Joe Carducci, "Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That..." (Redoubt Press, 2007)

Summary

SST Records was a seminal label in Los Angeles's independent music scene of the 1980's. Founded in 1978 by Greg Ginn, SST released records by a slew of influential bands such as Black Flag, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Saint Vitus, Husker Du, and Sonic Youth, to name just a few. Naomi Petersen was SST's staff photographer for much of the 1980s. Finding out about Naomi's death in 2005, a full two years after the fact, spurred Joe Carducci, part owner of SST Records from 1981-1986, to write Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That... (Redoubt Press, 2007). In it he not only tells Naomi's story, but also the story of SST and, to a lesser extent, the story of the L.A. punk scene in the early eighties. Carducci sensitively portrays Naomi as a young woman finding her art and passion in the distinctly masculine worlds of SST and punk rock. Along the way he tells the stories of many of the characters that made SST the pioneering indie label that it was.

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