The SST/ Epitaph Theory

aight so, i've been workin on this theory. it's not perfect at all and could be easily disproved. but i'm still in the works to prove it right. if i fail, then whatevers man. so here it is:

The SST/ Epitaph Theory by Ryan Saavedra

The SST/ Epitaph Theory states that all American punk bands from 1978 to uhhhh... I'm gonna say 1999 (hey man, it's my theory!) are connected to either Brett Gurewitz' Epitaph Records or Greg Ginn's SST Records. That means bands like The Ramones, The Clash, and Iggy and the Stooges are out of the picture. But bands like Rancid and The Vandals are in play.

Brett Gurewitz is famously from Bad Religion and Greg Ginn from Black Flag. So Bad Religion is on Epitaph and Black Flag is from SST. And now some other bands. Bad Brains, Minutemen, Sonic Youth, and Bl'ast were all on SST Records. Epitaph Records has even more. Rancid, NOFX, Lagwagon, The Vandals, New Found Glory, Pennywise, Millencolin (I know I said American bands, but they're one of my favorites), Rich Kids on LSD, Agnostic Front, The Offspring, and Pulley were all or apart of Epitaph Records.

Now onto bands that have not been signed with Epitaph or SST. I'm not gonna lie, there's gonna be some bands I'm gonna mention that you may say, "that doesn't count man!" But as I said, this theory is not perfect. SO! Even a band like Blink 182 can be linked to SST or Epitaph. Travis Barker, the drummer, plays for another band called The Transplants. The Transplants have Tim Armstrong, who is head of Hellcat Records, which is a sister company of Epitaph. Any bands of Hellcat Records is an automatic link to Epitaph. So you got bands like Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, Dropkick Murphys, and Tiger Army linked to Epitaph.

Same thing with Fat Wreck Chords. NOFX and Bad Religion are very close with each other. Brett helps Fat Mike produce some of their albums. So you got bands from Fat Wreck Chords such as No Use For A Name, Strung Out, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Dillinger Four, The Real McKenzies, Anti-Flag, and many others linked to Epitaph.

Minor Threat's bassist is Brian Baker. Later in their career he switched to guitar. He now plays for Bad Religion, who is on Epitaph. Same goes for Circle Jerks. Greg Hetson, their guitarist, now plays for Bad Religion.

The Offsring as said before was on Epitaph. Dexter Holland, the vocalist and one of the guitarists, started his own record company, Nitro Records. Bands such as AFI, TSOL, and once again The Vandals, along with others, are linked to Epitaph like Hellcat and Fat Wreck bands.

Joe Escalante and Warren Fitzgerald of The Vandals started a record company in 1996 called Kung Fu Records. There you go, another record company linked to Epitaph. Kung Fu has bands features(ed) Tsunami Bomb, The Ataris, and even as one-time releases, Blink 182 and MxPx.

The Descendents were on SST and Epitaph (respectively). They are now on Fat Wreck Chords. Even Green Day is using Epitaph to re-release their Kerplunk and 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hour albums.

Now here's a stretch. Agent Orange's Steve Soto left and made The Adolescents. Pat Smear played guitar for them at one point, linking The Germs to the theory. Chris Royer from Social Distortion (an Epitaph band) was once their drummer. Social Distortion had Matt Freeman play bass in 2004. Matt Freeman is from Operation Ivy and Rancid, both Hellcat bands (Op Ivy - only for releasing material).

I think you get the point. Epitaph and SST contain(ed) some of the best punk bands on earth. If it weren't for them, music wouldn't be the same today. We wouldn't have NOFX. We wouldn't have Rancid. Thank you Greg and Brett.