dick

― You're a notch, I'm a legend (Bill Magill)

^^^

At least dude put the Saint Vitus stuff back into print on vinyl for a while. That was nice, after more than a decade of people wishing it would happen.

― Carpet Sharkin' (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, 1 October 2011 05:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

At least dude put the Saint Vitus stuff back into print on vinyl for a while. That was nice, after more than a decade of people wishing it would happen.

Yeah but that's the problem right there, isn't it? Ginn isn't completely clueless, he surely knew that Vitus was a significant cult act with a massive following among the doom cognoscenti. But he waited 10 years before finally throwing out a few crumbs to the rabble. Didn't even remaster the stuff or repackage it in any way. He doesn't care because it's not about him.

The whole thing with him and SST leaves me dismayed that the aural history of an entire punk subculture is in the hands of one man who seems to hate that it's bigger than him.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Saturday, 1 October 2011 13:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

― wasabi pea-sized masculinity (latebloomer), Saturday, 1 October 2011 17:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

and if you've read any interviews with people in the scene he wasn't just a well meaning doofus with a bad business sense, he was actually a huge selfish prick by most accounts.

― filthy dylan, Saturday, 1 October 2011 22:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

Really surprised that Greg Ginn won't give his music away to a multi-national corporation like Google to slap all over with ads. What an inconsiderate prick. Who'd have thunk it?

― everything, Saturday, 1 October 2011 22:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

However, SST has also claimed multiple copyright ownership of videos featuring bands which that have nothing to do with SST, including X, Fear, Sin 34, Lower Class Brats, Puzzled Panthers, and the Adolescents. Also affected, videos made by fans under Fair Use, utilizing snippets of songs.

― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Sunday, 2 October 2011 02:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

Well I personally love the image of Greg Ginn just sitting around browsing the netz one day and getting the idea to type the names of his favourite bands into the Youtube search engine and get them taken down. In fact, I might try to get some guns n roses videos taken down. And if that Lou Reed & Metallica stuff doesn't come under 'violent or Repulsive Content'....

― Spikey, Sunday, 2 October 2011 05:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

Really surprised that Greg Ginn won't give his music away to a multi-national corporation like Google to slap all over with ads. What an inconsiderate prick. Who'd have thunk it?

You'd have a point there, if it were the case that Ginn was making significant efforts to market the SST back catalogue. But he clearly isn't.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Sunday, 2 October 2011 14:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

For such a stoner, ginn is very unchill

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

for a guy whose musical legacy is black flag he's about as unchill as i'd expect tbh!

― some dude, Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

I love this idea that if you are not providing the market with exactly what it wants then you should be totally fine with people giving it away to Google to make money off. Or are we talking about some other Greg Ginn? I'm discussing the tight-assed, non-compromising freak from one of the most hardline self-controlling bands ever.

― everything, Sunday, 2 October 2011 16:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

its homemade skate videos!

― ice cr?m, Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

It's Black Flag! It's Google! Fuckin hell. Were you born yesterday?

― everything, Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yes can you change my diaper and do 180 gram vinyl reissue of surviving you always by saccharine trust?

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

I love this idea that if you are not providing the market with exactly what it wants then you should be totally fine with people giving it away to Google to make money off.

I think I would feel differently about it if, say, this were Corey Rusk we were talking about. So Google is bad for making money off other people's art - no denying that - but I doubt Ginn has paid a royalty cheque in years.

I would presume many SST artists would be happy for their music to be out there, even if they're not directly making money off it (and even if Google is profiting off their art), because it gives them a profile - one that Ginn hasn't provided since he stopped pressing records and mothballed his legacy.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

youtube is very punk imo

― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

otm

― ice cr?m, Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think the larger problem with Ginn is that I do get the sense he regards all the SST music as ”his” in some way even though he didn't create it

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

Also he's a total dick

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

not keeping sst releases in print is a real crime against punk music

― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

Buy em second hand.

― everything, Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

like think about it, simultaneously removing punk music from the internet & withholding creation of new physical punk music--u are decreasing the amount of punk music in the universe dude wtf!

― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

& making a crucial subset of existing punk music more expensive/scarce

― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

Buy em second hand.

― everything, Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:59 (4 hours ago)

lol, yeah, only $300 for the sole copy of Paganicons for sale on Discogs!

― sleeve, Sunday, 2 October 2011 22:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think the larger problem with Ginn is that I do get the sense he regards all the SST music as ”his” in some way even though he didn't create it

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, October 2, 2011 1:51 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

that's like almost literally the definition of a record label

― some dude, Monday, 3 October 2011 00:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

And if there's one thing punk rock was about it was adhering to the traditional definitions and models of everything.

― You people are supposed to be some kind of music culture intelligentsi (Phil D.), Monday, 3 October 2011 01:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

Dude's just bitter because his garage is full of Jambang (and his other thirty projects) albums no one gives a shit about.

― Carpet Sharkin' (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

lol @ arguing about what is "punk" in 2011

Ginn has always been a bit of an opportunist. I mean I totally respect dudes legacy and appreciate what he made happen back in the 80s, but the shit he pulled with like St. Vitus really bums me out because a lot of that music deserves to be heard and out there, without having to have people shell out $300 for used vinyl.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 3 October 2011 02:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh bullshit, touch & go and dischord have operated way different

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

To some dude

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'm too weird to have checked out the new Minutemen doc. Sincerely. It still hurts too much, so I sent my wife to check it out for me. She sez when Ginn hit the screen, the entire theater booed him.
Tom

― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Monday, April 18, 2005 3:53 PM

The screening was in San Pedro, so everyone was either once an SST artist, or is the relative or FRIEND of SST artists. Yup, the entire place was made up of SST bands.

― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Monday, April 18, 2005 5:00 PM

― lol-qaeda (am0n), Monday, 3 October 2011 15:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

so what's the deal, did bands like sonic youth/dino jr just have the deep(er) pockets to regain control of their sst records? or did they sign better contracts back in the day? did sst bands sign contracts, or were all the deals made spiritually via toke sessions w/ greg?

― tylerw, Monday, 3 October 2011 15:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

Several artists formerly on the label, including Sonic Youth and the Meat Puppets, sued SST to reclaim their master recordings, claiming unpaid royalties.[27]

― lol-qaeda (am0n), Monday, 3 October 2011 15:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

i believe the other bands might have included soundgarden and bad brains

also:

Several artists left SST in the late 1980s. By 1987 Sonic Youth had grown disenchanted with the label. Guitarist Thurston Moore said, "SST's accounting was a bit suspect to us", and the group's other guitarist Lee Ranaldo criticized the label's "stoner administrative quality".[24] The band was also dissatisfied with Ginn's newer signings. Unhappy that income from their records was ultimately helping fund "lame-ass records", Sonic Youth unamicably left the label and signed with Enigma Records in 1988.[25] Dinosaur Jr left SST for Blanco y Negro Records in 1990. Frontman J Mascis said, "I like Greg Ginn and stuff, but they wouldn't pay you."[26]

― lol-qaeda (am0n), Monday, 3 October 2011 15:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

lol at mascis. summing it up.

― tylerw, Monday, 3 October 2011 15:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

all the Bad Brains' SST stuff is still on the label iirc tho

maybe they're a touch more forgiving of stoned administrative decisions

― the green manalishi (with the big boobies) (DJ Mencap), Monday, 3 October 2011 16:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ginn is in my top 5 all time elec gtr soloists but for christ's sake THERE IS NO CD OF DOUBLE NICKELS WITH ALL THE TRACKS INCLUDED

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Monday, 3 October 2011 16:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah, insane.
seems like if anybody could convince ginn, it'd be mike watt. just wear him down, watt!

― tylerw, Monday, 3 October 2011 16:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

― OK CLARABELLE PART 3: The Return of the MOO! (how's life), Wednesday, 12 September 2012 01:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

superstore
society
lemonheads
sst

― calstars, Wednesday, 12 September 2012 01:46 (8 months ago) Permalink

― tylerw, Wednesday, 12 September 2012 02:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

I would put that DeadFlag sticker on my Cadillac.

― A Pick Up Artist's Guide to Negative Approach (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 12 September 2012 03:40 (8 months ago) Permalink

^^ otm

― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 12 September 2012 03:47 (8 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

Greg is everywhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l1qCczGgSxw

― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Saturday, 9 February 2013 23:38 (3 months ago) Permalink

― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Saturday, 9 February 2013 23:41 (3 months ago) Permalink

That's my farewell. See ya.
where did i go wrong?

― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Saturday, 9 February 2013 23:43 (3 months ago) Permalink

Remove the s in https

― ma ck ro ma ck ro (mackro mackro), Saturday, 9 February 2013 23:45 (3 months ago) Permalink

Funny, I got woken up this morning by a text from a friend who auditioned with Ginn for the bass slot in Black Flag just last night.

― Nate Carson, Sunday, 10 February 2013 00:43 (3 months ago) Permalink

thats henry kaiser, no?

― SOYLENT GREEN IS SHEEPLE (stevie), Sunday, 10 February 2013 09:41 (3 months ago) Permalink

Definitely Henry Kaiser. I loved it when he randomly popped up in Antarctica busting out a solo in that Herzog doc (I think they're friends, and Kaiser is a massive sub-aqua geek).

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Sunday, 10 February 2013 10:39 (3 months ago) Permalink

loved his cover of needle and the damage done on The Bridge (that was him, yeah?)

― SOYLENT GREEN IS SHEEPLE (stevie), Sunday, 10 February 2013 10:55 (3 months ago) Permalink

I'm just not getting the response I got to asking on the Watt list about the chance of remasters. Surely the remaster would enhance the Spot production while updating to better fit the current state of the medium? & improve the transfer on at least a couple of titles.

Instead of which I was informed that no remasters were needed because Spot's production was so great.
That might be but does the remaster actually effect the production , surely just the transfer of what is on the tape that the final mix is on. Whether things would actually need to be remixed to better suit th emedium rather than the medium they were actually recorded for is a different matter surely? Nott sure to what extent they would need that anyway.
Just got it in my head that Neubauten took th eactual medium into account when they transfered their back catalogue to cd when they set up Potomak & not sure how much that applies to the SSt stuff. Assume it must apply to some extent to any recorded sound and its replication in(through?) whatever sound medium.

Anyway would love to have cds of the material I'm aafter with best possible sound, decent volume, clarity etc etc by somebody who knows the medium and isn't simply going to over compress etc.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 12:53 (3 months ago) Permalink

getting as in understanding in first line

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 12:54 (3 months ago) Permalink

Instead of which I was informed that no remasters were needed because Spot's production was so great.

This makes no sense

― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 10 February 2013 13:12 (3 months ago) Permalink

Remasters from the original tapes would certainly help, as (allegedly) a lot of the CD releases on SST were 'mastered' from vinyl as a cost-saving measure.

Whether they need a remix is a different story: I'm actually a fan of that 'shitty' Spot production sound. It doesn't work in every case, but in my mind I just can't divorce it from the songs on those records. They're all part and parcel. It'd be interesting to hear different mixes, but I don't know if it would be the same thing to me.

I don't think either of these things are going to happen, though, unless we get lucky and some first-rate musical archivists (*cough"numerogroup*cough*) do the decent thing and manage to negotiate the rights for a stellar reissue programme. I mean, every time I see raves about this or that long-lost one-shot deal on Drag City or whatever I sigh, knowing that the SST catalogue is prime for this kind of deal.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Sunday, 10 February 2013 14:22 (3 months ago) Permalink

(*cough"numerogroup*cough*)

Closer than you think, apparently ...

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 February 2013 14:25 (3 months ago) Permalink

But I would not hold your breath for "the SST catalog" to get issued on anything other than a band by band basis. And much of the prime SST stable has been reissued already, elsewhere, hasn't it? Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, Dino Jr. (all of whom apparently had the legal wherewithal to extricate themselves from the label). Holdup with Husker Du has not been SST/Ginn. Watt's loyalty (is he loyal?) may be behind lack of Minutemen/fIREHOSE reissues. Dunno what's up with Descendants on the label, or Saint Vitus. Black Flag, obviously, is Ginn's 4 Life.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 February 2013 14:30 (3 months ago) Permalink

You're right; I don't really have any notions of some kind of grand-scale SST reissue campaign, and in many if not all cases it's up to the bands. A few one-shot gems have been reissued digitally (Scott Colby's 'Slide of Hand' is on iTunes; a crappy vinyl rip but better than nothing).

But you know, it's a sad thing to see great music get (seemingly) overlooked. For instance, I've heard moves towards Slovenly reissues for a few years now, but no dice so far. Seems to me like they'd make a perfect fit on Drag City, which has a pretty big name as a reissues label now. And Tom Watson has previous on that label from his time in The Red Krayola. But that's just me fantasy record label managing.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Sunday, 10 February 2013 20:42 (3 months ago) Permalink

Instead of which I was informed that no remasters were needed because Spot's production was so great.

This makes no sense

― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, February 10, 2013 1:12 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think that would probably be my response, as it was when I read it over there (which I think was only slightly paraphrased by what I wrote in my above post). Think I already said in the rest of that comment that as far as I understood it remastering & existing production were not mutually exclusive. Think the remastering would bring out the production more clearly & just make a better fit for the medium. Would think that especially if older mastering was from vinyl not the original tapes

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 21:35 (3 months ago) Permalink

which was in fact why I wrote the first post I added to this thread earlier, cos I couldn't understand what the response was. Nw it looks like other people here would think the same thing I would, from their responses here anyway.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 21:37 (3 months ago) Permalink

actually the comment I got was this , which might be slightly different but seems that other people here feel somewhat different to what this indibvidual is saying anyway.
"We don't need remasters, maybe reissues, but Spot's engineering and the
original mastering of the SST stuff is generally great. Is it squashed
and LOUD like modern/remastered stuff? Hell no, and I'm glad for it.
Don't buy into the remastered is better game!!!!
TerryB"

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 21:42 (3 months ago) Permalink

^^^ joe carducci told me almost exactly the same thing when i interviewed him for my flag book and said the sst cds sounded gash and needed redoing. i see his point but still, those cds sound too damned quiet and thin.

― SOYLENT GREEN IS SHEEPLE (stevie), Sunday, 10 February 2013 22:02 (3 months ago) Permalink

Black Flag sounded best on cassette!

― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Sunday, 10 February 2013 22:10 (3 months ago) Permalink

I don't think what they're saying is inherent or ineviatable is it? Seems to me that several reissue labels I know are pretty much avoiding the pitfalls that are being described.
Seems to be something that is a trend or hopefully more was a trend happening with more mainstream product. Speaking personally I'm not sure to what extent it's still happening but then again I don't know if I'd be picking up material where it would likely to be.

IN short a trend isn't an inevitability is it?

― Stevolende, Sunday, 10 February 2013 22:37 (3 months ago) Permalink

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