New Alliance Records

New Alliance Records was the label founded by The Minutemen's D. Boon and Mike Watt and longtime friend and associate Martin Tamburovich after the example of Black Flag's SST Records. The existence of SST led Watt to understand, according to a 1987 interview he gave to Musician magazine, how easy it was to get a record made: "All you had to do was pay the record plant man."

Related Topics:
The Minutemen - D. Boon - Mike Watt - Martin Tamburovich - Black Flag - SST Records

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Amongst the first releases on New Alliance were Husker Du's first album Land Speed Record and the Minutemen's second-ever release, the seven-inch EP Joy. Eventually the label grew to nurture the early career of The Descendents as well as issue various-artist compilation albums and other recordings by the Minutemen (The Politics Of Time) and Husker Du (the In A Free Land EP).

Related Topics:
Husker Du - Land Speed Record - EP - Joy - The Descendents - The Politics Of Time - In A Free Land

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After D. Boon's car-accident death in 1985 and the increasingly busier schedule of Watt's post-Minutemen band fIREHOSE, Watt and Tamburovich sold New Alliance to SST in 1987. Greg Ginn, SST's owner and Black Flag's guitarist, proceeded to transfer all of the Minutemen and Descendents back catalog and Husker Du's Land Speed Record to SST (The two-track master of In A Free Land was since lost) and turned New Alliance into a subsidiary label of SST that concentrated on jazz, instrumental, and spoken word releases.

Related Topics:
FIREHOSE - Greg Ginn

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The existence of New Alliance is currently in doubt, although SST itself still exists; no new titles have been issued on New Alliance for several years, so Ginn may have made the label inactive.

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Label co-founder Tamburovich died of a bacterial infection in 2003.

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