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Head Against the Wall Over and Over Again

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1984 studio album by Blackness Flag

My War
Black Flag - My War cover.jpg
Studio anthology by

Black Flag
Released March 1984
Recorded December 1983
Studio Full Access Recording, Redondo Beach, California
Genre
  • Hardcore punk
  • post-hardcore
  • sludge metal[one]
Length twoscore:22
Characterization SST (023)
Producer
  • Greg Ginn
  • Spot
  • Nib Stevenson
Black Flag chronology
The Commencement 4 Years
(1983) 		My War
(1984) 		Family Man
(1984)

My War is the second studio anthology by American band Blackness Flag. It polarized fans on its release in 1984 on SST Records over the LP'south B-side, on which the band slowed down to a heavy, Blackness Sabbath-esque trudge, despite the reputation the ring had earned every bit leaders in fast hardcore punk on its outset anthology, Damaged (1981).

Subsequently a period of legal troubles which prohibited the ring from using its own proper noun 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 hard to accept. The line-upwards 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 proper name "Dale Nixon" for the recording as bassist Chuck Dukowski left the band presently before recording; the anthology includes two tracks Dukowski wrote.

The A-side of the LP is equanimous of six generally high-paced, thrashy hardcore tracks, featuring guitar solos unusual in punk music. On the B-side are three tracks in a sludge metal manner, each breaching six-minutes with ponderously slow tempos and nighttime, unrelenting lyrics of self-hatred. The ring members had grown their pilus long when they toured the anthology in 1984, farther alienating their hardcore skinhead fanbase. Despite mixed reception at the time of the album's release, My War is now regarded as one of Black Flag's seminal releases and had a major influence on the development of sludge metal, grunge, and math rock.

Background [edit]

Black Flag logo consisting of four vertical black bars

In 1978, Black Flag guitarist and cofounder Greg Ginn converted his ham radio business organization Solid Country Transmitters to SST Records to release the band'south first EP Nervous Breakdown. Soon SST was releasing recordings by other bands likewise, beginning with Minutemen's Paranoid Time in 1980.[2]

Blackness Flag recorded its kickoff anthology 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 information technology "anti-parent"[iii]—though SST mitt Joe Carducci asserts this was a pretense for MCA to sever relations with the financially troubled Unicorn. The ring obtained and distributed the already-pressed xx000 copies of Damaged and adorned it with a label displaying Bergamo'due south "anti-parent" quote. Legal troubles erupted when SST claimed unpaid royalties from Unicorn and Unicorn successfully counter-sued, resulting in 5 days in jail for Ginn and co-founding bassist Chuck Dukowski and an injunction prohibiting the ring from releasing material under its own name.[4] The double album Everything Went Black—a compilation of earlier, unreleased material—appeared from SST in 1982 without the ring's name on it. Unicorn'due south defalcation in 1983 freed the band from the injunction.[5]

Black-and-white photograph of four long-haired men

Following the release of Damaged, Blackness Flag absorbed a wider range of influences from the more experimental hardcore of Flipper, Void, and Fang.[6] Music journalist Andrew Earles believes that the band was influenced past the tiny but growing doom metal scene led by of Saint Vitus (who released via SST),[6] while music journalist Steve Chick records that the band members listened to Blackness Sabbath, Deep Majestic, and Uriah Heep when they were younger.[7] In an interview in 1983 with Mark Arm the ring alleged its admiration for heavy metallic band Dio; when asked, "Dio? What'due south that?" Ginn responded, "Information technology's Italian for God."[eight] Ginn jealously guarded the new material, fearing other bands would capitalize on the new approach.[9]

The ring toured extensively in N America and Europe to frequently hostile, trigger-happy hardcore punk crowds.[ten] The disciplined grouping rehearsed obsessively, merely there was picayune friendship between members: vocalist Henry Rollins was introverted and Ginn cold and enervating.[11] Dukowski felt that Rollins' song approach was better suited than that of the band's earlier three singers to the new textile he was writing such equally "I Love You" and "My War".[12] Dukowski, who also wrote poetry and fiction, encouraged Rollins to write also, and Rollins found inspiration in Dukowksi's dour lyrical manner.[13]

The ring 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.[14] The rest of the lineup consisted of Ginn and former vocalist Dez Cadena on guitars, Rollins on vocals, and Dukowski on bass.[fifteen] The band explored new sounds on these tracks, which tended to feature a riff-heavy heavy-metallic 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 afterwards albums. The line-upwardly did not last long—frustrated with the ring's legal troubles, Biscuits left[14] in December 1982, replaced by Bill Stevenson,[xvi] and in 1983 Cadena left to form DC3.[xiv] Ginn had been frustrated with Dukowski'due south sense of rhythm, and in Deutschland 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.[17]

With Unicorn's demise in 1983, Blackness Flag was able to release the cloth they had written since 1981.[18] Eager to get back in the studio merely 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 solar day, instruction the drummer to slow down and allow the rhythm "ooze out" at a stride Stevenson was unused to;[19] the ring chosen this arroyo the "socialist groove", as all beats were equally spaced.[20] With Spot as producer[21] and $200,000 in debt, Ginn, Rollins, and Stevenson headed to the studio to record My War.[22]

Music [edit]

The sides on the original LP divide the tracks into stylistic halves. The kickoff one-half features five tracks that are in the same manner that the band originated on their previous album Damaged and closes with a noisy freak-out, "The Swinging Man".[6] 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 explicate / What I can't explain anyway". "Beat out My Head Against the Wall" rails at conformity and the ring's experience with a major label: "Pond in the mainstream / Is such a lame, lame dream".[23] Dukowski's "I Love You" parodies pop ballads with lyrics of violence and dysfunction in a relationship gone incorrect. Ginn and Rollins share credit on the metallic "Forever Fourth dimension" and the noisy "Swinging Man".[24]

The second one-half is 3 tracks that each clock at over six minutes in length.[6] Each is described as an early cross-pollination between punk and metal,[25] [26] a plodding Black Sabbath-esque sludge metal, or proto-racket rock style, depending on how it is viewed.[six] 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 fourth dimension now".[21] Against a slow, heavy, starting time-and-end bass riff and a constant drum thudding,[xx] 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".[25]

Reception and legacy [edit]

Professional person ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [27]
Christgau's Record Guide B−[28]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music [29]
The Great Rock Discography vi/10[30]
MusicHound Stone 3/5[31]
Punknews.org [32]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide [33]

My War was the showtime of four Blackness Flag releases in 1984, a yr that also saw Family Human, Slip It In, and Live '84 appear from SST.[18] It is considered to be one of the first postal service-hardcore albums along with Hüsker Dü'southward Zen Arcade and Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime in the aforementioned year.[34]

Co-ordinate to rock author Doyle Dark-green:

1 of the pioneer early hardcore bands, Blackness Flag, became one of the early leading mail service-hardcore bands by utilising slower tempos, odd time signatures (3/viii, 5/4, 7/4), precipitous tempo and structural changes, dissonant riffs that edge on 12-tone music...and guitarist Greg Ginn's atonal, free-form solos.[34]

Black Flag toured the My War material from March 1984, with the Nig-Heist and Meat Puppets as opening acts.[35] Information technology had been a twelvemonth since the band had toured, and Rollins, Ginn, and Stevenson had grown out their hair; punks associated long hair with the hippies they loathed and found it dissonant with Rollins' accepted prototype every bit a hardcore skinhead.[36] My War polarized Blackness Flag fans; it alienated those who wanted the band to stay true to its simple hardcore roots[6] and who were put off by the length of the songs, the riff-heaviness, and the solos—elements widely thought of equally un-punk.[37] Tim Yo disparaged the album in Maximumrocknroll, saying "information technology sounds like Black Flag doing an imitation of Iron Maiden imitating Black Flag on a bad mean solar day", and called the B-side "sheer torture".[38] Howard Hampton at the Boston Phoenix called My War "unbearably dull ... resorting to standard [heavy metallic] machinations".[39]

The muffled audio of the anthology's production has attracted criticism; Stevie Chick disparaged the lack of character in Ginn'southward bass-playing on "My State of war" when compared to the 1982 demo of the same song with Dukowski on bass.[23] Michael Azerrad praised the strength of the fabric while denigrating the "frustrating lack of ensemble feel" as the anthology was recorded without a full lineup.[21] Critic Clay Jarvis commended the anthology, emphasizing the risks taken on information technology and its influence, calling it "more a test than an album", and saying, "independent music is stronger because Black Flag formulated information technology". [41] John Dougan at AllMusic called the A-side of the album "quite proficient", but described the B-side every bit "self-indulgence masquerading equally inspiration and about equally much fun as wading through a tar pit".[27] Robert Christgau considered the B-side a "waste material".[28]

The album had a large influence on the hardcore-meets-Sabbath sounds of the Melvins, Mudhoney, and Nirvana.[six] Mark Arm of Mudhoney related he was moved to tears at a Black Flag concert in 1983 when he was first exposed to "Null Left Inside", and the experience inspired him to seek out bands like Black Sabbath.[42] The first punk concert Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain attended was a Black Flag show during the My War tour,[thirteen] and he listed My State of war on his list of top fifty albums.[43]

Runway list [edit]

Side A
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "My War" Chuck Dukowski iii:46
2. "Tin can't Decide" Greg Ginn five:22
3. "Beat My Head Against the Wall" Ginn ii:34
four. "I Dearest You" Dukowski 3:27
5. "Forever Time" Ginn, Henry Rollins 2:30
6. "The Swinging Man" Ginn, Rollins iii:04
Side B
No. Title Writer(s) Length
vii. "Zero Left Inside" Ginn, Rollins half-dozen:44
8. "3 Nights" Ginn, Rollins six:03
nine. "Scream" Ginn 6:52

Personnel [edit]

Black Flag [edit]

  • Henry Rollins – vocals
  • Greg Ginn – guitars
  • Dale Nixon – bass
  • Bill Stevenson – drums

Production and artwork [edit]

  • Spot – production, applied science, mixing
  • Greg Ginn – production
  • Bill Stevenson – production
  • Raymond Pettibon – artwork
  • Chuck Dukowski – songwriter

References [edit]

  1. ^ https://toiletovhell.com/groundbreakers-black-flag-my-war/
  2. ^ Waksman 2009, pp. 222–223.
  3. ^ Chick 2011, pp. 244–246.
  4. ^ Azerrad 2001, pp. 39–40.
  5. ^ Chick 2011, pp. 263–264.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Earles 2014, p. 41.
  7. ^ Chick 2011, p. 13.
  8. ^ Cameron 2014, p. 39.
  9. ^ Earles 2014, p. 43.
  10. ^ Earles 2014, p. 42.
  11. ^ Azerrad 2001, pp. 41–42.
  12. ^ Chick 2011, p. 267.
  13. ^ a b Parker 2000, p. 122.
  14. ^ a b c Chick 2011, pp. 266–267.
  15. ^ Chick 2011, p. 6.
  16. ^ Parker 2000, p. 106.
  17. ^ Chick 2011, p. 284.
  18. ^ a b Chick 2011, p. 335.
  19. ^ Azerrad 2001, pp. 46–47.
  20. ^ a b Parker 2000, p. 113.
  21. ^ a b c Azerrad 2001, p. 47.
  22. ^ Parker 2000, p. 124.
  23. ^ a b Chick 2011, p. 288.
  24. ^ Chick 2011, p. 289.
  25. ^ a b Azerrad 2001, pp. 47–48.
  26. ^ Carter, David; Rogers, Ian (2020). "Blackness Flag's My State of war Side Ii: Cultural and Aesthetic Legacies in Studio Recording". Popular Music and Society. 44 (four): 438–450. doi:ten.1080/03007766.2020.1807890. S2CID 225277482.
  27. ^ a b Dougan.
  28. ^ a b Christgau.
  29. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0195313734.
  30. ^ Martin C. Strong (1998). The Great Rock Discography (1st ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN978-0-86241-827-4.
  31. ^ Gary Graff, ed. (1996). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1st ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN978-0-7876-1037-i.
  32. ^ Sideleau 2002.
  33. ^ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Blackness Flag". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. ISBN0-7432-0169-eight . Retrieved Nov 5, 2021.
  34. ^ a b Greene 2014, pp. 43–44.
  35. ^ Parker 2000, p. 151.
  36. ^ Parker 2000, p. 153.
  37. ^ Martin 2002, p. 91.
  38. ^ Yo 1984.
  39. ^ Hampton 1984, p. 8.
  40. ^ Lazell 1997, p. 23.
  41. ^ Jarvis 2003.
  42. ^ Cameron 2014, pp. 38–39.
  43. ^ Cross et al. 2013, p. 32.

Works cited [edit]

Books [edit]

  • Azerrad, Michael (2001). Our Ring Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991 . Little, Brown and Company. ISBN978-0-316-24718-4.
  • Cameron, Keith (2014). Mudhoney: The Audio and the Fury from Seattle. Voyageur Press. ISBN978-0-7603-4661-7.
  • Chick, Stevie (2011). Spray Pigment the Walls: The Story of Black Flag . PM Printing. ISBN978-1-60486-584-4.
  • Cross, Charles; Gaar, Gillian; Gendron, Bob; Martens, Todd; Yarm, Mark (2013). Nirvana: The Consummate Illustrated History. Voyageur Press. ISBN978-0-7603-4521-4.
  • Earles, Andrew (2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. ISBN978-0-7603-4648-eight.
  • Greene, Doyle (2014). The Rock Encompass Song: Civilisation, History, Politics. McFarland & Company. ISBN978-0-7864-7809-5.
  • Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits: 1980–1989: The Complete U.K. Independent Charts (Singles & Albums). Cherry Cherry Books. ISBN978-0-9517206-9-1.
  • Martin, Bill (2002). Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork . Open Court. ISBN978-0812695007.
  • Parker, James (2000). Turned On: A Biography of Henry Rollins. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN978-0-8154-1050-8.
  • Waksman, Steve (2009). This Ain't the Summer of Love: Disharmonize and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk . University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-94388-nine.

Other sources [edit]

  • Christgau, Robert (1990). "B". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN0-679-73015-X . Retrieved Baronial 17, 2020 – via robertchristgau.com.
  • Dougan, John. "My War: Blackness Flag". AllMusic . Retrieved July 10, 2014.
  • Hampton, Howard (April 17, 1984). "Black Flag: Waving Goodbye to the World". The Phoenix. department 3 page viii.
  • Jarvis, Clay (September 1, 2003). "Black Flag - My State of war". Stylus Mag . Retrieved Dec 10, 2014.
  • Sideleau, Brandon (Apr 17, 2002). "Black Flag: My State of war (1984)". Punknews.org. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  • Yo, Tim (April 1984). "Black Flag – My War LP". Maximumrocknroll (13).

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_War

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