Thursday, September 10, 2009

Black Flag


I'm sure most of you know who Black Flag is. But for the purpose of being informative, here's a little background of the band. Black Flag was formed in 1976 in California. They were considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands ever (yeah yeah The Middle Class was formed in 1976 as well, save the argument for next time). Greg Ginn, the founder, main song-writer and the guitarist of Black Flag set up his own independent label, SST Records in 1978 in purpose of releasing Black Flag's material. Since then SST has also released albums by other bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, etc. Black Flag was one of the first punk bands who tour throughout the states and basically play anywhere they can. A lot of other bands later follow their path and play places that Black Flag had been to.

Black Flag to me, until this day remains as one of the best punk/hardcore bands ever. I've discovered a lot of great bands in recent years (Die Kreuzen, Articles Of Faith, Siege, Zero Boys, Rorschach are among my favorites).But the fact is Black Flag did it first and better. The thing that boggles my mind is how the band went through so many member changes and yet kept producing quality materials. I can safely say that i actually enjoy all Black Flag releases (yes, even Family Man, Loose nut and The Process of Weeding Out).

This post is about Black Flag bootlegged LP 1982 demos
and more. This demo features a short-lived lineup of Rollins, Ginn, Dukowski, Dez Cadena on second guitar and Chuck Biscuits of D.O.A fame. It was recorded secretly back when Black Flag was having a legal dispute with MCA /Unicorn and wasn't allowed to release any record with their name on it. The band released a compilation record Everything Went Black shortly after, crediting the individual musicians and thus not having the words Black Flag anywhere on it. Unicorn found out and take Black Flag to the court resulting in Ginn and Dukowski as co-owners of SST spending five days in jail.

The first 10 tracks are songs that would end up on
My War, Slip It In and Loose Nut except for "What Can You Believe" and "Yes, I Know" which did not appear in any official Black Flag releases until this day. The last 4 tracks are live songs taped at Radio Tokyo studio in Los Angeles. One of the tracks is a 8-minutes interview from the same session with the band whom at the time were Ginn, Rollins, Kira and Bill. Let me just say that regardless whether you're a fan of the band or not, this is the best Black Flag recording out there. The band is at it's prime here with Rollins really intense vocals performance and Ginn riffs destroying everything sonically (listen to the intro to "My War" on this, crazy shit).

Ps. Kira was/is gorgeous
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Black Flag 1982 Demos and more

1 comment:

  1. Awesome demos - I've already got them but I can vouch for their quality.

    Also, try to find a shot of Kira with the short hair. Fucking SWOON.

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