Spot (born Glen Lockett in 1951
) is an American
record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
best known for being the house producer and
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
for the influential independent
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equipm ...
.
Early life
Glen Lockett was born to a Caucasian mother and an African-American father in 1951 and raised in upper-middle-class Hollywood.
Lockett's father was a member of the
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the ...
in
WW II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Lockett moved from Hollywood to
Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of th ...
in the mid-1970s, where he met
Greg Ginn
Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is an American guitarist, bassist, singer and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led ...
while working at a vegetarian restaurant called Garden of Eden.
Lockett also
freelanced for ''
Easy Reader
Founded in 1970, the ''Easy Reader'' is a weekly newspaper published every Thursday and delivered to homes in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach (Beach Cities/ South Bay, California), with a circulation of approximately 45,000 w ...
'', authoring record reviews under the name Spot.
Befriending Ginn, Spot was briefly bassist for Panic, the band which would soon become
Black Flag.
Career
Spot recorded, mixed, produced or co-produced most of SST's pivotal acts between 1979 and 1986. He is credited on albums by such notable bands as
Black Flag,
Minutemen
Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Mi ...
,
Mood of Defiance
Mood of Defiance was an American punk rock band from San Pedro, California. Dave Markey described their music as "very atypical for Southern California hardcore—almost psychedelic, but still really aggressive."
History
The band grew from ...
,
Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood (guitar/vocals), his brother Cris Kirkwood (bass guitar/vocals), and Derrick Bostrom (drums). The Kirkwood brothers ...
,
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü () was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist/vocalist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notabili ...
,
Saint Vitus
Vitus (), whose name is sometimes rendered Guy or Guido, was a Christian martyr from Sicily. His surviving hagiography is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical D ...
,
Misfits (
Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood) and
Descendents
The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson. In 1979, they enlisted Stevenson's school friend Milo Aukerman as a s ...
.
After leaving SST in 1986, Spot moved to Austin, Texas.
Spot is an accomplished photographer
and has published a book of his work entitled ''Sounds of Two Eyes Opening''.
References
External links
Spot's official websiteSpot's MySpace page
1951 births
Living people
Record producers from California
Black Flag (band) members
American audio engineers
American punk rock bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Hardcore punk musicians
20th-century American guitarists
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