BLACK FLAG

Adolescents Show

2010-12-21T18:18:00.000-08:00

1982 Ginn/Emil/Rollins/Dukowski/Dez

2010-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

1982 Ginn/Emil/Rollins/Dukowski/Dez

Live Instrumental 1982

2010-12-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

Live from the Philadelphia Elks Center June 1982. This was the opening song to an insane gig. Note the popcorn cup on Chuck's head!

Thirsty and Miserable 7"

2010-12-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

From user DirtyAbner:
"This 45 was a free giveaway from Licorice Pizza Record Stores in So Cal. You needed a ticket stub from a new year's eve show at the 'New Olympic Auditorium' in Los Angeles that featured Black Flag, Fear, Saccharin Trust, The Suburban Lawns, and The Blasters as I recall. I'm pretty sure it was Dec. 31 1981. That was a crazy night. I've still got my 45..."

Side A: Thirsty and Miserable
Side B: Life of Pain

Awesome show lineup

2010-12-21T15:25:00.000-08:00

Henry sweatin'

2010-12-21T15:24:00.001-08:00

Black Flag 1983 Demos

2010-12-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

Black Flag 1983 Demos

Black Flag set list

2010-12-21T15:18:00.001-08:00

Black Flag set list

Black Flag flyer

2010-12-21T15:16:00.001-08:00

Henry Rollins skateboarding

2010-12-21T15:14:00.001-08:00

Henry rockin' the mic

2010-12-21T15:13:00.001-08:00

Henry Rollins and The Misfits

2010-12-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

Henry Rollins and The Misfits

Black Flag TV Party Music Video

2010-12-21T15:03:00.000-08:00

Classic Rollins line-up photo

2010-12-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

Classic Rollins line-up photo

Last Black Flag Lineup

2010-12-20T13:13:00.001-08:00

Another promotional shot

2010-12-20T13:11:00.001-08:00

Another promotional shot

Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins

2010-12-20T13:09:00.001-08:00

Glenn Danzig of the Misfits and Henry Rollins

Black Flag Promotional Shot

2010-12-20T13:06:00.001-08:00

Black Flag promotional shot

Henry and friends

2010-12-20T13:04:00.001-08:00

"I Hate Weakness" - Henry Rollins

2010-12-20T13:03:00.001-08:00

“I don’t hate you, I hate weakness. I hate style n’ creativity. I hate cops. I hate all the shit that keeps life from being 100% fun.” - Henry Rollins

Chuck Dukowski on TV Talk Show

2010-12-20T07:16:00.001-08:00

Slip It In music video

2010-12-20T07:11:00.003-08:00

Interview from Suburban Punk #10

2010-12-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

from SP #10, spring '84

Black Flag are a band that needs little introduction. As you are probably aware, they are constantly refining their sound and may not appeal to many of the hardcore followers. But, as they will tell you, they're not going to lead you around or be your hero. Black Flag are Henry Rollins (vocals), Greg Ginn (guitar), Kira Roessler (bass) and Bill Stevenson (drums). This interview was done in two parts, by Andy.

INTERVIEW WITH HENRY AND BILL:

SP: Henry, what inspired you to write poetry?

Henry: Well, let's break that down. First off, I don't consider anything I do as poetry. I've always hated that word, but that's just the way I am. It's not even verse. I just write. I've been writing since I was 16. I just got the opportunity to do it in public, on broadcasts and recordings and I've really gotten into it. And I've been writing a lot more like the last year and a half.

Bill: You know what I've noticed about that. In the past year and a half, the band has been kinda like when a fish gets trapped in the tide pool and the water goes out, only in a public sense. And I saw that channelled into Henry's poetry or whatever. It was how he blew off steam. As for me and Greg, we spent our hours jamming and learning new rhythm techniques. We'd spend hours and hours just playing and Henry would be off doing his writing. That was our way of blowing off steam from all the legal hassles, 'cause we couldn't do our records because they had us tied up.

Henry: During that long period of time, I got to expand my life and try different things. I'd do shows where it was just me and a microphone on stage. While these guy were improving their rhythm technique, I was working on my own thing.

SP: I know that your range has improved and you seem to growl less.

Henry: Oh, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

SP: Why are your lyrics so depressing?

Henry: Because that's the way we or I see things. What a song like "Three Nights" is about is a divorce of self. That's a concept I'm really into. It's like it's just the splitting of the mind and body.

SP: Is it true that when you go in to record, you practice extensively before you go in to do the actual recording?

Henry: We all dig playing, man, like when I'm not there, these guys will be jamming, anyhow.

Bill: It's got to be perfect, man. When we went into record "My War," we spent 5-6 hours a day for the month before practicing.

Henry: What you're dealing with--it's very blunt that Black Flag is a real band. A band that can actually play its instruments, like ZZ Top, a band that can really get down and play and to do this, it takes hours of practice and hours of work outside of practice, as in swimming, running, pushups, situps, sleep... Otherwise, it's no Black Flag. Billy is his drums, I am my thing. We are Black Flag and anything less is less. We're not in it to fuck around.

SP: Who chose the drawing for the cover of "My War"?

Henry: I chose that because it hit me that this was the album cover.

SP: Speaking of album covers, who chose the one for "Blasting Concept," because certain people have referred to it as sexist or violent towards women.

Bill: First, the whole album was put together 2 years ago.

Henry: The whole idea to put that particular Pettibon piece on the cover was Bob Carducci's. But it's not important whose idea it was. It was who drew it. Raymond Pettibon is the greatest.

Greg: It's the classic way to stick it in! Hell, by putting that record out, we're doing a public service.

Henry: Yes, we are a sexist-socio-political band with quasi-Crass-fascistic overtones. With a danceable backbeat that will kill you if you get too close to it. And we're a fun band. We're pro-jism, funtime, pro-sex. Personally, I am pro-nuclear war. I want to destroy the earth, 'cause it will get rid of everyone. All the mafia, all the clubowners, all the neurotic cocaine-sniffing wenches, all the fucking scumbags. I want to start clean and after the bomb drops, there will be nothing left but big old roaches, mutants and stuff like that.

SP: Speaking of drugs, Henry, are you still straight-edge?

Henry: I'm sure as hell not into cocaine like these promoters in one town we were in. They were like the most neurotic cocaine sniffing people. They were going around saying 'hey, hey, hey' ...they were doing their lines and wasting my time. I don't know about any straight edge. It's a religion I am not into. I've got one religion--the Rollins religion. I am the lord of my own church, I'm the man on the cross, I wrote the book, I am the boss and I believe, Amen.

SP: And, lastly, what do you think of Nig-Heist?

Henry: It's obvious that they are the third LA band. The Doors were the first, X was the second. The third, of course, is Nig Heist.

INTERVIEW WITH GREG:

SP: What do you think of people who say you've gone heavy metal?

Greg: That's all the dumb categorizing people like to do. The way I see it, Black Flag is just a band. We try not to fit into any particular category, mainly because a label is too restricting.

SP: In the Boston Globe, the review of "My War" said you were trying to sound like Flipper, with a droning bass and slow torturous guitar lines, but without any sense of humor. What do you think of that accusation?

Greg: Well, I don't think the guy looked beyond his nose. I certainly have no desire to be like Flipper. And I also find some of our songs funny in a unique way.

SP: Elsewhere, someone said that you were introducing a metal influence into your sound so you could live out your adolescent desires to be a guitar hero. (I wrote that in the review of "My War."--AL) Greg: Well, when I was an adolescent, I didn't play guitar, so that would be kind of impossible. When I got into music, I was around 19 and, up until then, I never really followed music. You know, in fact, I like a lot of types of music. Jazz, classical, not just rock. Anything that just moves me. And the rest of our band is like that, also. So it's really hard to say we are this or that, because there's all kinds of influences musically and otherwise with our band. We listen to such diverse stuff. People, when they hear something, they like to categorize it so they can say, "oh, they're doing this or that." We're just trying to be ourselves. We're not prejudiced into any category of music.

SP: So you play what Black Flag wants to play, not what people say you are or expect you to.

Greg: Yes.

SP: When's your next record coming out?

Greg: First, we're going to have a spoken word/instrumental that has Kira on it (NOTE: Greg played bass on "My War" under the pseudonym Dale Nixon) out first. Then we have another album recorded and that's going to come out shortly after that.

SP: Of all the bands on SST, why did you decide to tour with the Meat Puppets?

Greg: Well, we like the Meat Puppets a lot and they just put out a new album. So they wanted to do it and we wanted to do it.

SP: They sound nothing like you.

Greg: No one sounds like us.

SP: Their influences are a lot different. They have kind of a country influence in some aspects.

Greg: I feel like we have a lot in common with them. As far as the tour, we like to play with them. They play different all the time.

SP: On the "Blasting Concept" compilation, why did you exclude some of the later bands and material?

Greg: The album was compiled a long time ago. We had a lot of court and legal problems and we haven't been able to do stuff. We had a lot of financial problems as a result of that and we paid lawyers and we hadn't been receiving money for records that we should have. So it's actually a compilation that only goes up to a certain time period, which is awhile ago, and maybe we'll do another one. It exposed the records. We try to keep the old records available because it's not just a trendy kind of music that we're dealing with. If a record is good, it can have lasting value and a lot of people get into the old Minutemen stuff after they find out about them now.

SP: How did Kira get in the band?

Greg: We just jammed one time. We didn't try out people or anything like that 'cause I was playing bass. We were just working on a lot of stuff because the legal problems were continuing and we just used the time to work on a lot of ideas with our music at home.

SP: He she gotten a bad reaction from your audience because she's a women?

Greg: I don't think so. It seems like people have been real open-minded. I think that people are finding out more about what Black Flag is about.

SP: Have people been open-minded about the changes in the direction of your sound?

Greg: Well, we always have changed. There's always certain people who are against it, but I think we've gotten a surprisingly good positive reaction. It kind of surprised me, really...

Interview from Smash #4

2010-12-19T08:21:00.001-08:00

Smash!: Why the changes in drummers - why did Emil leave the band?

Greg: He didn't want to tour. Right now, with the band, economically, it isn't good.

Smash!: (to drummer Bill) Who are you?

Bill: I'm the Descendents' drummer, other than that I'm a nice person. I'm permanantly in both bands.

Smash!: Do you see any kind of punk or other attitudes?

Henry: I don't know nothing about no fucking punk attitude.

Greg: We get a lot of trouble from various people, skinheads and longhairs. My tendency isn't to be any type of group (with whatever attitude). As long as people leave me alone they can do whatever they want.

Smash!: So you don't see yourself tied with any kind of attitude or message?

Greg: We don't represent any movement. I'm not straight edge, I like to fuck, I drink coffee once in a while. Everyone should do what they want and leave others alone.

Smash!: What's going on with your new vinyl?

Greg: We have a problem with Unicorn (records, who distributed Damaged). We have a lot of new songs, we wanted to put out a record six months ago. We're suing them, they didn't pay us any royalties on "Damaged."

Smash!: How many did you sell?

Greg: Very roughly; probably about 55,000 to 60,000.

Smash!: What do you think of the LA scene?

Greg: well, actually there are different LA scenes. There isn't a cohesive scene. I prefer it this way. The bands start sounding the same with one united, one same scene.

Smash!: What about the outsiders' criticism, that the LA bands sound the same?

Greg: They probably haven't heard all the bands in LA. You have to look for the different bands, some do sound the same. There are a lot of good bands.

Smash!: What do you think of White Flag?

Greg: They're a heavy metal band, they're pretty funny.

Smash!: What about the band and all ages shows?

Greg: We prefer all ages shows, they're virtually all we ever play. The drinking age in LA is 21. Any place we play in California, doesn't have an age limit. We try to if possible. We'll take an all ages show over an over-20 show no matter what the money situation.

Smash!: Who sets yp your shows?

Greg: It varies, this time the club pursued it. We do have an east coast booker. We've avoided playing here when we can't get a show with no age limit.

Smash!: What about the band and the cops?

Greg: We've had three gigs cancelled in the last three months due to cop pressure out there. The police aren't quite as political out there. They get real redneck cops out there.

BLACK FLAG AND THE HC SCENE:
Greg: A lot of people want us to be a certain way, like to have skinheads or whatever. We want people ot be into Black Flag for what the music is, not the superficial aspects. Some people get mad at us because we don't act or be a certain way. We don't make any requirements of our audience. They can be smoking a joiint, slamming, or standing by the side.

AFTER THE SHOW:
(An abundance of kids were on and off the stage, with generally no trouble. But towards the end of the set the bouncers became a little jumpy, and became too rought during "Rise Above.")

Smash!: What did you think of what the bouncers were doing, and the divers?

Bill: You take the good with the bad. That's one of those things. If one of the kids breaks my drums, I'll get someone to beat 'em up. But I like people on stage, it makes me play harder.

Interview from We Got Power #4

2010-12-19T08:20:00.001-08:00

WGP: We heard something went down in New York, something about hair length...

Greg: No. Actually it had to do not with hair length, but cock sizes. Some of the girls in various parts of the country were disappointed by the sizes of our cocks. We had this big image built up, Henry was on the cover of New York Rocker, all this shit, it was almost like Devo. They expected us to have big cocks like the Devo boys, you know, we couldn't deliver!

Chuck D: I think maybe they get silicon implants, to build up the placid size.

Greg: We figure if someone wants to listen to our music, our cock size shouldn't really matter. Whatever cock size is doesn't have much to do with our music.

Chuck D: Otherwise we'd be in the business like John Holms, and those guys.

Greg: We are a band because we like to play the music we like to play not for other reasons.

WGP: We heard you ran into a couple other troubles on this tour...

Chuck D: I mean shit, our van caught on fire! What else...?!

WGP: So you guys stole Chuck Biscuits, right?!?

Greg: No. No. Chuck quite DOA, and now he's playin' with us. When we got up there (Vancouver) Emil decided he didn't want ot be away form home all the time.

WGP: What's DOA gonna be doing for a drummer now...?

Chuck B: They got Dimwit, that's my brother.

WGP: So, what do you think of the people who are getting pist at the $9.00 or $8.50 charge for Saturday nite. (Black Flag, 45 Grave, DOA, Descendents, & Hüsker Dü)

Chuck D: It's the minimum you can do, and pay the bills of the hall, the p.a. and stuff. A lot of good bands. We pay for advertising out of our funds.

Greg: That place (New Olympic) is the only place we can play, you have to rent a stage. Last time we played there we ended up not making anything, ya know?

WGP: How are you working out with Unicorn?

Greg: They're distributing our records, I guess.

WGP: What about people sayin', "T.V. Party, oh, their 'sell out' record"...

Greg: Most of the people sayin' that can trade me their apartment, and I can sleep at their place, they can sleep at my place. (Laughter) I don't know if we sold out, when do we collect?

Chuck D: I think selling out is doing something you don't wanna do, because someone else is gonna give you something for it.

Greg: I think "T.V. Party" is hilarious. And if we would not do it because we think we might get some criticism that would be selling out, rather than saying, "well, we're gonna do what we like." For us, it's a great break in our set to have some kind of humor in some of the songs because...

Chuck D: It's us. We're not serious 100 percent of the time.

Greg: ...That's part of our thing, the zany-ness, I guess. What are we supposed to do, supress that because somebody might think it's not right?

Chuck D: We broke somebody's rule, but wasn't that what they're made for...? When Led Zeppelin was the big thing and when you went to play, they'd give you shit because the only thing they wanted to hear is Led Zeppelin, and if we had wanted to be popular at that point, then we'd be all playing Led Zeppelin songs.