Editing SST Records (section)

===Early years===
Greg Ginn created Solid State Tuners  (SST) at the age of 12. SST was a mail-order business that sold modified [[World War II]] surplus radio equipment. The business was small but thrived well into Ginn's early adulthood.<ref>Azerrad, p. 16</ref>

In 1976 Ginn formed the [[punk rock]] band Panic. Panic recorded eight songs in January 1978, but no labels were interested in releasing the music aside from [[Los Angeles, California]] record label [[Bomp! Records]]. By late 1978 Bomp! had still not formally agreed to release the music on record, so Ginn decided he had enough business experience with SST to release it himself.<ref>Azerrad, p. 18</ref> Pressing records turned out to be a simple matter; "I just looked in the phone book under record pressing plants and there was one there", Ginn recalled, "and so I just took it to them and I knew about printing because I had always done catalogs." SST Records released the music recorded by Ginn's band (now named [[Black Flag (band)|Black Flag]]) as the ''[[Nervous Breakdown (EP)|Nervous Breakdown]]'' [[Extended play|EP]] in January 1979.<ref>Azerrad, p. 19</ref>

Many early Black Flag shows ended in violence, often involving the [[Los Angeles Police Department]]. As a result, the police tapped the label's phones and kept the SST office under surveillance.<ref name="a21">Azerrad, p. 21</ref> Ginn claims undercover police posing as homeless people sat close to SST's front door. The band were unable to hire a lawyer because of a lack of money; Ginn later explained: "I mean, we were thinking about skimping on our meals. … There was no place to go".<ref name="a21" /> By 1980, L.A. clubs had begun to ban hardcore punk shows, adding to SST's troubles.<ref name="a21" />

SST issued the [[Minutemen (band)|Minutemen's]] debut EP ''[[Paranoid Time]]'' as its second release in 1980.<ref>Azerrad, p. 68</ref> The songs were recorded and mixed in a single night for $300. Minutemen bassist [[Mike Watt]] recalled, "It was at that point we realized all you had to do was pay for the pressings, that records weren't a gift from Mount Olympus . . . Maybe it was from Greg's experience with ham radios, but he believed if you try, you can get things beyond your little group."<ref>Blush, p. 53</ref> Facing hostility towards hardcore punk, SST groups like Black Flag and the Minutemen played wherever they could, mainly at house parties and in basements early on.<ref>Blush, p. 54</ref> Black Flag began traveling up the California coast to play [[Mabuhay Gardens]] in [[San Francisco]], making seven trips in total. SST house [[record producer]] [[Spot (producer)|Spot]] went along as sound-man and tour manager, a job he would perform for several years, along with helping to record much of the label's music.<ref>Azerrad, 2001. p. 23</ref>

SST sold its releases to small distributors at a deliberately low price; however, since the distributors typically sold import records, the records usually ended up in specialty shops where they would sell for high prices. Ginn decided to release the first Black Flag album ''[[Damaged (Black Flag album)|Damaged]]'' (1981) via a mainstream distributor. SST struck a deal with [[MCA Records]] to co-release ''Damaged'' on Unicorn Records, a smaller label distributed by MCA. Just prior to the album's release, MCA decided not to release ''Damaged,'' citing its "anti-parent" subject matter.<ref>Azerrad, p. 36</ref> SST sued Unicorn claiming the label did not pay rightful royalties and expenses for the album. Unicorn countersued and obtained an injunction preventing Black Flag from releasing further material until the case was settled. When SST released the Black Flag compilation ''[[Everything Went Black]]'', Unicorn took SST to court in July 1983. Ginn and Black Flag bassist [[Chuck Dukowski]] (who had become a co-owner of SST) were found in violation of the injunction and were sent to the Los Angeles County Jail for five days. Late in 1983 Unicorn went bankrupt and Black Flag was able to release records again.<ref>Azerrad, p. 37</ref>