I know he didn't mean that to be funny, but I find it pretty fucking hilarious.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Steve-k (Steve K), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 02:47 (nineteen years ago) link
And yeah, there were other times he would Iggy out by simply finding a shard of beer bottle and start raking it across his chest. Very entertaining stuff, but not real musical, if you get my drift...Tom
― Tom Troccoli, Wednesday, 13 April 2005 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli, Wednesday, 13 April 2005 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 22:53 (nineteen years ago) link
I saw Black Flag with Henry in Baltimore in 2 different places in the early '80s--Terminal 406 where he smashed his head into the mirror, and uh, I can't remember the other place where, on a bill with the Minutemen, he jumped off the stage and cut up his chest--Marble Bar maybe? I should dig out my old Thrillseeker fanzines and see if we reviewed those shows in there.
I think some people I know used to refer to him as Henry the Lobotomy because of the crazy way he'd act at the gigs of others(when he was living in DC and in SOA), as well as how he'd act at Black Flag shows.
I lived in a MD suburb of DC at the time and used to mostly see shows in the DC area, but occasionally went up to Baltimore.
― Steve-k (Steve K), Thursday, 14 April 2005 03:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Steve-k (Steve K), Thursday, 14 April 2005 03:28 (nineteen years ago) link
Live, no band rocked harder.
― lencho, Friday, 15 April 2005 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― charleston charge (chaki), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amon (eman), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― charleston charge (chaki), Friday, 15 April 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
re: solos - i've always thought "Process of Weeding Out" was underrated. some great jazzy soloing on that.
― Amon (eman), Friday, 15 April 2005 20:16 (nineteen years ago) link
hahahahahhaha
― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Friday, 15 April 2005 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Friday, 15 April 2005 21:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― charleston charge (chaki), Friday, 15 April 2005 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link
As for the question of best line-up, I only saw them once, in Madison, Wisconsin circa '85, when it was Ginn, Rollins, Kira, and the guy who replaced Bill Stevenson, who was actually really great. Rollins glared at the audience and I couldn't tell why, so it was a weird gig. They kept karate kicking would-be stage-divers. I got punched by a girl I bumped into. Idiots yelling "TV Party." It was that kind of vibe. But "Wound Up" sounded great.
On record, I'd have to go with Chavo. The Jealous Again EP is the best distillation of Black Flag in sound and attitude, and yeah, he rocks in the Decline of Western Civilization.
― Pete Scholtes, Saturday, 16 April 2005 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Vas Djifrens (byzantum), Saturday, 16 April 2005 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― mr paddy kean, Saturday, 16 April 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago) link
That's tons of interesting stuff, Tom. Thanks so much for dropping by. You're confirming a lot of my suspicions, too. I'm a huge defender of Spot, who I think ended up recording, on balance, the greatest SST output. The sound on Slip It In is wonderful, and I'd still play "Wound Up" first for anyone who says Rollins-era Flag sucked (then "Drinking and Driving"). There's an immediacy to The Punch Line, Double Nickels, and Zen Arcade that the later ones lack.
You're right about MOST of that, but in fact Husker DU took Spot's work back to Minneapolis with them and what you hear on the record is really THEIR production. That's Zen Arcade I am referring to. The Meat Puppets also started doing that from Up On The Sun as well.
The drummer was Anthony Martinez, more of a straight ahead Rock and Roll drummer with very little experience in things 'Punk.' I remember that gig pretty well myself. My band opened, it was at a VFW hall, or old armory. Big old echoy hall with far too much bounce back from the rear of the hall. Once it filled up, it wasn't so bad. I had GREAT times on EVERY visit to Madison. GREAT coffee too! Now, PLEASE don't hunt your cats!
To each his own. I think I might have liked Chavo better if I hadn't known him. He just didn't have the blood and guts seriousness and heaviness for me to make the music jump outta the grooves, and into yer lap. None the less, there is NO question that Jealous Again was one of THE greatest American Punk Rock records ever made.And as a special aside to Mr. Vas Djifrens, I was never there for violence, EVER. I never rated one band over another because of the numbers of seriously wounded people being carted off at the end of the night. Why you should is beyond me!It really was about the MUSIC!Tom
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Sunday, 17 April 2005 18:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 18 April 2005 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link
And I still like the quality of Keith's voice the best .. but it's the Ginn that matters.
― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 18 April 2005 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link
but is not the beauty of music the inseparableness of evil from which cannot it be unentwined?.
― Mr. Vas Djifrens (byzantum), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link
I'll have to check out Vida.http://home.earthlink.net/~ttrocc7007/
Just started reading your D. Boon tribute page, Tom. I didn't know you wrote for the Squealer! How did that hook-up happen?http://home.earthlink.net/~ttrocc7007/id5.html
Also, I'm hoping this turns out to be good:Minutemen documentary is done
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 18 April 2005 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Nope! The music itself, and that means ALL music is an act of CREATION, violence is an act of DESTRUCTION.
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Vas Djifrens (byzantum), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link
i am not joking one bloody morsel! i am seriouser than even the most painful torturings. and my coldness 'rocks' the house.
― Mr. Vas Djifrens (byzantum), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
yikes, was the audience all made up of members of former SST bands?
― Amon (eman), Monday, 18 April 2005 20:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Monday, 18 April 2005 21:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amon (eman), Monday, 18 April 2005 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link
My favorite version of Flag was in-between "Damaged" and "My War" -- when Dez and Greg and Chuck were all still in the band, before Rollins had become such an out of control caricature (when the tattoo bill was still under a thousand bucks). When there were two guitarists in the band, Ginn was just so totlaly free jazz nuts hair flying madman, people literally lept the fuck back from the stage not out of fear of getting hair whipped, but 'cause you'd swear he was doing some Haitian possession ritual or something (sorry, I just watched Maya Deren's "Divine Horsemen" with my girl the other day).
Tom's Minutemen/ etc. pages are truly a great read and I really liked TTD when I saw them live -- but then again, I'm someone who wore Grateful Dead shirts to punk rock shows backintheday, and I liked Oktoberfaktion and Saccharine Trust as well (live anyway).
Ohhh, and back to D. -- to this day, Glenn Branca's comment in that "Forced Exposure" interview that he thinks the FBI offed D. Boon strikes a chord with me. Sure it's a bit ridonkulous, but still....
― Mike McGillicutty, Monday, 18 April 2005 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah I don't really believe it but part of me wants to in a weird way to "make sense of" something that was and still is really tough to understand. It's just my little brain grasping at straws, really.
--Mike
― Mike McGillicutty, Wednesday, 20 April 2005 01:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Brandon Sideleau, Monday, 16 May 2005 00:55 (eighteen years ago) link
http://rootsradicaluk.blogspot.com
Cool thread.
― kenny mac, Monday, 30 May 2005 12:57 (eighteen years ago) link
Cool thread. Nice one.
― m. chaves, Thursday, 2 February 2006 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Friday, 3 February 2006 00:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― simon 803 (simon 803), Friday, 3 February 2006 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link
Mentioning Ginn and John Coltrane in the same sentance is absurd. a closer comparison would be Sonny Sharrock, but that' still off board. I'm sure he would tell you that himself.
Greg Ginn wrote some great punk rock tunes. However he's not a free-form jazzbo, nor a great soloist.
Regarding the qualities of the vocalists, I've seen most of them perform, and Rollins doing black flag material owns all of them Keith Morris does the best "Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie" - but he can't bring the rage like Rollins can. Of course, I'd rather watch 100 circle jerks shows than watch Rollins sing "low self opinion" but that's another story.
― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tom Troccoli (ttrocc7007), Saturday, 11 February 2006 17:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― cattellar, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 04:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― cattellar, Thursday, 2 March 2006 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link
dez cadena by a country mile.
― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, January 2, 2005 7:04 PM (5 years ago)
OTM. gygax! was the first person to rep for dez until Tom Trocolli and his dog chimed in. RIP gygax!
― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 17:33 (fourteen years ago) link
I remember the Hernandez Bros repping for Dez as the best as well fwiw
― Whats with all the littering? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 18:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Thanks for the bump! This thread is a fuckin goldmine.
I can tell you with ALL honesty that there were nights I was convinced without any doubt that Ginn was one of the top 10 most creative LEAD guitarists (he can't play rhythm real well) I have ever heard,
Tom Troccoli OTM.
― Bonnie Prince Stabby (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 18:19 (fourteen years ago) link
i interviewed tom for my flag book last year, he had some fantastic stories
― ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫ (stevie), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 20:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Way late to the party but I couldn't find another thread on this : The Off Eps record is ripping my tits off. Great fun to these weathered ears.
― Hinklepicker, Tuesday, 16 August 2011 08:39 (twelve years ago) link
they play london next week, i CANNOT wait
― sbgorf (stevie), Tuesday, 16 August 2011 18:09 (twelve years ago) link
Why can't I do anything without being yelled at?
― how's life, Monday, 31 December 2012 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
I think all their singers have been pretty good vocal choices for what they were doing at the time they had them, though you could probably argue that each was an odd personality choice for that time as well.
― Poliopolice, Monday, 31 December 2012 15:03 (eleven years ago) link