My War is the second full-length studio album by American punk rock band Black Flag. It was the first of three full-length albums the band released in 1984. The album polarized fans due to the LP's B-side, on which the band slowed down to a heavy, Black Sabbath-esque trudge after establishing expectations as a faster hardcore punk band on their first album, Damaged (1981).
After a period of legal troubles which prohibited the band from using its own name on recordings, Black Flag returned to the studio with a new approach to its music that incorporated a greater variety of styles, resulting in a sound orthodox punks found difficult to accept. The line-up had shrunk from five members to three: vocalist Henry Rollins, drummer Bill Stevenson, and co-founding guitarist Greg Ginn. Ginn doubled on bass guitar under the name "Dale Nixon" for the recording as bassist Chuck Dukowski left the band shortly before recording; the album includes two tracks Dukowski wrote.
The A-side of the LP is composed of six generally high-paced, thrashy hardcore tracks, featuring guitar solos unusual in punk music. On the B-side are three heavy tracks that each breach six-minutes with ponderously slow tempos and dark, unrelenting lyrics of self-hatred. The band members had grown their hair long when they toured the album in 1984, which along with the change in sound further alienated their hardcore skinhead fanbase. Despite mixed reception at the time of the album's release, My War has come to gain a reputation as one of Black Flag's seminal releases and had a major influence on the development of post-hardcore, sludge metal, grunge, and math rock.
Black Flag recorded its first album Damaged in 1981 at Unicorn Studios and arranged a deal with the studio's record label Unicorn Records, which had distribution with MCA Records. MCA label president Al Bergamo halted the release after hearing the record, calling it "anti-parent"[2]—though SST co-owner Joe Carducci asserts this was a pretense for MCA to sever relations with the financially troubled Unicorn. The band obtained and distributed the already-pressed 20000 copies of Damaged and adorned it with a label displaying Bergamo's "anti-parent" quote. Legal troubles erupted when SST claimed unpaid royalties from Unicorn and Unicorn successfully counter-sued, resulting in five days in jail for Ginn and co-founding bassist Chuck Dukowski and an injunction prohibiting the band from releasing material under its own name.[3] The double album Everything Went Black—a compilation of earlier, unreleased material—appeared from SST in 1982 without the band's name on it. Unicorn's bankruptcy in 1983 freed the band from the injunction.[4]
Black Sabbath was a major influence on My War's B-side.
Ginn had grown frustrated with the hardcore punk scene, and told the Los Angeles Times in early 1983: "[W]e've never been out to create this punk scene" they had been credited with spearheading; "We want people to listen to us as a band rather than as a stereotype... A lot of what you call the punk scene is really backward, and it always has been."[5][6] Following the release of Damaged, Black Flag absorbed a wider range of influences from the more experimental hardcore of Flipper, Void, and Fang.[7] They listened to little contemporary punk. Ginn was drawn to Ronnie James Dio's work in Black Sabbath and Dio, as well as earlier favorites from his pre-punk days, including Ted Nugent, Black Oak Arkansas, MC5, ZZ Top,[8]Deep Purple, Uriah Heep,[9] and others.[8] Music journalist Andrew Earles believes the band was influenced by the tiny but growing doom metal scene led by Saint Vitus (who released via SST).[7] Ginn jealously guarded the new material, fearing other bands would capitalize on the new approach,[10] and bemoaned that fans were unaware of how the band had progressed since they were unable to release recordings.[11]
The band toured extensively in North America and Europe to often hostile, violent hardcore punk crowds.[12] The disciplined group rehearsed obsessively, but there was little friendship between members: vocalist Henry Rollins was introverted and Ginn cold and demanding.[13] Dukowski felt that Rollins' vocal approach was better suited than that of the band's earlier three singers to the new material he was writing such as "I Love You" and "My War".[14] Dukowski, who also wrote poetry and fiction, encouraged Rollins to write as well, and Rollins found inspiration in Dukowksi's bleak lyrical style.[15]
The band recorded a set of ten demo tracks at Total Access studios in 1982 for a planned follow-up to Damaged on which Chuck Biscuits replaced Damaged drummer Robo.[16] The rest of the lineup consisted of Ginn and former vocalist Dez Cadena on guitars, Rollins on vocals, and Dukowski on bass.[17] The band explored new sounds on these tracks, which tended to feature a riff-heavy heavy-metal edge and noisy, energetic free guitar soloing from Ginn. The album never materialized, and the heavily bootlegged demos have never been officially released; re-recordings of several of the tracks from the session were to feature on My War and other later albums. The line-up did not last long—frustrated with the band's legal troubles, Biscuits left[16] in December 1982, replaced by Bill Stevenson,[18] and in 1983 Cadena left to form DC3.[16] Ginn had been frustrated with Dukowski's sense of rhythm, and in Germany during a European tour in 1983 gave Dukowski an ultimatum to quit, or Ginn himself would leave. Dukowski left the band, but stayed on to co-run SST.[19]
With Unicorn's demise in 1983, Black Flag was able to release the material they had written since 1981.[20] Eager to get back in the studio but still without a bassist, Ginn took on bass duties under the pseudonym "Dale Nixon" and practiced the new material with Stevenson up to eight hours a day, teaching the drummer to slow down and let the rhythm "ooze out" at a pace Stevenson was unused to;[21] the band called this approach the "socialist groove", as all beats were equally spaced.[22] With Spot as producer[23] and $200,000 in debt, Ginn, Rollins, and Stevenson headed to the studio to record My War.[24]
Music
The sides on the original LP divide the tracks into stylistic halves. The first half features five tracks that are in the same style that the band originated on their previous album Damaged and closes with a noisy freak-out, "The Swinging Man".[7] Dukowski penned the opening title track. Ginn's "Can't Decide" follows, a gloomy ode to frustration: "I conceal my feelings/ So I don't have to explain/ What I can't explain anyway". "Beat My Head Against the Wall" rails at conformity and the band's experience with a major label: "Swimming in the mainstream/ Is such a lame, lame dream".[25] Dukowski's "I Love You" parodies pop ballads with lyrics of violence and dysfunction in a relationship gone wrong. Ginn and Rollins share credit on the metallic "Forever Time" and the noisy "Swinging Man".[26]
The second side's three tracks each clock in at over six minutes.[7] Reviewers have described them as an early cross-pollination between punk and metal,[27][28] a plodding Black Sabbath-esque sludge metal, or proto-noise rock style, depending on how they are viewed.[7] On "Three Nights", Rollins compares himself to feces stuck to his shoe: "And I've been grinding that stink into the dirt/ For a long time now".[23] Against a slow, heavy, start-and-stop bass riff and a constant drum thudding,[22] Rollins closes "Scream" with a bellow after delivering the Ginn-penned lines: "I may be a big baby/ But I'll scream in your ear/ 'Til I find out/ Just what it is I am doing here".[27] The closing track of Damaged, "Damaged I", presaged this dark, heavier style, and a slower pace that brings the track length to nearly four minutes, the longest on the album.[29]
One of the pioneer early hardcore bands, Black Flag, became one of the early leading post-hardcore bands by utilising slower tempos, odd time signatures (3/8, 5/4, 7/4), abrupt tempo and structural changes, dissonant riffs that border on 12-tone music... and guitarist Greg Ginn's atonal, free-form solos.[40]
Black Flag toured the My War material from March 1984, with the Nig-Heist and Meat Puppets as opening acts.[41] It had been a year since the band had toured, and Rollins, Ginn, and Stevenson had grown out their hair; punks associated long hair with the hippies and metalheads they loathed and found it dissonant with Rollins' accepted image as a hardcore skinhead.[42]
My War polarized Black Flag fans; it alienated those who wanted the band to stay true to its simple hardcore roots[7] and who were put off by the length of the songs, the riff-heaviness, and the solos—elements widely thought of as un-punk.[43]
Critics dissatisfied with the band's direction compared it to heavy metal, though contemporary metal bands with such a sound were rare, and the band rejected the classification. The ideology of many fans and critics demanded that hardcore punk bands remain true to the genre's roots, with short, fast songs, typically lacking solos. My War thus came across as a betrayal of those roots, and critics associated the differences with metal, a genre the hardcore punk community despised.[38] Examples include Tim Yohannon disparaging the album in Maximumrocknroll as "like Black Flag doing an imitation of Iron Maiden imitating Black Flag on a bad day",[38][44] and Howard Hampton at the Boston Phoenix deriding it for "resorting to standard [heavy metal] machinations".[45] Rollins countered critics, stating, "Take the 'metal' out of 'heavy metal' and that's what we are—it's just heavy... Heavy metal is a defined form. Black Flag is not a defined form."[46] Ginn had long criticized the hardcore punk scene's narrowmindedness, and following Black Flag's breakup in 1986,[5] and in reaction to criticism of Black Flag's later output following its breakup in 1986, Ginn derided the underground scene as "really conservative", whose audience "demands something familiar".[5][47]
The muffled sound of the album's production has attracted criticism; Stevie Chick disparaged the lack of character in Ginn's bass-playing on "My War" when compared to the 1982 demo of the same song with Dukowski on bass.[25]Michael Azerrad praised the strength of the material while denigrating the "frustrating lack of ensemble feel" as the album was recorded without a full lineup.[23] Critic Clay Jarvis commended the album, emphasizing the risks taken on it and its influence, calling it "more a test than an album", and saying, "independent music is stronger because Black Flag formulated it". [49] John Dougan at AllMusic called the A-side of the album "quite good", but described the B-side as "self-indulgence masquerading as inspiration and about as much fun as wading through a tar pit".[30]Robert Christgau considered the B-side a "waste".[32] Howard Hampton found it "unbearably boring",[45] and Tim Yohannon called the B-side "sheer torture".[44]
The album had a great influence on the hardcore-meets-Sabbath sounds of the Melvins, Mudhoney, and Nirvana.[7] The first punk concert Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain attended was a Black Flag show during the My War tour,[15] and he listed My War on his list of top fifty albums.[50]Mark Arm of Mudhoney related he was moved to tears at a Black Flag concert in 1983 when he was first exposed to "Nothing Left Inside", and the experience inspired him to seek out bands like Black Sabbath.[51] Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner has said of the album's impact on grunge, "I swear, that record instantly made the Melvins slow down to a crawl. Because The Melvins when they started, they were a fairly tight hardcore band and My War came out and they suddenly slowed down. And I know it was a huge influence on us as well. Even in the Green River days."[52]
Henry Lawrence Garfield, known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986. Following the band's breakup, he established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, and formed the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 to 2003 and in 2006.
Gregory Regis Ginn is an American musician and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986, and again in 2003. The band announced another reunion in 2013. Since the breakup of Black Flag, Ginn has recorded solo albums, and performed with such bands as October Faction, Gone, Confront James, Mojack, and others. He was 99th on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Black Flag is an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. 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. They are widely considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands, as well as one of the pioneers of post-hardcore. After breaking up in 1986, Black Flag reunited in 2003 and again in 2013. The second reunion lasted well over a year, during which they released their first studio album in nearly three decades, What The... (2013). The band announced their third reunion in January 2019.
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was first founded in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Transmitters, a small business through which he sold electronics equipment. Ginn repurposed the company as a record label to release material by his band Black Flag.
Nervous Breakdown is the debut EP by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag, released in January 1979 through SST Records. It was the label's first release.
Gary Arthur McDaniel, better known by his stage name Chuck Dukowski, is an American punk rock musician. He’s most well known for being the bass player and occasional songwriter for Black Flag.
Slip It In is the fourth studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag, released in 1984 on SST Records.
Damaged is the debut studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released by SST Records in December 1981.
Family Man is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. Released in 1984 through SST Records, it features spoken word tracks by vocalist Henry Rollins and jazz-indebted instrumental tracks. It is also the first album to feature bassist Kira Roessler. "Armageddon Man" is the only track on the album in which Rollins and the instruments are together.
Everything Went Black is a compilation album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released in 1982 through SST Records. The compilation comprises early songs recorded before Henry Rollins became the band's vocalist in 1981, and was initially released without the group's name on its cover, due to their lawsuit with MCA/Unicorn. Instead, the names of the group members were listed on the first release.
Live '84 is an album released by Black Flag in 1984 on SST Records. It is a live recording of a show played in 1984 and features mostly tracks from My War and Slip It In. A video was shot simultaneously and was briefly available through SST; the now-out-of-print video has been widely bootlegged.
In My Head is the sixth studio album by American punk band Black Flag. It was released in 1985 on SST Records, and was their final studio album before their breakup in 1986. The CD reissue adds three of the four songs that later appeared on the I Can See You EP, replicating the original 1985 cassette release which came out concurrent to the LP.
Jealous Again is the second EP by American hardcore punk band Black Flag, and the third-ever release on SST Records.
TV Party is the fourth EP by American band Black Flag, released in 1982. It was self-produced with Ed Barton and originally released by SST Records on the 7" vinyl format. The title track is a satire of boredom, drinking and America's obsession with television; the original version was also released on the band's 1981 album Damaged.
Sludge metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The genre generally includes slow tempos, tuned down guitars and nihilistic lyrics discussing poverty, drug addiction and pollution.
October Faction is an album by October Faction, the improvisational all-star punk rock band featuring Black Flag members Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski and Saccharine Trust guitarist Joe Baiza.
Würm was a sludge metal band started in 1973 by bass player Chuck Dukowski, who would later join Black Flag. They released one LP on Greg Ginn's SST Records and some tracks on compilations. They were active from 1973 to 1977 and from 1982 to 1983.
The Nig-Heist was a punk-comedy-shock rock band led by Steve "Mugger" Corbin, a roadie and live sound engineer for Black Flag and employee of SST Records. The Nig-Heist featured a revolving-door roster of members of the bands who were on tour with Black Flag at the moment. The band used to open for Black Flag on tour and recorded a 7", an LP and had tracks on compilations. They were notorious for their risqué stage antics, including band members playing naked, Mugger wearing a long-haired wig and insulting the crowd. Their songs were overtly vulgar and explicit in a funny way. Their motto was: "The band that cums in your mouth, not in your hands".
The Complete 1982 Demos is an unreleased set of demo tracks intended for a follow-up album to Black Flag's debut album Damaged (1981). The tracks recorded show the band moving in a riff-driven, heavy metal-inflected direction, away from the pure hardcore punk of the first album. Due to legal issues, the album was never recorded, though most of the tracks were re-recorded for later albums. Though never officially released, the recordings have been widely bootlegged.
↑ Carter, David; Rogers, Ian (2020). "Black Flag's My War Side Two: Cultural and Aesthetic Legacies in Studio Recording". Popular Music and Society. 44 (4): 438–450. doi:10.1080/03007766.2020.1807890. S2CID225277482.
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