Saccharine Trust: Surviving You, Always [SST]

Why you'll love it

Saccharine Trust's second album, back on vinyl from SST. It's the record where the band's punk roots tangled with free jazz, and it closes with a version of the Doors' "Peace Frog".

This edition

• Reissue of the 1984 SST album
• Twelve tracks across two sides, from "The Giver Takes" to "Peace Frog"

About the album

Saccharine Trust came out of the same South Bay scene as Black Flag and the Minutemen and landed on SST, the label that made that scene famous. Singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza were never content with three chords, and by 1984's Surviving You, Always they had pushed punk somewhere strange and exciting, full of jazzy, angular guitar and spoken-word poetry.

"The Giver Takes", "Remnants" and "The Cat Cracker" twist and lurch, "YHWH On Acid" lives up to its name, and their cover of the Doors' "Peace Frog" is a fine joke played straight. It's a record that sounds like nobody else from the time. If you only know the SST classics, this is the one that'll surprise you; we keep meaning to file it under jazz just to see who notices.

Tracklist

Listen

Out August 28, 2026 on SST (cat# SST024), a reissue of the 1984 album.