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Re-reading the Jim Ruland book right now (fun, though it mostly sticks to well-known territory). I'm not talking about 'The Big 4' or offshoots, or pre-established bands (Sonic Youth, Bad Brains), or bands who went on to have major label hits (Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr), one-offs, or things too stupid to include (Zoogz Rift). And even then it's not comprehensive, that's what 'OTHER' is for.

Saccharine Trust makes the most sense on paper but I don't enjoy most of it tbh. Love Slovenly's guitar playing even if they fall flat in other areas. Angst was a new one to me: way better than average cow punk with a pop sensibility that was a favorite of Black Francis apparently. It's kind of weird including St. Vitus as they were influential, just to a completely different scene. I dunno.. it's Friday morning and I'm bored.

Saccharine Trust-incredible band and I like pretty much everything. Slovenly would come in second place and Blind Idiot god in third. I even like shit like Paper bag (free improv rock) and Wurm (Chuck Dukowskis proto-stoner metal band and MUCH better than the more "famous" SWA)

EDIT:I can recommend the podcast You don't know mojack. They go through the entire SST catalogue in the order of catalogue number. A pretty insane undertaking but I've listened to (almost) every episode though I must admit I skipped some Zoogz Rift ones. Oh yeah, the Opal album is great too, they deserve a mention IMO

jakethesnake wrote: free improv rock

A big hurdle for me admittedly, which eliminates a pretty big chunk of the SST catalog! Basically any Ginn band, and even latter Black Flag. I guess I side more with the 'clean guitar' SST bands than the jazzy/jam band ones. (I threw a vote to Pell Mell too)

Sacc Trust
Saint Vitus
Gone (1st 2 albums only, but they absolutely cook)
.
.
.
Oxbow
Blind Idiot God
Tar Babies
Slovenly (who I admire more than I like)

Surviving You, Always and We Became Snakes are high artistic watermarks, the playing and personality on both is top drawer.

Pains me to not to vote for Vitus (Mournful Cries is one of my all time favs), but 2 killer albums > 1 killer album.

Voted for Saint Vitus.

I think it’s fair to include them in this list. SST may have originated from one scene but they certainly weren’t restricted to it.

Btw, the first three albums by Angst are indeed very nice and surprisingly obscure/overlooked considering how accessible they are and proto "indie-rock" they sound. I tend to hear them as a better Violent Femmes, maybe fewer "hits" but mostly without the annoying collegiate "kookiness"... not my favorite style of 80s rock but they were definitely amongst the better bands in that vein...

I wanted to mention some of the more NYC No wave type of stuff they put out by people like Elliot Sharp (much better than fellow guitar wizard Henry Kaiser IMO) and Mofungo; I find that type of music really not fitting the SST "aesthetic" but it's still cool if you can look past some unfortunately 80s production troupes...

I voted 'other'. My write in is Volcano Suns.

I need to spend a lot more time with many of these others. My Dischord records knowledge is deep, my SST shallow.

losthighway wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:38 pm I voted 'other'. My write in is Volcano Suns.

I need to spend a lot more time with many of these others. My Dischord records knowledge is deep, my SST shallow.

IMO, the best Volcano suns stuff was on Homeatead; the SST records are perfectly fine but post-prime IMO. On the topic of Mission of Burma, the Roger Miller/No man records on SST are... interesting; great music at the core but his ambition to sound "modern" by using 80s Hip-hop style drum-beats/samples/sequencers etc. Is another example of "trying too hard"; it doesn't Benefit the music at all; still, fans of MoB should check them out-the songwriting was still there

jakethesnake wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:00 pm On the topic of Mission of Burma, the Roger Miller/No man records on SST are... interesting; great music at the core but his ambition to sound "modern" by using 80s Hip-hop style drum-beats/samples/sequencers etc. Is another example of "trying too hard"

I bought a No Man record at Princeton Record Exchange for like $4 long ago (along with tons of Homestead stuff.. great store before vinyl became 'cool' again). It had the original (pre Burma reunion) version of Wounded World on it. Otherwise I don't remember anything else good about it and it definitely had some corny '80s industrial production.

Oh and I definitely haven't heard all this stuff either I had the SST book's index in front of me. Including Flesh Eaters in the poll might be weird as it's mostly reissue stuff I think but I'm just trying to bait The Classical..

jakethesnake wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:00 pm
IMO, the best Volcano suns stuff was on Homeatead; the SST records are perfectly fine but post-prime IMO.

Agreed. Hard to top the debut which was pre-SST. I'll totally have to check out No Man. I didn't realized how much non Burma stuff he's done.