Raymond Pettibon's Early Milieu

Years before his move into the world of galleries and museums, Raymond Pettibon gained underground notoriety through self-published 'zines like Tripping Corpse, along with album covers and gig flyers for SST Records. Founded by brother Greg Ginn (also leader/guitarist for Black Flag), this pioneering independent label defined Southern California punk in the 1980s; the label's overarching gestalt took shape by way of Pettibon's dark, funny world inhabited by junkies, film noir supporting players, and the ever-present Manson family. In later years, SST released a lot of junk, but their legacy was forever secured by a handful of essential records, musical anti-venom for the era's toxic corporate rock- here are a few examples:

As the label's first release, Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown EP set the tone for much of what was to come. Sonically scuzzy, one has to wonder if Ginn was pulling our collective chain when he professed an admiration for the Grateful Dead. With blatant disregard for punk orthodoxy concerning haircuts and clothes, they nevertheless hewed close to a fundamental rock template laid out long before the Ramones. The band's sound ossifed in their later releases, with Ginn--and the band's name itself--as the two constants amidst its otherwise shifting personnel; rights to the band's Pettibon-designed logo were later subject to an acrimonious court dispute between several of its former members.

San Pedro's Minutemen's were the best thing that ever happened to SST; their 1984 Double Nickels on the Dime was the band's defining statement (though their other records were great too), defying the pigeonholes of punk and hardcore to embrace and transcend a wide range of sources. Guitarist and singer D. Boon was a foil of earnestness and passion to bassist and sometimes-vocalist Mike Watt, who shines as a songwriter here; drummer George Hurley holds it all together at a level of inventiveness rivaling Ed Blackwell or Tony Williams; together, they were magic- an unstoppable and singular force that somehow managed to hold onto their identity as individuals.

SST was beginning its tailspin by the time Sonic Youth signed with the label in 1986, yet Expressway to Yr Skull was a major step forward from the New York no-wavers' previous efforts on other labels. The lyrics all throughout Evol--the album on which this song serves as the closing cut--are curiously simpatico with Pettibon's verbal sensibility and imagistic obsessions, while the music channels a thick Gotham drone that echoes back through the work of LaMonte Young and the Velvet Underground.

And lastly... Pettibon extended some of the themes familiar from his drawings--with the help of friends such as Mike Watt and artist Mike Kelley, and a heaping helping of self-mockery--into scrappy DIY video narratives; Sir Drone is perhaps the best-known of the bunch.