Ginn's brother Raymond Pettibon and SST house record producer-to-be Spot filled in during rehearsals. This work ethic proved too challenging for some early members Ginn and singer Keith Morris had an especially difficult time finding a reliable bass guitarist, and often rehearsed without a bassist, a factor that contributed to the development of Ginn's distinctive guitar sound. Ginn insisted that the band rehearse several hours a day. Initially called Panic, Black Flag was formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles. History Formation and early years (1976–1981)
They are often regarded as pioneers in the movement of underground do-it-yourself record labels that flourished among 1980s punk rock bands. As a result, their extensive discography is more stylistically varied than many of their punk rock contemporaries.īlack Flag has been well-respected within the punk subculture, primarily for their tireless promotion of an autonomous DIY punk ethic and aesthetic. They also played longer, slower, and more complex songs at a time when other bands in their milieu performed a raw, fast, three-chord format.
Along with being among the earliest punk rock groups to incorporate elements and the influence of heavy metal melodies and rhythm, there were often overt freestyles, free jazz, breakbeat and contemporary classical elements in their sound, especially in Ginn's guitar playing, and the band interspersed records and performances with instrumentals throughout their career. As well as being central to the creation of hardcore punk, they were innovators in the first wave of American West Coast punk rock and are considered a key influence on punk subculture in the United States and abroad. Over the course of the 1980s, Black Flag's sound, as well as their notoriety evolved. Most of the band's material was released on Ginn's independent record label SST Records. These themes were explored further when Henry Rollins joined the band as lead singer in 1981. The lyrics were written mostly by Ginn, and like other punk bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Black Flag voiced an anti-authoritarian and nonconformist message, in songs punctuated with descriptions of social isolation, neurosis, poverty, and paranoia. īlack Flag's sound mixed the raw simplicity of the Ramones with atonal guitar solos and, in later years, frequent tempo shifts. Brandon Pertzborn was replaced by Isaias Gil on drums and Tyler Smith was replaced by Joseph Noval on bass. The band announced their third reunion in January 2019. The second reunion lasted well over a year, during which they released their first studio album in over two decades, What The. After breaking up in 1986, Black Flag reunited in 2003 and again in 2013. They are widely considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands, as well as one of the pioneers of post-hardcore. Initially called Panic, the band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band. As a dumb anthem, it even beats out the band's cover of "Louie Louie," and it's a lot more fun to sing along with than, say, "Rat's Eyes.Black Flag is an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. And the lyrics (delivered by Rollins in a "aw shucks" yelp while the band shouts the chorus in a gloriously lumpen bellow) are at once cutting and funny, an attack on television-inspired stasis that laughs both at and with it's subjects ("We've got nothin' better to do/Than watch TV and have a couple of brews!"). Boasting the closest thing to a pop hook that ever appeared on a Black Flag record (though it's driven more by Chuck Dukowski's percolating bass line than Ginn's stun-gun guitar), "TV Party" is tuneful and almost melodic where the band usually served up a man-sized helping of fifth-gear dissonance. Black Flag's founder and leader, Greg Ginn, once told an interviewer that after Henry Rollins joined the band, "We couldn't do songs with a sense of humor anymore he got into the serious way-out poet thing." While "TV Party" was recorded after Rollins joined the band (twice, in fact), it's one of the few truly goofy moments in the group's catalog, which became increasingly bleak from My War onward.