
Corporate Rock Sucks
The Rise and Fall of SST Records
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Narrated by:
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Jim Ruland
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By:
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Jim Ruland
About this listen
A no-holds-barred narrative history of the iconic label that brought the world Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, and more, by the co-author of Do What You Want and My Damage.
Greg Ginn started SST Records in the sleepy beach town of Hermosa Beach, CA, to supply ham radio enthusiasts with tuners and transmitters. But when Ginn wanted to launch his band, Black Flag, no one was willing to take them on. Determined to bring his music to the masses, Ginn turned SST into a record label. On the back of Black Flag’s relentless touring, guerilla marketing, and refusal to back down, SST became the sound of the underground.
In Corporate Rock Sucks, music journalist Jim Ruland relays the unvarnished story of SST Records, from its remarkable rise in notoriety to its infamous downfall. With records by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and scores of obscure yet influential bands, SST was the most popular indie label by the mid-80s - until a tsunami of legal jeopardy, financial peril, and dysfunctional management brought the empire tumbling down. Throughout this investigative deep-dive, Ruland leads listeners through SST’s tumultuous history and epic catalog.
Featuring never-before-seen interviews with the label's former employees, as well as musicians, managers, producers, photographers, video directors, and label heads, Corporate Rock Sucks presents a definitive narrative history of the ’80s punk and alternative rock scenes, and shows how the music industry was changed forever.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Jim Ruland (P)2022 Hachette BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“SST Records became a radiant supernova of creativity and possibility. A true and livable alternative to lame shit. And then, somehow, it fell apart when it was poised to create another universe. It became radioactive, a black hole. This book is that ‘somehow’—part archeology, part autopsy.”
—Todd Taylor, Razorcake
“‘Get in the van,’ to borrow a phrase from another Black Flag book you may have heard of, has become something of a cliche, but it's no less true for punk bands in 2022 than it was in 1981. No matter how talented you are or how good your songs, you still, at long last, have to put in the work. The same applies to writers. For Corporate Rock Sucks, it's clear Jim has logged thousands and thousands of miles, talking to seemingly everyone who ever even heard of SST, digging up old record reviews and interviews and photos and zines no one has probably looked at for decades. It all adds up to an informative and fun read on a highly influential, and highly dysfunctional, record label.”
—Luke O'Neil, author of Welcome to Hell World: Dispatches from the American Dystopia
“With Corporate Rock Sucks, Jim Ruland asserts his power as a leading chronicler of Southern California punk rock. His exhaustive research and incisive commentary form a detailed and dynamic work worthy of the gargantuan legacy of SST—one of America’s foremost independent record labels that gave rise to Black Flag, the Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and many others. An essential read for those curious about the label’s serpentine path and pre-broadband DIY music culture.”
—Erin Osmon, author of Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost and John Prine
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Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his. Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true "Metal God." Raised in Britain's hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story—a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption...and finding love.
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Pretty small % of this book is about his music
- By JA3 on 12-17-20
By: Rob Halford, and others
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Spray Paint the Walls
- The Story of Black Flag
- By: Stevie Chick
- Narrated by: Ian Putnam
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Formed in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1978, for eight brutal years Black Flag made and played brilliant, ugly, no-holds-barred music on a self-appointed touring circuit of America’s clubs, squats, and community halls. They fought with everybody: the police, the record industry, and even their own fans. They toured overseas on pennies a day and did it in beat-up trucks and vans. Spray Paint the Walls tells Black Flag’s story from the inside, drawing on exclusive interviews with the group’s members, their contemporaries, and the bands they inspired.
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Panic! at The Flag show
- By Jody on 11-03-22
By: Stevie Chick
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Dark City (Revised and Expanded Edition)
- The Lost World of Film Noir
- By: Eddie Muller
- Narrated by: Eddie Muller, Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Dark City expands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life.
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Good overview, summary of the genre
- By Buretto on 03-31-22
By: Eddie Muller
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My Damage
- The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
- By: Keith Morris, Jim Ruland
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore. Short and sporting waist-length dreadlocks, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry. My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend, however.
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keith rocks.
- By Jeff on 05-13-18
By: Keith Morris, and others
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Hard to Handle
- The Life and Death of the Black Crowes - A Memoir
- By: Steve Gorman, Steven Hyden
- Narrated by: Steve Gorman
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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An insider biography of the Black Crowes by drummer and cofounder Steve Gorman. In his first-person history of the Black Crowes, Hard To Handle - the first ever account of this great American rock band's beginning, middle, and end - Gorman makes it clear just how impossible that job was. Fortunately, Gorman tells the tale with great insight, candor, and humor. They don't make bands like the Black Crowes anymore: crazy, brilliant, self-destructive, inspiring, and, ultimately, not built to last. But, man, what a ride it was while it lasted.
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Please just narrate.
- By keeling on 10-11-19
By: Steve Gorman, and others
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Our Band Could Be Your Life
- Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991
- By: Michael Azerrad
- Narrated by: Jon Wurster, Merrill Garbus, Fred Armisen, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan '80s - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives reenergized American rock with punk rock's do-it-yourself credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging, and immensely influential. This sweeping chronicle of music, politics, drugs, fear, loathing, and faith has been recognized as an indie rock classic in its own right.
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Comprehenisve History of Some 1980s Indie Bands
- By Jeff Koeppen on 12-22-19
By: Michael Azerrad
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Under the Big Black Sun
- A Personal History of L.A. Punk
- By: John Doe, Tom Desavia
- Narrated by: Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, full cast
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it's never been told before. Authors John Doe and Tom DeSavia have woven together an enthralling story of the legendary West Coast scene from 1977 to 1982 by enlisting the voices of people who were there. The book shares chapter-length tales from the authors along with personal essays from famous (and infamous) players in the scene.
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A love song to the early punk days in LA.
- By Brenda on 07-09-16
By: John Doe, and others
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The House of Government
- A Saga of the Russian Revolution
- By: Yuri Slezkine, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 45 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction. The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment.
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Inside saga of the leaders of Bolshevism & the USSR
- By Edward V. Blanchard on 11-05-17
By: Yuri Slezkine, and others
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Sellout
- The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007)
- By: Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Seasoned music writer Dan Ozzi chronicles this embattled era in punk. Focusing on eleven prominent bands who made the jump from indie to major, Sellout charts the twists and turns of the last “gold rush” of the music industry, where some groups “sold out” and rose to surprise super stardom, while others buckled under mounting pressures. Sellout is both a gripping history of the music industry’s evolution, and a punk rock lover’s guide to the chaotic darlings of the post-grunge era.
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A pedant’s note
- By Luke on 11-21-21
By: Dan Ozzi
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Leon Russell
- The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History
- By: Bill Janovitz
- Narrated by: Bill Janovitz, Jason Culp
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Leon Russell is an icon, but somehow is still an underappreciated artist. He is spoken of in tones reserved not just for the most talented musicians, but also for the most complex and fascinating. His career is like a roadmap of music history, often intersecting with rock royalty like Bob Dylan, the Stones, and the Beatles.
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A dream come true for Leon Russell fans!!
- By William Straten on 03-15-23
By: Bill Janovitz
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Narcotopia
- In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA
- By: Patrick Winn
- Narrated by: Patrick Winn
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In Asia’s narcotics-producing heartland, the Wa reign supreme. They dominate the Golden Triangle, a mountainous stretch of Burma between Thailand and China. Their 30,000-strong army, wielding missiles and attack drones, makes Mexican cartels look like street gangs.
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A must listen for Asia history buffs
- By philip beere on 03-01-24
By: Patrick Winn
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Where Are Your Boys Tonight?
- The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008
- By: Chris Payne
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Chris Abell
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Music journalist Chris Payne experienced emo's mainstream takeover from sweaty crowds and mosh pits growing up in New Jersey. In Where Are Your Boys Tonight? he offers an authoritative, impassioned, and occasionally absurd account told through interviews with more than 150 people, from the scene's biggest bands, producers, and managers to the teenage fans who helped redefine American music culture.
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I REALLY Wanted to Like This
- By Fuzz414 on 08-18-23
By: Chris Payne
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Bernoulli's Fallacy
- Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science
- By: Aubrey Clayton
- Narrated by: Tim H. Dixon
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the 17th-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it.
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Rigorously Bayesian
- By Anonymous User on 01-25-22
By: Aubrey Clayton
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Chasing Shadows
- My Life Tracking the Great White Shark
- By: Greg Skomal, Ret Talbot
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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With its quaint villages, local restaurants serving up lobster rolls, and miles and miles of warm, sandy beaches, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is famous for being America’s carefree seaside getaway. But in August 2012, the first confirmed shark attack in almost eighty years occurred in the region. As shark sightings quickly began to increase on Cape Cod and elsewhere and large beachside billboards warning about the growing shark population became a common sight, a boogie boarder died after being attacked by a great white shark in Cape Cod’s shallow waters.
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Not just a boy who loves sharks!
- By Marianne O'Sullivan on 08-12-23
By: Greg Skomal, and others
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The Big Myth
- How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
- By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
- Narrated by: Liza Seneca
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with 'big government' and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor.
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Refuting the Chicago School
- By Todd W. Laveen on 06-01-23
By: Naomi Oreskes, and others
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Vertigo
- The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany
- By: Harald Jähner
- Narrated by: Sam Peter Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Out of the ashes of the First World War, Germany launched an unprecedented political project: its first democratic government. The Weimar Republic, named for the city where it was established, endured for only fifteen years before it was toppled by the insurgent Nazi Party in 1933. In Vertigo, prizewinning historian Harald Jähner tells the Republic’s full story, capturing a nation caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty and struggling toward a better future.
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How. Did It Happen?
- By Bettyb on 10-19-24
By: Harald Jähner
What listeners say about Corporate Rock Sucks
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- Chris Lane
- 05-11-22
Warning: This book may lead to buying More stuff
Don’t know how many times I paused the book, to see if I could find out if I could get a album on the internet. Sometimes I fell flat other times I found something really good
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- Christian A. Jones
- 03-24-24
Oh so that’s what happened?
Great details and back story to the rise and long fall of SST. Ruland ties in why bands were attracted to the label and the inevitable jumping off.
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- G. Keener
- 07-02-23
Great story, in depth history of underground music
Excellent history, fascinating insights and fairly told. Learn your punk and indie history-enjoyable if you grew up on this music, would have to assume also if you are learning the glory now.
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- D Co
- 05-16-24
nostalgia
This is based on listening to the audible version. what a trip thru the old mental cobwebs. Seemed like it took forever to get thru the book, because I would pause it, then listen to the album being discussed.
or saying to myself, "oh man, I never owned any of their music," then realizing that I did, but it would be on cassette, stored in a box somewhere.
it's going to be weird to see if Greg wants to be known as the guy that holds a grudge.
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- Charlie Wonder
- 07-26-22
What The… (in a good way!)
I was completely into this! I only have a passing knowledge of Black Flag/SST Records, and I found this to be amazing. Some really good insight into the early hardcore days in California, learning about some of their clashes with the police gave me a whole new respect for them.
I had no idea the extension of the SST catalog, it’s crazy to hear some of the albums/singles they put out (like the spiritual advisor to the lead singer of Bad Brains but not Nirvana).
If you like music bios or even books about the business side, it’s definitely worth checking out. 🤘
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- Aug Stone
- 09-29-22
Incredibly detailed, all you could hope for in a history
Jim Ruland did such a great job with this. So much detail, giving me an even greater appreciation of the bands and label. There was so much going on at the beginning with Black Flag, The Minutemen, and Hüsker Dü and it was all so engrossing that I completely forgot about all the other great bands and releases coming up after that. Which he also dealt with deftly. Highly recommended
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- Anonymous User
- 04-14-22
Started listening and couldn’t stop!
I’ve read and listened to Jim Ruland’s other books he co-wrote with Keith Morris and Bad Religion so this one was a no brainer. Those books were awesome and this one is no exception. I got to fill in the blanks about so much I had been wondering for years as a young SST enthusiast who didn’t get to be there during its heyday because I wasn’t born yet. I’ll definitely be listening to this one again!
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- Images of Ikonn
- 05-25-23
Deep dive into the history of a seminal alternative/punk/indie label.
Outstanding, detailed history of the label that released many landmark 1980s albums by amazing bands such as Minutemen, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains, the Meat Puppets, and Black Flag. So detailed in fact that I’d need several relistens to catch everything Ruland covers.
Fortunately it’s so excellent that it’s going into my select company of music/punk/alternative audiobooks I listen to on a loop, which includes the likes of Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, Kim Gordon’s Girl in a Band, and Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl.
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- illnist
- 02-23-23
This book does not suck
What a great trip into SST history. Please do more books. Love all 3 of these punk books.
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- James H Brucker
- 04-09-23
Exactly what I wanted
A great story about what the title promised. How SST started, rose and its decline.
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