Subterranean Records

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Subterranean Records" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Subterranean Records is an independent record label based in San Francisco. Founded by Steve Tupper and a then partner, Michael Fox in 1979,^[1] it focused on that city's underground punk and industrial music scene.

Subterranean and fellow punk/alt/underground San Francisco label Alternative Tentacles both sprang forth from the DIY punk 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.^[2]

Subterranean had a small storefront record shop on Valencia Street for about 4 years, from about 1984 to 1988.^[3]

The label has released a number of important underground albums, most notably four LPs by the band Flipper. The Dead Kennedys also released an important single on the label.