Yo, DJ.....HIT ME!!

[Johann]

My favorite Christmas song.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cglLJJ0Czo8

[Johann]

The Black Flag saga is still gaining more fucked up steam.

Their new bassist, a clown named Dave Klein, has left the band. Their new drummer is also a nobody that nobody has ever heard of.
Ron Reyes departure was explained by Mike Valelly, the new singer. He said Ron was becoming combative, and he and Greg wanted to prevent Ron from quitting onstage *again*. RIGHT.

I say bullshit to that. I say that Greg Ginn wanted to get Ron back for quitting publically onstage back in 1979.
Greg Ginn should just pack it in. It's Over Greg. Your Glory Days are long GONE. *pun intended*
No Black Flag fan wants to hear a "new" Black Flag record.
And that's because it isn't Black Flag. It's not even a "reasonable facsimile" of what you once were.
It's a colossal joke, and it's profoundly NOT FUNNY.

Chuck Dukowski is Black Flag to me.
Dez Cadena is Black Flag to me.
Keith Morris is Black Flag to me.
Henry Rollins is Black Flag to me.
Bill Stevenson is Black Flag to me.
Kira Roessler is Black Flag to me.

Any other "members" are not acknowledged to me now- former or current.

AND WHO THE FLYING FUCK IS MIKE VALLELY??????????

[Johann]

The drummer for THE STOOGES died last Saturday.
Scott Asheton was the PowerHouse man behind the Stooges' drumkit. He was 64.

I had the incredible Honor of seeing The Stooges play Live in Toronto in 2010. It was incredible. They shut down Yonge street- first time in the city's history that a concert shut down Yonge. I'll take that show (among others I saw in T.O.) to the grave. Iggy was amazing and the band was amazing, which included James Williamson and Mike Watt of the Minutemen.

Another Icon of Rock is gone.
Goodbye Scott. Your records tower over everyone else. True punk rock fans know that the Stooges are Invincible.
YOU SEARCHED AND DESTROYED.

[Johann]

Scott Asheton's favorite quote was from Charles Bukowski:


What matters most is how well you walk through the Fire

[Johann]

BLACK FLAG play Toronto on June 19th. I will have to make TWO trips to Toronto this year....FFS....

I gotta see WTF Greg Ginn is doing in person. I want to know who the fuck Mike Vallely is. Yeah, he's a "skater", a "tough guy"...big fucking deal.
I know the Art of War. LOL I saw the REAL Black Flag last year. Chuck Dukowski's SuperGroup named FLAG, and there isn't any way that Greg Ginn & Mike V. (ag) can top what I saw at Toronto's Opera House at NXNE. I just need to see Greg Ginn's SuperEGO in person.

Black Flag are also playing Montebello Quebec in June, with, as it happens, Henry Rollins on the same bill!
I'd go to Montebello to rock out to Cypress Hill and the Vandals and other cool groups on that massive line-up but I heard from a friend who went last year that the only way to do Montebello right is to camp out and plan for it NOW. Like, yesterday. The concert is so freaking massive that you have to plan for it months in advance. I'll skip it this time and just go see Black Flag in Toronto. (and the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at TIFF in October).

[Johann]

Re: Black Flag

The "new" Black Flag record arrived in Ottawa, and I bought it as " Exhibit A" to illustrate the evolution of my favorite band (after The Doors).
WHAT THE... (2013) is SST Records release number 391.
I've listened to it and I was a little surprised and was left asking questions. I'll elaborate soon.

I asked Facebook friend (and punk musician/filmmaker) David Markey what he makes of Black Flag's "resurgence" and Greg Ginn these days.
He replied that Black Flag nor Greg Ginn are worthy of his respect.
The reason I asked David is because he is in a certain qualified position to speak of the band and Greg. He went on tour with Black Flag and Gone, with his band Painted Willie in 1985, and documented the whole thing on Super-8.
It became the highly revered (never-before-released) doc REALITY 86'd.
David tried to release the film as a DVD release, with encouragement from Henry Rollins, who seems to be in favour of the film.
But Greg Ginn put the ki-bosh on that. He threatened to sue David over it, told him to destroy copies he had.
I think the main reason for Greg not wanting the film to be put out is it shows him and others smoking weed and it doesn't show Greg doing much lifting of equipment. From what I could see, Henry Rollins and two other guys were the main "roadies", unloading & loading & setting up the gear .
Greg just seems a little goofy and aloof in it. But I don't know what he's so upset about- his consumption of the cannabis is a modern legend/myth.
If you smoke the ganja then you smoke the ganja. The Hughes Brothers said it's an aid to creativity.
I don't judge. I smoke the shit myself. If it's part of your vida then it's part of your vida.

The music on "WHAT THE..." sounds like Black Flag. No question. It's Greg's guitar. Duh. And believe it or not, I started to really dig a couple songs on this record. Which made me wonder WTF is up with this album? Ron Reyes actually sounds good on vocals. His level of commitment is there. A friend of mine only listens to psychobilly music. He's getting Nazi about it. I played a couple punk CD's at my place the other day and he was like "Punk Sucks. It's just a cliche. It always was a cliche. It has no balls". And I was like, Hey....Punk Sucks? It's a cliche?
Whoa whoa whoa..
Black Flag is no cliche. Dead Kennedys is no cliche. Crass are no cliche. Misfits are no cliche. SO many punk groups aren't a cliche.
Green Day is a cliche. Blink 182 is a cliche. Nickleback is a cliche.
Certain groups are cliches. But certain ones aren't as well. Like Black Flag.

Which brings me back to the "Legacy" of this group that I hold in severely high esteem.
Greg Ginn said recently that the new line-up with Mike Vallely on vocals is the perfect line-up to bring Black Flag into the future.
That makes me think that Greg isn't merely doing this to piss off former members of BF.
He has a vision for the group and always has. The music has a trajectory, and it goes above the heads of every person who was in the band except Greg Ginn. He is the sole survivor, the sole member who went through everything and oversaw everything. He is the most stubborn, complex, stoned musical genius I've ever heard of. He's using a theremin on this new album and it works.

Greg Ginn has caused a lot of heartaches to a lot of people in the punk world. He's not paid royalties to bands or nurtured their catalogs on SST Records, he has not protected the "brand" of Black Flag by suing those who make knock-off merchandise. Greg has a huge ego and a huge inferiority complex. Anyone who treats people the way he does/did is nothing less than paranoid.
If Black Flag means Anarchy as you said in 1980 Greg, then how does Anarchy apply to the band as it is today?
I ask you this as a genuine fan of your music and ethos.
I'm not questioning that it is there, I just want to know how it applies to the band as it is in 2014.
You are embarking on a tour with yet another new bass player and another new drummer with Vallely on vocals.
I hope to see you in Toronto at El Mocambo. The tour is called '"The VICTIMOLOGY" tour, and I'm curious about that name.
Who's the Victims, Greg?
Black Flag?
or the fans?
or is it former bandmates?

[Johann]

I've been doing more research on the Black Flag saga, and I've learned that Ron Reyes said "Greg threatened my family" with regards to Ron's departure from the band. That's a pretty serious allegation, yet Ron doesn't or didn't elaborate on what it means.
What do you mean Greg "threatened your family", Ron?
Explain this! You should write your own book of your experiences with Black Flag Ron. You seem to have a lot of stories to tell.
Mike Vallely says Ron made it clear many times before the Australian tour that he was leaving the band after the tour.
And that Mike and Greg were merely preventing Ron from quitting onstage again. Apparently Ron said he would book a flight out of Aussie Land ASAP if tensions within the band didn't ease. They took him at his word and did a cowardly pre-emptive strike.

Henry Rollins said that toward the end, Greg told him that he was ruining the band. Henry replied "Why? Because I'm the only one who won't leave?"
And in no uncertain terms Greg said he didn't like Henry. Henry said it made playing Live interesting, knowing that you aren't liked within your own band, but that at least Greg told him to his face.
Greg Ginn's thought processes are mysterious.
I've only really been a Black Flag fan for a little less than a decade and I'm still trying to get a grip on what this band stands for/stood for.

Items like this throw me a curveball:
- Henry singing "Thirsty & Miserable" & "TV Party" on the first record: Henry wasn't a drinker and was never a partier. Yet he's singing about his brother needing" a ride to the liquor store" and "what do they know about partying? Or anything else??" Greg wrote those songs. Henry did his duty and sang 'em. For the Team. How do I place that information?

-"Your Last Affront"- Instrumental track on THE PROCESS OF WEEDING OUT. Who's last affront? Greg! Who has been affronting you so much that you needed to express it on an instrumental album with no lead singer? I think the answer is obvious.

-Raymond Pettibon. (Greg's brother)
Greg is still using the Black Flag name and 4 bars logo- on concert posters and his website and it is on the WHAT THE...(2013) album.
Raymond apparently still has severe rage and contempt for his brother using his artwork for Black Flag. The new album is obviously sporting a cover that Raymond did not create - it was created by Kill City graphics. And rumour has it that Greg is regretting using that album cover idea, as it was Ron Reyes's concept. And Ron and Greg aren't on speaking terms anymore. If Raymond and Greg are not on speaking terms, like most ex-members of Black Flag, what do their parents think about it? I've read that the whole Ginn clan are Geniuses.

I could go on and on with things that don't seem Jake with this band.
I am still fascinated by the group and always will be. Black Flag is my #2 favorite band.
"MY WAR" is the greatest song ever written, as Henry Rollins says. The album cover for their second album is also the greatest album cover art I've ever seen. A puppet head with a boxing glove holding a knife against a blue background. That is the most Incredible album cover I've ever seen. Everytime I look at it I get stoked. MY WAR. YOU SAY. THAT YOU'RE MY FRIEND. BUT YOU'RE ONE OF THEM. I think I'll get a tattoo of that image to go with my 4 bars....



I know I'm alone in the woods discussing this band, as no one here seems to know anything about the group or why they are fascinating.
Maybe someone will join who likes hardcore punk music and we can wax poetic about Black Flag and what it all means.
Maybe it means nothing.
Maybe it means everything.