Spot (producer)

Glenn Michael Lockett (July 1, 1951 – March 4, 2023), better known as Spot, was an American record producer best known for being the house producer and engineer for the influential independent punk record label SST Records.^[1] He styled his name SPʘT, using all capital letters and adding a dot inside the O.^[2]

Spot
Spot on roller skates with Easy Reader in 1979
Background information
Birth name	Glenn Michael Lockett
Born	July 1, 1951 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	March 4, 2023(2023-03-04) (aged 71) Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres	Hardcore punk punk rock post-hardcore
Occupation	Record producer
Years active	1977–2022
Labels	SST
Formerly of	Panic
Website	spotinator.com (archived copy)

Early life

Glenn Michael Lockett was born in the Los Angeles area to a Jewish mother (maiden name Katz) and an African-American father on July 1, 1951.^[3] With his older sister Cynthia, he was raised in upper-middle-class Hollywood.^[3] Lockett's father Claybourne, known as Buddy to his soldier friends, had been a fighter pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron in WW II,^[4] an all-Black formation that was part of the Tuskegee Airmen.^[5] Lockett moved from Hollywood to Hermosa Beach in the mid-1970s, where he met Greg Ginn while working at a vegetarian restaurant called Garden of Eden.^[5] Lockett also freelanced for Easy Reader, authoring record reviews under the name Spot.^[5][6]

Befriending Ginn, Spot was briefly bassist for Panic, the band which would soon become Black Flag.^[5]

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,^[1] Minutemen,^[1] Meat Puppets,^[1] Hüsker Dü,^[1] Saint Vitus,^[1] Misfits, and Descendents.^[1] After leaving SST in 1986, Spot moved to Austin, Texas.^[1]

Spot was an accomplished photographer^[1] and published a book of his work titled Sounds of Two Eyes Opening.^[7] In 2018, a gallery showing of his photographs was mounted at Pacific Coast Gallery in Hermosa Beach.^[6]

Production and engineering discography

• Black Flag - Jealous Again EP (August 1980)^[2]
• Descendents - Fat EP (1981)
• Black Flag - Six Pack EP (June 1981)
• Minutemen - The Punch Line EP (November 1981)^[2]
• Black Flag - Damaged (December 1981)^[2]
• Saccharine Trust - Paganicons (December 1981)
• Big Boys - Fun, Fun, Fun (July 1982)
• Descendents - Milo Goes to College (September 1982)^[2]
• Minutemen - Bean-Spill EP (1982)
• Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets (1982)
• Hüsker Dü - Everything Falls Apart (January 1983)^[8]
• Minutemen - What Makes a Man Start Fires? (January 1983)^[2]
• Big Boys - Lullabies Help The Brain Grow (July 1983)
• Hüsker Dü - Metal Circus (October 1983)^[8]
• Minutemen - Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat EP (November 1983)^[2]
• Misfits - Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood (December 1983)^[2]
• Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus (1984)^[2]
• Black Flag - My War (March 1984)^[2]
• Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (April 1984)^[9]
• Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade (July 1984)^[2]
• Black Flag - Family Man (September 1984)
• Black Flag - Slip It In (December 1984)
• Saccharine Trust - Surviving You, Always (1984)^[9]
• Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising (January 1985)
• Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun (March 1985)^[8]
• Saint Vitus - Hallow's Victim (August 1985)
• Saint Vitus - The Walking Dead EP (October 1985)
• The Crucifucks - The Crucifucks (1985)

Death

Spot died on March 4, 2023, at Morningside Healthcare in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he was recovering from a stroke he had suffered three months earlier. He had been suffering from fibrosis since late 2021 and was awaiting a lung transplant prior to his stroke.^[2][10]