Henry Rollins/Black Flag

Time to come back!

nice, stevie! i would read this book.

― scott seward, Tuesday, November 3, 2009 7:16 AM

looking forward to this!

I don't think there's any band that's more entertaining to read about than black flag

the flag stuff from that rollins biog is a hoot

lol, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, so this was great to read. I was about 6 months old when this concert took place, so I missed it sadly. This was a legendary story, though. Both Morris and Ginn went to my high school (as did most of the Descendants, I believe). I think there's like a great unwritten screenplay about late 70s punk/beach town culture clashes. Maybe I need to write it. Anyway -- I will read this book! Black Flag is totally fun to read about.

lol polliwog park

they used to have this amazing play structure called "The Sunken Galleon" there. oh man, it was so dangerous. can't believe I didn't die on that thing.

stevie i am going to buy and read yr book, exciting!

tyler have you read "enter naomi" by joe carducci? there's some good stuff in there in the vein of what you're talking about

there is stuff about the sunken galleon in Carducci's book?! kidding -- i haven't read it but I should. i talked to Ginn once for my high school newspaper ... it didn't go very well!

Dude, Stevie, that extract is amazing. You can feel the dichotomies writhing as they are forced to stare each other in the face, then you notice that one face is full of blood.

I will buy the hell out of this book.

thank you all for the kind words and promises of purchase, dudes - and tyler, i second matt's recommendation of 'enter naomi', which is a really great personal take on that whole era (buy my book 1st tho!). was a great thrill to visit polliwog while researching the book, and soak up the pleasant valley sunday vibe that the Flag doubtless shattered that afternoon...

Great stuff Stevie, I'm in. When does it come out in the UK?

should be out now, but i think there have been slight delays - its still a pre-order on amazon... i have yet to see a copy!

it is in stock on amazon! also, i'll be doing a reading/q&a at filthy mcnasty's on tuesday november 10th, as part of the Talking Music Revolutions Volume Four: The Metal Years event, alongside such awesome writers as Carol Clerk, John Robb, Joel McIver, Tommy Udo and Suzanne Moore, so come along if yr in London that night.

thus endeth my plugging...

Suzanne Moore

wait what

I am totally going to buy this book btw

yeah i'm hoping its *the suzanna moore (its not my do so i don't know fo' sho). also i was just informed joel has a parents evening that night and now can't make it, but it'll still be cool!

suzanne

This is LONG overdue and I'm giddily excited about this. Will also 'buy the hell' out of this book.

hey stevie just wanted to let you know that on another board i go to there was a thread about your book that i didn't start! the buzz is building :)

haha LINK PLS MATT!!!

google is on to you

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/spray_paint_the_walls.gif

thumbs up from carducci!!

1 guessed/predicted in Rock and the Pop Narcotic that regarding Black Flag there was never enough sales for the real publishing industry to ever write a check to get to the bottom of the band's story. Back in the late 1980s when I wrote R&TPN only Faber & Faber was even issuing original music titles, and indeed they were the only publisher to take a look at my manuscript. But the 80s/90s roll-out of Tower Books, Barnes & Noble, and Borders did spur a short golden age of the music section in book stores. That's over now. But Omnibus in the UK, which once had the only book on Black Sabbath in print, now issues the first comprehensive book about Black Flag, first in the UK, soon here. Spray Paint the Walls is very well reported and assembled by Brit music writer Stevie Chick, author of the better of the recent Sonic Youth books. Neither Greg Ginn nor Henry Rollins sat for interviews but their voices are included from earlier interviews, and more importantly Chuck Dukowski spoke to Chick - a first I believe. The story, laid out from the band's earliest practices in 1976 to its end ten years later, makes a far more dramatic book than the usual shelf-fillers with their stretch to make the empty stories of various chart-toppers sound exciting and crucial and against the odds. I read a rough draft; I'm sure most of the minor Anglocentric miscomprehensions of timelines, causalities and geography are still in it but the book is powerful because it does the story justice. And those miscomprehensions are shared by most American music writers as well so what the hell...

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/global/kindle-turing-widget-photo_020509._V251249236_.jpg Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Finished the book this morning, have to say Stevie, nice work indeed, really, really enjoyed it, so much great info.

aw thanks mares nest... really glad you enjoyed it.

still looking forward to reading this -- soon! in the meantime, i tracked down a recording of that Polliwog Park show! http://ow.ly/Mv0M Neat ....

that show is nuts... the bootleg is essential, perhaps more for the banter between the roadies and the guy who put the show on than the music, but 'wasted' SLAYS

Yep, made me go back and dig out the albums, was rooting around in the loft yesterday looking for James Parker's book, Planet Joe and Get In The Van.

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/justin-bieber-black-flag.jpg

http://grab.by/grabs/78550b4ceb4e799f5aa4fc25ad6989c3.png

that Bieber jpeg causes my rage to hit 28 Days Later levels

if u want one so bad just buy one

*grabs a lead pipe*

lol, it's the first thing i've ever liked about JB

"performer and world travelernascent Burroughs Henry Rollins has a new favorite portable sound system"

A really good DVD of The Minutemen & Black Flag went up on D!m3ad0z3n a couple of days ago, it's from San Francisco '81 (Dez era) and it's pretty good quality.

Don't know if any of you guys saw anything about this but there was a reunion of sorts here in Vancouver a few weeks ago to celebrate local resident Chavo Pederast's 50th birthday. Greg Ginn showed up and they played some numbers. Here's an interview with Greg Ginn being his usual self. Anyway, Spray Paint The Walls is briefly discussed. Of course Greg hasn't heard of it and tries his hardest to appear disinterested. Was there ever anyone more paranoid about being pigeonholed? There's some clips from the show too.

Greg interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3gg7XUE4s

Interview with Ron too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMHbNOEafsY&feature=related

RADDDDDD!

CHAVO and GREG sound so great (esp when he remembers the lyrics :/ ) and that is a DOPPPPPE t-shirt CP's rockin.

whoah

almost shit myself when nardwuar handed greg the book. i spent MONTHS of my life emailing and calling greg, trying to secure an interview, or at the very least to let him know i was working on the book, and in good faith, but i got no closer to contact with the man than chatting with his assistant. he knew it exists.

<3 ron reyes. that footage is awesome...

in greg's defense, there is the distinct possibility that he may have been high on pot

yeah, and i totally respect that! i may have been high when i was calling/emailing!

and in fairness all he said was that he hadn't seen the book. he comes across pretty well in my book, and not overly defensive.

oh definitely, he seemed fine.

Your book and Beefheart's Through The Eyes of Magic combined were both the kind of books I'd make excuses to go and read throughout my busy day. "Hey there's a lightbulb out in the bathroom, I'm going in to fix it." Then I'd sit and feverishly devour these books. I think I read yours in three sittings. Not trying to blow smoke, but Spray Paint the Walls is really more than any Flag fan could have wanted. Thanks for writing it.

I actually put in to do My War for the 33 1/3 series, got a "good idea!" response email, but never followed up. I think your book sorta nullifies that 'good idea,' anyway.

reyes seems like a bro of the highest caliber

wow, thanks! i sweat blood on this book, and its by no means perfect, so to see you write that means a lot. and i think there's definitely more to be written abt the flag, esp on My War. i'd read your book in a flash.

xp

ron's really great. i think my interview with him for the book was the first he'd given in years - i didn't think i had a chance in hell of speaking to him, and then joe nolte got in touch and said "i have a friend you might want to speak to for your book, if you're interested?" he's really sweet, really honest, really humble.

Oh Nardwuar, never change.

"Reality 86'd" A film by David Markey

http://vimeo.com/23499919

"Reality 86'd" A film by David Markey (c) 1991 We Got Power Films. (TRT 01:01:51) A road documentary shot from the inside of the last Black Flag tour ever (the 1986 "In My Head" US tour.) Greg Ginn along with Henry Rollins, Cel Revulta, and Anthony Martinez comprise the final line up of the band. Featuring behind the scenes proceedings and live performances from Black Flag, Painted Willie, and Gone (Ginn's side project, then featuring Sim Cain and Andrew Weiss (later of the Rollins Band) . Filmmaker / musician David Markey was along for the entire trip as the drummer / singer for Painted Willie (with Phil Newman & Vic Makauskas), documenting the six month tour as it happened. Also features roadie Joe ("Planet Joe") Cole, soundmen Davo Claasen and Dave "Ratman" Levine, and the tour manager who kept it all together, Mitch Bury. A crucial turning point in American underground rock. The end of the line for a trail blazing American band.

The Ramones debut wasn't available on CD by itself until 2001, having up til then in the CD era been bundled with Leave Home on the first volume of All The Stuff & More.

On a similar note, I noticed the Dead Boys have basically reissued their 2 studio albums with alt mixes and comp titles.

are those the new ones with the AI singer?

Husker Du was so dysfunctional that even their merch site that went live a few years ago shut down relatively quickly.

It stuns me that Mike Watt remains loyal to Greg Ginn. SST needs to be liquidated

Young, Loud and Snotty is done alt French released early mix done by Bob Clearmountain.

We Have Come for your Children I think is a modern mix made from original tracks.

Neither are released with their exact original title or artwork.

Bob also played bass on Young Loud and Snotty.

It stuns me that Mike Watt remains loyal to Greg Ginn.

Mike Watt is an astonishingly, heartbreakingly loyal dude, just absolutely one of the loveliest of people, and that extends to being indulgent and forgiving of a guy like Ginn. Also, a lot of the people within that circle who have grudges against Ginn also begrudgingly respect what he managed to build, no matter how dysfunctional it became (and no matter how much the credit belonged to others within the SST sphere, too).

"Black Flag" on the bill for Coachella 2026 (also Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter etc)