Tag Archives: Black Flag

Audio/Visuals: Raymond Pettibon Draws Cover for New Off Album; Listen to ‘Void You Out’

Cover art by Raymond Pettibon.

Wasted Years, the fourth album from the punk supergroup Off, will be released on April 8, 2014.

The group is comprised of Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks), Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Mario Rubalcaba (Hot Snakes/Rocket From the Crypt/Earthless), and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross).

What’s equally cool is that their cover art (for this and other releases) is by the great Raymond Pettibon, who first came to my attention with his art for Black Flag flyers and records in the late ’70s.

Pettibon is now a highly regarded ‘fine’ artist, but he’s still in touch with his punk roots.

Below you can stream “Void You Out,” a track from Wasted Years.

“Void you Out” “pulls its anger from misleading historical revisionism,” according to Rolling Stone. Morris is quoted as saying:

“Who was here first? A bunch of uptight, always-right Caucasians with their heads buried up each other’s asses, trying to tell the rest of us how North American history went down and is going to be changed because of their intelligence or lack thereof. Thus: ‘Void You Out!'”

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Listen: Thurston Moore’s 38 Favorite Songs of All Time

Britain’s The Fly asked Thurston Moore for a list of his favorite songs and he gave it to them.

At The Fly you can hear audio of all the songs. I’ve included audio for some of them.

Thurston Moore’s Favorite Songs of All Time:

1 Tapper Zukie – “Man Ah Warrior”
2 Patti Smith – “Godspeed”

3 Teenage Jesus & the Jerks – “Orphans”

4 Mars – “3E”
5 Public Image LTD – “Public Image”

6 The Slits – “Love Und Romance”
7 The Raincoats – “In Love”
8 Captain Beefheart – “Electricity”

9 Alice Cooper – “Is It My Body?”

10 T. Rex – “Children of the Revolution”
11 Archie Shepp – “Blasé”
12 Billie Holiday – “Gloomy Sunday”

13 Nirvana – “Dive”
14 Mudhoney – “In ‘N Out of Grace”
15 Dinosaur Jr. – “Little Fury Things”
16 Jackson C. Frank – “Blues Run the Game”

17 Bush Tetras – “Too Many Creeps”
18 The Germs – “Caught in My Eye”

19 Boredoms – “Born to Anal”
20 Lou Reed – “Satellite of Love”
21 Beach Boys – “Hang On to Your Ego”

22 David Bowie – “Five Years”
23 Sparks – “Equator”
24 Siouxsie & the Banshees – “Hong Kong Garden”

25 The Damned – “New Rose”
26 The Mentally Ill – “Gacy’s Place”
27 Minor Threat – “Out of Step”
28 Black Flag – “I’ve Got To Run”

29 The Untouchables – “Nic Fit”
30 Iron Cross – “Fight Em All”
31 The Faith – “It’s Time”
32 Void – “My Rules”
33 Negative Approach – “Nothing”

34 Youth Brigade – “It’s About Time We Had a Change”
35 State of Alert – “Gonna Haveta Fight”
36 Anne Briggs – “Go Your Way”

37 The Fugs – “Crystal Liaison”

38 Jimi Hendrix – “Freedom”

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Black Flag: Damaged Beyond Repair?

One of the great versions of Black Flag in the band’s heyday.

Geeta Dayal is very disappointed by the new Black Flag album and explains why in an essay that was posted at The Guardian today.

The piece begins:

In the early 1980s, Black Flag were one of the best bands in the world. Black Flag weren’t just a band – they were an art project, a movement, an ethos, a way of being. But Black Flag are no longer Black Flag. The storied hardcore punk group are now just a bitter parody. What the … is its first full-length album since the band’s break-up in 1986. Everything about it, from the lame album cover art to the pro forma lyrics to the generic riffs, screams of desperation.

Read the rest at The Guardian.

“Rise Above” from back in the day.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Black Flag Singer Ron Reyes Fired: “You’re done, party’s over get off…”

Photo via Pitchfork.

In a Facebook post reprinted below, Ron Reyes, an early Black Flag singer (he’s on the “Jealous Again” EP) who was brought back by Greg Ginn for the latest incarnation of the pivotal American hardcore punk combo, recounts how he was fired from the group last Saturday night.

Reyes writes that skateboarder Mike Vallely, who sang with the band at a 2003 reunion show “comes on stage stares me down, takes my mic and says ‘You’re done, party’s over get off it’s over…’

“The writing was on the wall,” Reyes continues, “since before we played our first show. So many things went wrong from the start. I was into things like having a good drummer, rehearsing and spending time on things like beginnings and endings of songs, being a little less distracted with tour life and a little more on the ball. You know things that would make our efforts worthy of the name Black Flag…”

Read Reyes Facebook rant here.

— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —

Watch: The Other (Black) Flag Takes A Sonic Stand

So as you know Greg Ginn has been out on the road with a version of Black Flag, and he recently made a new Black Flag album available to several streaming services.

Meanwhile, a renegade version of Black Flag, calling itself Flag, has also been on the road. This group features various former Black Flag members: Keith Morris, vocals; Dez Cadena, guitar/vocals; Chuck Dukowski, bass); Bill Stevenson, drums; plus former Descendents’ guitarist Stephen Egerton, who was never in Black Flag.

Here’s 15 minutes of their glorious noise:

Listen: Stream New Black Flag Album, “What The…” Now

After 28 years Black Flag is back with a new album, What The…

The album features the still-amazing guitar of band founder Greg Ginn, and the vocals of early Black Flag singer Ron Reyes (Jealous Again), plus two other guys who aren’t from earlier incarnations of the band. The album won’t be in stores until December 2013.

You can listen to the entire album right now via Spotify:

The Ever-Controversial Black Flag Still Causing Trouble

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Great essay by Zachary Lipez about the recent Black Flag reunions.

“I have no issue with reunion bands,” Lipez writes. ” As elitist as it may be, outside of tickets/albums purchased for the transaction of art, with the expectation that art of some type will occur, I don’t think fans are owed anything. Memories aren’t ‘tarnished’ or ‘destroyed’ (and, motherfucker, if you say ‘raped’ I will straight-up HATE you) by band reunions. That’s not how time works. You’re stepping into a totally different river, if you know what I’m saying. If your memories are so feeble as to be destroyed by old people playing “Damaged” (either ‘I’ or ‘II’) then you are perhaps experiencing dementia and my deepest sympathy goes out to you and your family.”

Read the whole essay at Talkhouse.

Here’s the real thing: