Black Flag | ||
| Allmusic Biography : In many ways, Black Flag was the definitive Los Angeles hardcore punk band. Although their music flirted with heavy metal and experimental noise and jazz more than that of most hardcore bands, they defined the image and the aesthetic. Through their ceaseless touring, the band cultivated the American underground punk scene; every year, Black Flag played in every area of the U.S., influencing countless numbers of bands. Although their recording career was hampered by a draining lawsuit, which was followed by a seemingly endless stream of independently released records, Black Flag was unquestionably one of the most influential American post-punk bands. A full decade and a half before the fusion of punk and metal became popular, Black Flag created a ferocious, edgy, and ironic amalgam of underground aesthetics and gut-pounding metal. Their lyrics alluded to social criticism and a political viewpoint, but it was all conveyed as seething, cynical angst, which was occasionally very funny. Furthermore, Black Flag demonstrated an affection for bohemia -- both in terms of musical experimentation and a fondness for poetry -- that reiterated the bands underground roots and prevented it from becoming nothing but a heavy metal group. And it didnt matter who was in the band -- throughout the years, the lineup changed numerous times -- because the Black Flag name and four-bar logo became punk institutions. Black Flag was formed in 1977 by guitarist Greg Ginn, a graduate of UCLA. Ginn formed the band with bassist Chuck Dukowski; the pair soon added drummer Brian Migdol and vocalist Keith Morris. At the same time, Ginn and Dukowski formed an independent record label, SST, which released the bands first EP, Nervous Breakdown, in 1978. Morris and Migdol departed the following year -- Morris went on to form the Circle Jerks -- and they were respectively replaced with Chavo Pederast and Robo. By the release of 1980s Jealous Again, Black Flag had begun to tour the U.S. relentlessly, building up a small, but dedicated, following of fans. After the release of Jealous Again, Pederast left the group and was replaced by Dez Cadena. However, Cadena preferred to play guitar, and his transition to that instrument in 1981 gave the group a heavier sound; his replacement on vocals was Henry Rollins, a Washington, D.C., fan who jumped on-stage to sing with the band during a New York performance. Early in 1981, Black Flag signed a record contract with Unicorn Records, a subsidiary of MCA. The band delivered their first full-length album, Damaged, to Unicorn; the label refused to release the record, citing the content of the music as too dangerous and vulgar. Undaunted, Ginn released the album on his own SST Records. Upon its release, the album received considerable critical acclaim. Soon after it appeared on the shelves, Unicorn sued Black Flag and SST over the release of Damaged. For the next two years, the band was prevented from using the name Black Flag or their logo on any records. During that time, the group continued to tour, and surreptitiously released Everything Went Black, a double-album retrospective that contained no mention of the band, although it listed the names of the members on the front cover. The dispute ended in 1983, when Unicorn went bankrupt and the rights to the Black Flag name and logo reverted back to the band (by this time, Cadena had left to form his own group). As if to make up for lost time, Black Flag became impossibly prolific when it returned to recording in 1984. A new version of the group -- featuring Ginn on guitar and bass (the latter was credited to the pseudonym Dale Nixon), Rollins, and drummer Bill Stevenson -- recorded the albums My War and Family Man. After those two albums were recorded, the group added bassist Kira Roessler and cut Slip It In, its third official album of 1984. In addition to those three albums, Black Flag released the cassette-only Live 84 and the compilation The First Four Years in 1984, as well as reissuing Everything Went Black with all the proper credits restored. The groups touring and recording pace didnt slow in 1985; they released three records: Loose Nut, The Process of Weeding Out, and In My Head. By the end of the year, Anthony Martinez replaced Stevenson on drums, and for groups 1986 tour in support of the live album Whos Got the 10½?, Cel Revuelta took over for Roessler on bass. In the fall of 1986, Ginn broke up the band. He recorded two albums with the more experimental Gone, but he primarily concentrated on running SST Records, which had become one of the most important American independent labels of the era. By the time Black Flag broke up, SST had already released albums by such bands as Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen, Meat Puppets, and Sonic Youth. For most of the late 80s, Ginn retired from performing, choosing to operate SST instead; during this time, the label released the first recordings from bands like Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr., and Screaming Trees. Ginn returned to music in 1993, releasing a solo album on his new record label, Cruz, and over the next 20 years he would release dozens of albums, some under his own name and others with such groups as Confront James, Hor, Jambang, El Bad, and the Taylor Texas Corrugators. Following Black Flags breakup, Henry Rollins formed the Rollins Band. For the rest of the 80s, he released music recorded with the Rollins Band on a variety of labels, as well as solo spoken word recordings, becoming one of the most recognizable figures of alternative music. In 1994, Rollins published Get in the Van, a memoir of his years in Black Flag, and the books success helped spark greater interest in the bands legacy. While both Ginn and Rollins refused to perform Black Flags music for many years, Rollins made an exception for a 2002 benefit album, Rise Above, a collection of Black Flag covers with guest vocalists which raised money for the legal defense of the West Memphis Three, three young men wrongly accused of murder. Rollins Band supported the release with a benefit tour, with Rollins and Keith Morris singing Black Flags best-known songs. In 2003, Ginn briefly revived the band for three shows to benefit cat rescue organizations, though many fans were disappointed that only Robo, Cadena, and Revuelta appeared from previous lineups. In late 2011, as part of a 30th Anniversary celebration for the California concert promotion firm Goldenvoice, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, and Bill Stevenson joined with Stephen Egerton, guitarist with the Descendents, to play a short set of early Black Flag tunes. Response to the impromptu performance was so strong that the foursome set up a concert tour in 2013, with Dez Cadena joining the group now known as FLAG. Around the same time FLAG announced their tour, Greg Ginn revealed he was re-forming Black Flag for a series of shows and a new album, with Ron Reyes returning as vocalist and Gregory Moore (aka Gregory Amoore), who had worked on Ginns solo projects, on drums. The re-formed Black Flag released What The ... in late 2013, roughly two months after a judge ruled against Ginn in a trademark-infringement lawsuit hed filed against the members of FLAG. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 19 Title: Nervous Breakdown Released: 1979-02 Tracks: 4 Duration: 05:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Nervous Breakdown (02:06) 2 Fix Me (00:56) 3 I’ve Had It (01:24) 4 Wasted (00:51) |
 | Album: 2 of 19 Title: Jealous Again Released: 1980-03 Tracks: 5 Duration: 06:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Jealous Again (01:52) 2 Revenge (00:59) 3 White Minority (01:02) 4 No Values (01:45) 5 You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You! (00:52) |
 | Album: 3 of 19 Title: Damaged Released: 1981 Tracks: 15 Duration: 35:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Rise Above (02:28) 2 Spray Paint (00:35) 3 Six Pack (02:20) 4 What I See (01:57) 5 TV Party (03:33) 6 Thirsty and Miserable (02:07) 7 Police Story (01:34) 8 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:49) 9 Depression (02:30) 10 Room 13 (02:06) 11 Damaged II (03:25) 12 No More (02:28) 13 Padded Cell (01:49) 14 Life of Pain (02:52) 15 Damaged I (03:50) |
| Damaged : Allmusic album Review : Perhaps the best album to emerge from the quagmire that was early-80s California hardcore punk, the visceral, intensely physical presence of Damaged has yet to be equaled, although many bands have tried. Although Black Flag had been recording for three years prior to this release, the fact that Henry Rollins was now their lead singer made all the difference. His furious bellow and barely contained ferocity was the missing piece the band needed to become great. Also, guitarist/mastermind Greg Ginn wrote a slew of great songs for this record that, while suffused with the usual punk conceits (alienation, boredom, disenfranchisement), were capable of making one laugh out loud, especially the protoslacker satire "TV Party." Extremely controversial when it was released, Damaged endured the slings and arrows of outrageous criticism (some reacted as though this record alone would cause the fall of Americas youth) to become and remain an important document of its time. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 19 Title: Six Pack Released: 1982 Tracks: 3 Duration: 05:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Six Pack (02:20) 2 I’ve Heard It Before (01:39) 3 American Waste (01:32) |
 | Album: 5 of 19 Title: Everything Went Black Released: 1982 Tracks: 25 Duration: 1:02:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:59) 2 I Don’t Care (00:59) 3 White Minority (01:12) 4 No Values (01:59) 5 Revenge (01:05) 6 Depression (02:10) 7 Clocked In (01:30) 8 Police Story (01:32) 9 Wasted (00:44) 10 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:42) 11 Depression (02:42) 12 Police Story (01:33) 13 Clocked In (01:37) 14 My Rules (01:04) 15 Jealous Again (02:21) 16 Police Story (01:36) 17 Damaged I (02:09) 18 Louie Louie (01:27) 19 No More (03:02) 20 Room 13 (02:08) 21 Depression (02:40) 22 Damaged II (04:13) 23 Padded Cell (01:53) 24 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:48) 25 Crass Commercialism (17:10) |
| Everything Went Black : Allmusic album Review : When Everything Went Black was first released in 1983, Black Flag was in the middle of a backbreaking legal dispute with Unicorn Records. As a result of litigation, the band was prevented from using the Black Flag name on any records. Hence the original packaging for this album, which listed only the names of individual bandmembers on the cover (this was rectified on subsequent issues). Its a double-album (on vinyl) compilation of previously released material and outtakes -- though the European edition features a wholly different running order. The material, dating from 1978 to 1981, is excellent in places, average in others. However, only obsessives need track it down -- as signified by the inclusion of two versions of several songs (including stalwarts "Damaged" and "Police Story"). The fourth side of the original vinyl issue also included a sequence of radio spots discussing forthcoming Black Flag gigs, which is entertaining stuff, but its more useful as a historical document than a listening experience. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 19 Title: The First Four Years Released: 1983 Tracks: 16 Duration: 25:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Nervous Breakdown (02:06) 2 Fix Me (00:56) 3 I’ve Had It (01:24) 4 Wasted (00:51) 5 Jealous Again (01:52) 6 Revenge (00:59) 7 White Minority (01:02) 8 No Values (01:45) 9 You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You! (00:52) 10 Clocked In (01:33) 11 Six Pack (02:20) 12 I’ve Heard It Before (01:39) 13 American Waste (01:32) 14 Machine (01:27) 15 Louie Louie (01:19) 16 Damaged I (04:07) |
| The First Four Years : Allmusic album Review : The best collection of pre-Henry Rollins-era Black Flag. Much of The First Four Years finds the band in developmental mode, but the sonic anarchy and political vituperation met head-on more than once, creating a ferociously good time. Not simply for completists, this is an important recording of the then-burgeoning L.A. hardcore scene. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 19 Title: My War Released: 1984-03 Tracks: 9 Duration: 40:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 My War (03:45) 2 Can’t Decide (05:22) 3 Beat My Head Against the Wall (02:34) 4 I Love You (03:27) 5 Forever Time (02:30) 6 The Swinging Man (03:04) 7 Nothing Left Inside (06:34) 8 Three Nights (06:13) 9 Scream (06:51) |
| My War : Allmusic album Review : After a rancorous three-year legal battle with their label Unicorn, which prevented them from releasing any new material, Black Flag binged in the mid-80s, releasing a flurry of records that had even the most devoted fans scrambling to keep up. They did, however, start this period somewhat inauspiciously with My War, a pretentious mess of a record with a totally worthless second side. Featuring three tracks of slower-than-Black Sabbath muck with Henry Rollins howling like a caged animal, it was self-indulgence masquerading as inspiration and about as much fun as wading through a tar pit. Side one, however, was quite good, with the title tracks especially intimidating. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 19 Title: Family Man Released: 1984-09 Tracks: 11 Duration: 33:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Family Man (01:21) 2 Salt on a Slug (01:32) 3 Hollywood Diary (00:35) 4 Let Your Fingers Do the Walking (02:34) 5 Shed Reading (Rattus Norvegicus) (01:25) 6 No Deposit - No Return (00:41) 7 Armageddon Man (09:14) 8 Long Lost Dog of It (02:05) 9 I Wont Stick Any of You Unless and Until I Can Stick All of You! (05:50) 10 Account for What? (04:20) 11 The Pups Are Doggin It (04:16) |
| Family Man : Allmusic album Review : Black Flags most experimental album, Family Man features one LP side of spoken word performances from Henry Rollins and another of instrumental music from the late-Flag lineup of Greg Ginn (guitar), Kira (bass), and Bill Stevenson (drums). Although occasionally chilling in its intensity, the spoken word material, much like the between-song recitations of fellow Californian Jim Morrison (with whom Rollins sometimes shares a vocal similarity here) on the live Doors albums, mostly sounds juvenile and dated after the fact. That said, Family Mans spoken word tracks, along with Jello Biafras recordings with the Dead Kennedys, can largely be credited with bringing "alternative" spoken word to a larger audience who were either unaware of, or could not relate to, the Patti Smith/downtown New York scene. Unlike the solo Rollins tracks, the instrumental music is still challenging and vibrant. Although sounding at times like a high-school garage band attempting to perform Rush covers, Ginn and company play with a sense of desperation and punk rock fury that makes much of the music positively electrifying. Similar in spirit to the less poppy tracks on Hüsker Düs contemporary Zen Arcade, side two of Family Man is characterized by its emotional purity. Ginn reveals himself as a refreshingly and brilliantly free improviser and his playing should serve as an inspiration and lesson to later "punk" bands who value technical proficiency over rockin out. Overall, Family Man is an essential, if atypical, part of the Black Flag canon and should appeal to fans of Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, or the New York "noise" scene as well. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 19 Title: Slip It In Released: 1984-12 Tracks: 8 Duration: 39:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Slip It In (06:17) 2 Black Coffee (04:55) 3 Wound Up (04:23) 4 Rat’s Eyes (04:07) 5 Obliteration (05:56) 6 The Bars (04:37) 7 My Ghetto (02:05) 8 You’re Not Evil (07:09) |
| Slip It In : Allmusic album Review : Slip It In followed My War almost immediately, and while a bit better (fewer mega-volume angst drones), the band still wanders a bit, experimenting with expanding the breadth of hardcore into a newer hard rock/punk sound. This is especially true of Greg Ginns guitar playing, which was becoming increasingly avant-garde and exciting. Rather than simply coughing up one clichéd solo after another, he wandered harmolodically up and down the fretboard as a jazz player like Blood Ulmer would, making the material more interesting than what most Black Flag-influenced bands were playing. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 19 Title: Loose Nut Released: 1985 Tracks: 9 Duration: 34:09 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Loose Nut (04:33) 2 Bastard in Love (03:15) 3 Annihilate This Week (04:44) 4 Best One Yet (02:33) 5 Modern Man (03:07) 6 This Is Good (03:25) 7 I’m the One (03:10) 8 Sinking (04:32) 9 Now She’s Black (04:50) |
| Loose Nut : Allmusic album Review : One of three LPs released by Black Flag in 1985, Loose Nut suffers from its creators rampant profligacy. Too much of the record is under-rehearsed and under-ripe, yet when the group hits its stride, as on Henry Rollins brutal "This Is Good," its hard to deny the groups trademark, adrenaline-rush appeal. Other highlights include "Annihilate This Week" and "Bastard in Love." | ||
 | Album: 11 of 19 Title: Live 84 Released: 1985-01 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:14:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Process of Weeding Out (08:24) 2 Nervous Breakdown (02:06) 3 I Cant Decide (04:57) 4 Slip It In (05:52) 5 My Ghetto (01:14) 6 Black Coffee (04:45) 7 I Wont Stick Any of You Unless and Until I Can Stick All of You (04:19) 8 Forever Time (02:20) 9 Fix Me (00:53) 10 Six Pack (02:24) 11 My War (03:34) 12 Jealous Again (01:53) 13 I Love You (03:15) 14 Swinging Man (03:10) 15 Three Nights (06:10) 16 Nothing Left Inside (06:25) 17 Wound Up (03:50) 18 Rats Eyes (04:18) 19 The Bars (04:38) |
| Live '84 : Allmusic album Review : Keeping up with their furious pace came Live 84, a cassette-only release of a standard (for them anyway) Black Flag gig. Opening up with an eight-and-a-half-minute hardcore/punk/jazz instrumental, "The Process of Weeding Out" (which came from an earlier Black Flag instrumental EP of the same title), it was abundantly clear that Black Flag were no longer just another punk band; as much as they loved to kick out the jams, they also loved destroying the audiences preconceived notions of how punk bands were supposed to behave. Running at 70 minutes, this tape shows Black Flag at their performing peak. [The album was released on CD in 1998.] | ||
 | Album: 12 of 19 Title: The Process of Weeding Out Released: 1985-09 Tracks: 4 Duration: 26:44 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Your Last Affront (09:38) 2 Screw the Law (02:24) 3 The Process of Weeding Out (09:43) 4 Southern Rise (04:58) |
 | Album: 13 of 19 Title: In My Head Released: 1985-10 Tracks: 9 Duration: 37:11 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Paralyzed (02:39) 2 The Crazy Girl (02:46) 3 Black Love (02:42) 4 White Hot (04:59) 5 In My Head (04:30) 6 Drinking And Driving (03:16) 7 Retired At 21 (04:56) 8 Societys Tease (06:09) 9 Its All Up To You (05:14) |
| In My Head : Allmusic album Review : Hot on the heels of the live record came Loose Nut and In My Head, which showed significant improvement over My War and Slip It In. Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn were exploring by-now standard lyrical themes: hate, paranoia, loneliness, anomie, and violence, but framing them around music that was demanding, powerful, and exciting. In My Head is the slightly better of the two, primarily because its a little edgier and uncontrolled, but at this juncture, Black Flag was making some of the best contemporary rock music extant. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 19 Title: Whos Got the 10½? Released: 1986-05 Tracks: 9 Duration: 42:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Loose Nut (04:00) 2 Im the One (02:44) 3 Bastard in Love (03:00) 4 Modern Man (03:34) 5 This Is Good (03:22) 6 In My Head (04:26) 7 My War (03:47) 8 Slip It In / Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie (14:48) 9 Drinking and Driving (03:00) |
| Who's Got the 10½? : Allmusic album Review : Black Flags second live album, recorded at a 1985 Portland show with the Kira/Anthony Martinez rhythm section, is about what youd expect the late period of the band to sound like live. A couple of older songs crop up -- "Slip It In" and "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" are transformed into a great 15-minute medley with Henry Rollins getting in some audience-baiting that explains the album title -- but mostly this is from Loose Nut, its songs sounding generally better here than on that release. Rollins is in typically fiery form throughout; whatever dissatisfactions with the band he spoke of in future years evidently didnt keep him from forgetting how to put on a show. Its interesting to realize how much of the vaunted Rollins attitude comes from singing lyrics written mostly by Greg Ginn, but the singer definitely makes those words his own regardless. Certainly his generally terse spoken word bits practically drip with the mans essence -- talking about "Annihilate": "This is a song about killing yourself to live." Ginns blend of straight-ahead punk riffage and ponderous if still exciting open-ended sludge tones and soloing matches Rollins just fine, while Kira and Martinez do their job well enough. Kira adds some deadpan backing vocals at points as well. Strong numbers include "Bastard in Love," given a tight performance and an almost sweet touch of guitar jangle at points, and smoking takes on "The Best One Yet" and their inimitable version of "Louie, Louie." The CD version is the one to get, with a further half-hour of music from the show than on the vinyl version. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 19 Title: Annihilate This Week Released: 1987 Tracks: 3 Duration: 11:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Annihilate This Week (04:27) 2 Best One Yet (02:27) 3 Sinking (05:02) |
 | Album: 16 of 19 Title: Wasted...Again Released: 1987-12 Tracks: 12 Duration: 33:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Wasted (00:51) 2 TV Party (03:33) 3 Six Pack (02:20) 4 I Don’t Care (00:59) 5 I’ve Had It (01:24) 6 Jealous Again (01:52) 7 Slip It In (06:17) 8 Annihilate This Week (04:44) 9 Loose Nut (04:33) 10 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:59) 11 Louie Louie (01:19) 12 Drinking & Driving (03:22) |
 | Album: 17 of 19 Title: I Can See You Released: 1989 Tracks: 4 Duration: 10:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 I Can See You (03:20) 2 Kickin and Stickin (01:24) 3 Out of This World (02:13) 4 You Let Me Down (03:42) |
 | Album: 18 of 19 Title: Damaged / Jealous Again Released: 1995-10 Tracks: 20 Duration: 42:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Rise Above (02:28) 2 Spray Paint (00:35) 3 Six Pack (02:20) 4 What I See (01:57) 5 TV Party (03:33) 6 Thirsty and Miserable (02:07) 7 Police Story (01:34) 8 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (01:49) 9 Depression (02:30) 10 Room 13 (02:06) 11 Damaged II (03:25) 12 No More (02:28) 13 Padded Cell (01:49) 14 Life of Pain (02:52) 15 Damaged I (03:50) 16 Jealous Again (01:52) 17 Revenge (00:59) 18 White Minority (01:02) 19 No Values (01:45) 20 You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You! (00:52) |
 | Album: 19 of 19 Title: What The... Released: 2013-11-13 Tracks: 22 Duration: 42:37 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 My Hearts Pumping (02:11) 2 Down in the Dirt (03:36) 3 Blood and Ashes (01:45) 4 Now Is the Time (01:45) 5 Wallow in Despair (01:27) 6 Slow Your Ass Down (01:45) 7 Its So Absurd (01:07) 8 Shut Up (01:37) 9 This Is Hell (01:56) 10 Go Away (02:27) 11 The Bitter End (01:56) 12 The Chase (02:11) 13 Im Sick (01:44) 14 Its Not My Time to Go-Go (01:32) 15 Lies (02:39) 16 Get Out of My Way (00:58) 17 Outside (02:39) 18 No Teeth (01:39) 19 To Hell and Back (01:37) 20 Give Me All Your Dough (01:23) 21 You Gotta Be Joking (01:14) 22 Off My Shoulders (03:17) |
| What The... : Allmusic album Review : Greg Ginn was the founder and lead guitarist of Black Flag, and the sole constant member during the bands tumultuous 1977-1986 history. Ginn started Black Flag, he ended it, and ultimately he can do as he pleases with the bands legacy, which is troubling because Ginn doesnt seem to understand what made his band memorable in the first place. At least thats how it feels after listening to What The..., the first album of new Black Flag material since In My Head in 1985. Ginn was seemingly prompted into action by the arrival of FLAG, a band of Black Flag alumni led by Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski that hit the road playing songs from the groups back catalog, and What The... finds Ginn reuniting with Ron Reyes (aka Chavo Pederast), who sang with Black Flag on the 1980 Jealous Again EP and appeared in the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization during his brief tenure with the band. Reyes was never one of Black Flags better vocalists, and he hasnt improved much after more than 30 years; his lumpen bray does little to enliven these songs, and his lyrics are mediocre, curious rants that dont add up to much and bear titles that sound like parodies of punk rock ("Shut Up," "Slow Your Ass Down," "You Gotta Be Joking," "Its So Absurd"). But its Ginn who gives this project the stamp of authority, and hes the real problem with What The.... Ginn wrote the music and plays guitar, organ, Theremin, and bass here (the latter under the alias Dale Nixon), and he seems to be aiming for the brittle, urgent sound of the bands earliest recordings. But where Black Flags first sides sounded feral in their intensity and precise in their attack, this music seems clumsy and half-hearted, and Ginns interplay with new drummer Gregory Amoore feels sluggish and leaden at every turn. What The... isnt a blast of teenage rage like the "Nervous Breakdown" single, a furious call to arms like Damaged, or an exploration of the boundaries of heaviness like My War or Slip It In. Instead, What The... is a set of short, perfunctory punk rock tunes from a man whose interest in the form seems half-hearted at best. (In the spring of 2012, when booked to play Coachella, Ginn told a reporter his interests were "more oriented toward electronic things, Im not excited about reunion stuff or alternative rock.") What The... runs in circles, briskly but without going anywhere, and its only on the final tune, a purposefully sloppy bit of bluesy rock called "Off My Shoulders" that Ginn sounds like hes engaged or having fun. The existence of What The... shows that Greg Ginn can still do Black Flag if he pleases, but listening to it shows why he shouldnt. | ||