Subterranean Records is an independent record label based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Founded by Steve Tupper and a then partner, Michael Fox in 1979, it focused on that city's underground

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 ...

and industrial music scene. Subterranean and fellow punk/alt/underground San Francisco label

Alternative Tentacles Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. It was used by Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single " California Über Alles". After realizing the potential for an independent label, ...

both sprang forth from the

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

movement in 1979, and were quite successful on college and community radio stations in the US. These labels helped define the San Francisco punk movement. Subterranean was the more avant garde of the two. While originally just focused on documenting and promoting the SF area, over the years Subterranean has released records by artists from many areas and genres. Like many small DIY labels, Steve Tupper noted that bands were chosen based on his musical tastes. Subterranean had a small storefront record shop on Valencia Street for about 4 years, from about 1984 to 1988. The label has released a number of important underground albums, most notably four LPs by the band Flipper. The

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...

also released an important single on the label.

Catalog

This list is organized by catalog number, a roughly chronological number system established by the label and typically printed on or assigned to each official release. :

Roster

* Alterboys * Angel'in Heavy Syrup * Animal Things * Any Three Initials * Arkansaw Man * Arsenal * Bay of Pigs * The Bedlam Rovers *

Caroliner Caroliner, a group formed in 1983 in San Francisco, is an industrial bluegrass–experimental–Noise conceptual art band that uses instruments from bluegrass and rock traditions, as well as homemade electronics and other modified instruments. In ...

* Chrome *

Club Foot Orchestra The Club Foot Orchestra is a musical ensemble known for their silent film scores. Their influences include Eastern European folk music, impressionism, and jazz fusion; ''The New Yorker'' described their style as "music that bubbles up from the int ...

* Code of Honor * Controlled Bleeding *

* Factrix * Flipper * Fried Abortions * Frightwig *

Helios Creed Barry Johnson (born on November 3, 1953), known professionally as Helios Creed, is an American guitarist, singer and bandleader. He first came to prominence in the mid-1970s with the San Francisco band Chrome, who were considered an early infl ...

* Housecoat Project *

Penelope Houston Penelope Houston (born December 17, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter best known as the singer for the San Francisco-based punk rock band the Avengers. She was raised in Seattle. In the mid-1970s she attended Fairhaven College in Bellin ...

* Inflatable Boy Clams * The Jars * Jr. Chemists *

The Leather Nun The Leather Nun are a Swedish rock group. Careening from garage rock to goth and pop-rock, Leather Nun became cult heroes in their native land and wide abroad. History The Leather Nun (a.k.a. "Lädernunnan") was formed in 1978 in Gothenburg, ...

* Les Seldoms * The Lewd * Bruce Loose * Low Flying Aircraft * Minimal Man * The Muskrats * Naked City *

Negative Trend Negative Trend was an American punk rock band, active between 1977 and 1979. Before they disbanded, the band released one self-titled EP in September 1978.Charles Strong, Martin''The Great Indie Discography'': Negative Trend Canongate Books Ltd. ...

Nervous Gender Nervous Gender is an American punk rock electronic band formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa. Their use of heavily distorted keyboards and synthesizers made them, along with The Scr ...

* No Alternative *

Polkacide Polkacide was a band based in the San Francisco Bay Area that played "punk polka". Band history Polkacide was founded in 1985 by Ward Abronski, originally organized to play a one-time show for the 50th anniversary of the Deaf Club in San Fra ...

* Pop-O-Pies * Pre-Fix * Psyclones *

Research Library A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of to ...

* Sick Pleasure * Society Dog * Tom Tadlock * The Terminators of Endearment * The Tools * Ultrasheen * UNS * VKTMS * The Wannabe Texans * Stefan Weisser * Wilma *

Witch Trials A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...

* Woundz * Kathleen Yearwood *

Z'ev Z'EV (born Stefan Joel Weisser, February 8, 1951 – December 16, 2017) was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of indust ...

References

External links

Subterranean Records Homepage

Discography at Discogs.com
{{Authority control Record labels established in 1979 American independent record labels Punk record labels Industrial record labels Music of the San Francisco Bay Area

Catalog

Roster

See also

References

External links