Book Review: Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records by Jim Ruland

 

 

Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records by Jim Ruland 

 

432 pages, Hardcover

 April, 2022 by Hachette Books

I had mixed feelings going into this book, Jim Ruland is a local in San Diego and a writer I have seen at lots of events. I was a big fan of his memoir of Circle Jerk Vocalist Keith Morris – My Damage. He also did a great job doing a biography. Jim has shown a great knack for drilling down into the details of these underground figures in music and telling their stories. So what are mixed feelings about?

 
Writing a book about SST records is a really smart next move for Ruland who did some of the research naturally for this with his Keith  Morris book. I mean Morris started on SST records as an early vocalist of Black Flag. That is the thing, even though I am a big fan of classic punk rock, I love 80s punk, but one of the classic bands I never jived with was Black Flag. I know they were good, and they were important but I just never was a big fan.

I knew that this book was going to be lots of Greg Ginn and the drama that always circled around him and Black Flag. I knew he had more members come in and out than a Marching band in Flag. I wasn’t sure I would be interested. There are three SST bands I love Bad Brains, Descendents, and Husker Du. I admit I perked up a little more when those parts came up but I enjoyed the whole thing.

Jim Ruland is an excellent historian and plays a vital role in documenting the stories of these LA bands. It is important. Even if I don’t personally like many of the bands the details and the history are important.

This book didn’t give me more respect for Ginn, after reading it I began to really believe the dude was a jerk, it is clear who is hard to work with in the Black Flag orbit. (at one point there was a civil war of Black Flag fans on which version of the band to support)…It was clear from the outside that Ginn was the problem this book only confirmed it for me.

The number of details, research, and stories makes this book important for all music fans, if you like SST is not the point, they did really interesting things, and the study of how they did it is important. Jim is coming on my podcast at some point to talk about the book and his process.