Ripple Library - Spray Paint The Walls: The Story Of Black Flag by Stevie Chick

Leave it to an English writer to tell the tale of one of America’s greatest bands. Given the long standing bad vibes that continue to exist between most of the key players it’s a good thing that someone with an outside perspective decided to deseed Black Flag’s dark history.

Guitarist Greg Ginn formed the band Panic in Hermosa Beach, California 1978 but later changed the name to Black Flag. He was lucky enough to cross paths with strong willed individuals like singer Keith Morris and bassist Chuck Dukowski, who shared Ginn’s enthusiasm for kick ass rock like Ted Nugent and Black Oak Arkansas as well as the new punk bands. Ginn was able to bankroll the band with funds created by his business that sold components for ham radios called Solid State Tuners. Later when he had difficulty getting a record label to release Black Flag’s music he created SST Records as an offshoot of that business. In the early days, band members would work a soldering iron by day and then shake the walls with the loud, pissed off music they were writing.

The story of Black Flag has been told many times and often it boils down to what other band members say and Greg Ginn refuting it. Spray Paint The Walls contains no new interviews with neither Ginn nor later period singer Henry Rollins, who has documented his time and opinions with Black Flag pretty extensively. There are, however, new interviews with Dukowski and Morris as well as singers Ron Reyes and Dez Cadena, bassist Kira Roessler and key SST label members Joe Carducci and Steve “Mugger” Corbin. Everyone agrees that Black Flag was much more than a band but a way of doing things. That hard work towards a goal is the most important thing even if no one else cares. That work ethic has inspired countless bands over the past 30 years.

Black Flag, along with Dead Kennedys and Canada’s D.O.A. were the first bands to be labeled “hardcore punk” and to bring their music across the country. The Ramones pioneered headlining smaller venues and bars but these guys brought punk rock to any dump that would have them and every basement show owes them a debt to this day. Not many bands could endure that lifestyle for very long but Black Flag managed to do it for about 8 years and towards the end were even bringing their own PA system along so that they would be heard properly. This massive effort is still something most bands are sane enough to not attempt.

If you’re a fan of Black Flag then you probably won’t learn too much new, but the new interviews are great to read, especially what Chuck Dukowski has to say. Chuck left the band under much stress in 1983 and often he’s forgotten about. Ginn provided the killer riffs and a lot of the lyrics but Dukowski was the one brought the intense attitude and ideas, not to mention his insanely driving bass playing. It’s often said that he sort of helped create the Rollins persona that eventually caused Ginn to quit his own band. This book is definitely worth reading even if you’re not a fan because bands just don’t operate like this anymore. Black Flag literally did everything themselves – released their own records, booked their own tours, ran a record label that gave us the Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Minutemen, etc. Read and be inspired to perspire.

--Woody

Off! - First Four Eps

 So today while going through the Ripple website I noticed that one of my favorite albums from last year was not reviewed.  “What no one wrote about Off!s First Four Eps album???“ After the shock wore Off! (pun intended), I decided I should write a little something about a big yet short album. Clocking in at under a mere 18 minutes, the 16 track collection of Eps makes you yearn for more.

There was always a question I asked myself. Though I do love Henry Rollins, I always wondered what would Black Flag of sounded like had Keith Morris never left the band?. Off! is the answer. Beginning with the first “Black Thoughts” you realize that Keith truly can’t be stopped. At the age of 55 it seems he never will. “Black Thoughts” sounds like a song Greg Gin would of wrote right after Nervous Breakdown had Keith never left Black Flag, one minute of in your face blistering punk rock furry with catchy lyrics.

Some other songs of note on the album are “Fuck People”, “Rat Trap” and “Darkness”. Although the entire album is a great listen for those who are ADD about music, love old school punk rock or just music in general.  “Fuck People” is by fair my favorite track on the album. Mostly cause I can feel the same way about today’s society.

If you are a fan of old school hardcore punk, this album is for you. If you are ADD about your music or you need a quick punk rock fix, this album is for you. If you are a fan of Black Flag or The Circle Jerks, this album is for you. Bottom line, Off!s First Four Eps is for you.  Check it out.

Here is a tip: there are many ways to get this album such as an itunes digital download, a digital download from the official Off! Website or the vinyl box set. I recommend getting the box set since it comes with a free digital download…money well spent. 


--Cicatriz


Buy here: http://www.offofficial.com/

Various Artists Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three

Court will come to order.  This is somewhat embarrassing for me but I have a confession to make.  Even though I am a big fan of old school punk rock, I only recently bought a copy of The First Four Years from Black Flag.  I know, I know!  Shame washes over me in waves, but hold on a second before you pass sentence.  Allow me an attempt to defend myself.  I may not have owned the originals, but that does not mean I have been unfamiliar with many of the mighty Flag’s songs.  Your Honor, members of the jury, I’d like to introduce Exhibit A into evidence.

What is Exhibit A you ask?  Why, only an absolutely crushing album that appeared late in 2002 we will refer to as Rise Above.  This album is the brainchild of Henry Rollins, a name that might be familiar to some of you, and was brought about as part of his efforts to raise money for the defense fund of three incarcerated young men known as the West Memphis Three.  While it is not my place to give an opinion on their plight during my own trial, I will direct you to www.wm3.org for some interesting, perhaps infuriating reading material.  Getting back to the case at hand…yes, Henry Rollins wanted to produce a record which would adequately convey his outrage over what he perceived to be a great injustice.  To do this he needed to utilize what he believed to be the ultimate protest music, the songs of Black Flag.

Now with the desired music in mind, he decided what kind of benefit record to produce.  Sure there was the tried and true option of getting other bands to record a cover of their favorite track, but that would not produce the cohesion that Rollins was seeking.  No, in order to make something that flowed well from start to finish he hired the band Mother Superior (not coincidentally they were Rollins Band at the same time) to lay down blistering, inspired versions of all the chosen Black Flag songs.  Once that was completed, the only remaining issue facing Rollins was who would sing on the record.  Believing that very little notoriety would be gained from having only himself singing, he decided to match each song with a hand-picked vocalist.  And this ladies and gentlemen, is how Rise Above achieves the colossal status that it deserves.

The laundry list of vocalists that took time to be a part of this album reads like a who’s who from the entire music world.  All-star lineup does not do them justice.  You don’t believe me?  Fine, I’ll illustrate.  From the punk world there is Iggy Pop, Keith Morris, Exene Cervenka, Tim and Lars from Rancid, Chuck Dukowski, Casey Chaos, Inger Lorre, Kira Roessler, and Henry Rollins (of course!).  Rock singers more your thing?  How about Neil Fallon, Cedric Bixler Zavala, Mike Patton, Tom Araya, Corey Taylor, Dean Ween, NickOliveri, and last but certainly not least Lemmy.  And that’s not all!  No sir, covering the worlds of hip hop and country are Chuck D, Ice T, Hank III, and Ryan Adams.  Phew!  I’ll just say this.  If you read the names of all those vocalists and failed to get excited over the inclusion of just one of them, we’re not friends and you need to throw away your music playing devices.

As stated before all of these vocalists were hand picked, then matched up to the Black Flag song their voice/attitude was most compatible with.  Great care was clearly taken in this regard, and the results are absolutely devastating.  I’m not joking.  Pick any song on this album and listen with awe as the vocals deliver haymakers to your eardrums with their inherent greatness.  Personal favorites include Hank III’s sublimely psychotic take on “No Values”, Casey Chaos furiously ripping apart “Depression”, Neil Fallon’s thunderously gruff “American Waste”, and Mike Patton’s frenetic/spastic “Six Pack”.  Why stop there when Tom Araya lays his arresting sandpaper screams over “Revenge”, and Lemmy lends a previously unheard musicality to “Thirsty and Miserable” with his trademark rumblings.  What really amazes me though is listening to Keith Morris on the original “Nervous Breakdown” and then listening to his new take onthe same song off of Rise Above.  The man displays substantially more vim and vigor throughout the new version, and has clearly learned a thing or two over the intervening years in conveying anger effectively through his voice.  Simply phenomenal!

In conclusion your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury…yes, I am guilty of not owning the original versions of most Black Flag songs till early this year.  But let’s not pretend I have had no prior knowledge of these wonderful Greg Ginn/Chuck Dukowski compositions up to this point.  That would be factually inaccurate seeing as how I have shown through corroborating evidence that for almost a decade now the aforementioned music has been a strong presence in my life.  All I ask is that you pick up the album RiseAbove: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three, listen to it, love it, and then come to a decision.  I rest my case.Actually, on second thought, you had better not listen first.  You’ll be so overwhelmed with enjoyment, we won’t see you for a while as you listen to the album over, and over, and over again.

--Penfold