Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard (55 page)

By the end of the ‘70s, Black Flag had switched to a third vocalist, Dez Cadena, and was reaching its widest audience yet. Songs like
Six Pack
, and
TV Party
appealed both to fans who appreciated the irony of lines like “We’ve got nothing better to do / Than watch TV and have a couple of brews” and those who actually identified with it.

Eric Wilson, Sublime:

I was always into the
Six Pack
thing and
TV Party
. Definitely the lyrical content influenced me, just them talking about being young, growing up, and having a good time.

As the band developed a national reputation through constant touring, Black Flag could draw hundreds of young hardcore fans in cities like San Francisco and New York. After one fan, named Henry Garfield, sang with them at a show in New York, they asked him to quit his job as manager of a Washington, D.C. ice cream store and become their new singer. With Garfield – now calling himself Henry Rollins – doing vocals and Cadena switched to rhythm guitar, Black Flag released their first full album,
Damaged
, on SST in 1981. Containing much of the band’s most memorable material – the “party” tunes as well as intensely emotional songs like
Depression
and the anthemic
Rise above
– the album became a definitive document of American hardcore.

Lou Barlow, Sebadoh / Folk Implosion:

When I was 14 or 15, I went to see them play live. Wow, that pretty much killed me. Black Flag was so stripped down. They had all these emotional issues, and that was pretty inspiring.

As the band’s popularity grew, Black Flag aligned itself with the MCA-affiliated Unicorn Records, a larger company that could better distribute their album. However, MCA executives deemed
Damaged
an “anti-parent” record and refused to release it. A two-year legal battle ensued, during which the band was barred from releasing records under the Black Flag name (1982’s outtake collection Everything Went Black listed band members’ names on the cover). Through 1982 and most of 1983, Black Flag spent what could have been their most fruitful years without any new releases. By the time Unicorn went bankrupt and freed Black Flag, the band was down to three members: Ginn (who also played bass under the pseudonym Dale Nixon), Rollins, and former Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson (Dukowski remained active in SST but not the band).

By the time they released
My War
, their long-awaited second studio album, Black Flag had evolved away from the full-on assault of their earlier hardcore punk. Tempos were slower and Ginn had developed a lead style that brought in more metal and prog rock influences. Meanwhile, Rollins had discovered a new avocation in spoken-word poetry, which appeared on the band’s half-instrumental
Family Man
album in 1984.

That same year, with the addition of bassist Kira (Roessler) – a rare female in the male-dominated world of hardcore – Black Flag released two more albums: the hard rocking
Slip It in
and
Live ‘84
. Three more releases came in 1985:
Loose Nut
,
The Process of Weeding out
, and
In My Head
. While the
Process
EP offered punk-jazz fusion instrumentals, the others defined a punk/metal hybrid that would reach mainstream ears a half-decade later as grunge.

Mark Robinson, Unrest:

I saw them when they put out
My War
. It really struck me how they were playing more of a King Crimson-ish prog rock kind of punk – doing different things within the punk construct – it wasn’t straight-ahead stuff. With Unrest, we were really into King Crimson and also into punk, so the fact that Black Flag could cross over the two genres was appealing to us.

By late 1985, internal tensions in the band led to the departure of both Stevenson and Kira (who married
Minutemen
bassist Mike Watt and formed the duo DOS with him). Rollins, meanwhile, became more interested in spoken-word and writing projects (and started hanging out with fellow rising stars like Michael Stipe and Nick Cave). Ginn, who had formed the instrumental side band Gone to better explore new directions, decided to end Black Flag in the summer of ‘86.

While Ginn has continued with Gone and solo albums, he has devoted much of his time to running SST with Dukowski. With releases by hardcore forefathers the
Minutemen
,
Bad Brains
,
Hüsker Dü
, and the Descendents – as well as future alternative rockers the Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and Screaming Trees – SST became the preeminent indie of the ‘80s. Apparently, Ginn’s industriousness also rubbed off on Rollins, who has put out seven solo albums (mostly spoken word), and another seven as leader of the Rollins Band. In addition, Rollins has run a record label (Infinite Zero) and publishing company (2.13.61), written books of poetry and prose (including the Black Flag tour diary Get in the Van), appeared in films (including 1997’s Lost Highway), and done ads for Apple Computers. He participated in the first Lollapalooza and now records for the Spielberg/Katzenberg/Geffen label Dreamworks.

DISCOGRAPHY

Damaged
(SST, 1981)
; their debut album and first release featuring Henry Rollins, this hardcore classic includes
Rise above
and
TV Party
.

Everything Went Black
(SST, 1982)
; a double album of alternate takes from pre-Rollins recordings and radio promos.

The First Four Years
(SST, 1983)
; collects all the pre-Rollins EPs and singles, including 1978’s
Nervous Breakdown
and ‘80s
Jealous Again
.

My War
(SST, 1983)
; a long-awaited follow-up to
Damaged
, showing a move away from traditional hardcore to slower and more complex songs.

Family Man
(SST, 1984)
; features both instrumentals and Henry Rollins spoken word.

Slip It in
(SST, 1984)
; an uneven mix of the band’s further explorations into a punk-metal hybrid.

Live ‘84
(SST, 1984)
; a cassette-only live recording.

Loose Nut
(SST, 1985)
; a slight return to punk roots, including the late-career classic
Annihilate This Week
.

Process of Weeding out
(SST, 1985)
; an instrumental four-song EP, with a punk/jazz fusion bent.

In My Head
(SST, 1985)
; the final studio recording, ending the band on a relative high note.

DEAD KENNEDYS

Micky “Gene Ween” Melehiondo, Ween:

When I first head the name Dead Kennedys, I thought it was the fucking funniest thing. I knew it was for me, it was so totally offensive. Once I heard the Dead Kennedys I denounced everything else – it became as close to a religion as anything – I wrote “DK” on everything I owned.

With outrageous songs delivered with equal parts frenzy and intelligence, the Dead Kennedys gave American punk rock a political voice. And when confronted with a challenge to its free speech rights, the band fought the system wholeheartedly – even to the point that it consumed and destroyed them. Their commitment to backing up words with action makes them an inspiration to politically oriented groups in punk and beyond, while their twisted humor and unorthodox take on punk has paved the way for bands like the Butthole Surfers. Through their music as well as their label – which has fostered the careers of many younger bands – the Dead Kennedys’ legacy continues long after the band has gone.

King Coffey, Butthole Surfers:

They were probably most influential on us for the sheer fact that they put out our first two records. They also took us out on tour, which exposed us to the rest of the world. They were kind of our mentors to a large degree.

Before he became Jello Biafra, he was Eric Boucher of Boulder, Colorado. Politicized at a young age by events such as the Vietnam War and later Watergate, Boucher early on developed a healthy skepticism for government and a contrarian attitude. While most kids in school enjoyed the Eagles, Boucher sought out the
Stooges
and
MC5
. After a trip to London in the summer of 1977 – where he encountered
Wire
and other punk bands – Boucher moved to the Bay area for college. Inspired by early San Francisco punk bands like the Nuns and the Dils, and more artsy groups like the
Residents
, Boucher dropped out of school after one semester to form his own band.

After only a week’s rehearsal in July 1978, Boucher – now Jello Biafra – and his band the Dead Kennedys debuted. Joining him was bassist Klaus Flouride, drummer Bruce Slesinger (a.k.a. Ted), guitarist East Bay Ray (Glasser), and briefly, the enigmatic 6025 (a.k.a. Carlos). Centered in what has long been a hotbed of liberal activism, the Bay area punk scene was naturally more politically oriented than the L.A. scene, and the Dead Kennedys thrived in this environment. Their first single
California über alles
, released in 1979 on the band’s own Alternative Tentacles label, targeted then-governor Jerry Brown and his mob of “zen fascists.” A few months later, Biafra caused further controversy by running for mayor of San Francisco on the slogan, “There’s always room for Jello.” Despite the campaign’s absurdity, Biafra proved himself an intelligent and impassioned public speaker, and even earned 3.5 percent of the votes.

Leaving political aspirations behind, in 1980 Biafra and the Dead Kennedys released an equally provocative second single called
Holiday in Cambodia
and a debut album,
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
. On songs like
Kill the Poor
and
Let’s Lynch the Landlord
, Biafra railed against militarism, consumer culture, conformity, and complacency in a quavery voice that all but codified American punk’s political agenda. Overshadowed by the rhetoric, but equally impressive, were East Bay Ray’s dynamic guitar and a garage pop rhythm section that kept the songs moving in unpredictable directions. Like Biafra’s lyrics, the band’s music challenged existing conventions – even punk ones.

Lou Barlow, Sebadoh / Folk Implosion:

Hearing
Holiday in Cambodia
was so exciting, they sounded really aggressive and kind of psychedelic too. It appealed to me in a way Hendrix had appealed to me when I first heard “Purple Haze” – “How do they make those sounds?” The combination of surf guitar, psychedelic, heavy metal – but played really fast – appealed to me a lot. After that I just got into faster and faster music.

When the band’s next single,
Too Drunk to Fuck
, became a hit in England, the DKs decided to use Alternative Tentacles to export American punk to Europe. While British punk styles had influenced American music for years, with the 1981 compilation Let Them Eat Jellybeans, American bands like
Black Flag
,
Flipper
,
Half Japanese
, and
Bad Brains
were able to have a large impart on expanding European punk sounds. At home, the Dead Kennedys’ EP
In God We Trust, Inc.
took aim not only at organized religion and the Reagan administration, but also at divisive elements within the punk scene (
Nazi Punks Fuck off
). While the record’s faster pace reflected an influence of newer hardcore bands like
Hüsker Dü
(released by Alternative Tentacles in Europe), 1982’s
Plastic Surgery Disasters
returned to the more varied sounds of
Fresh Fruit
, with songs like
Terminal Preppie
and
Winnebago Warrior
.

Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses:

DKs were my soundtrack for a whole year, when I was 16. I was just making copies of demos and sending them off to record companies all day and night, and doing terrible paintings for art school. I played the DKs all the time... I sang like Jello for years. I thought it was a really cool voice, but now there are little chickies who think they sound like me when really they sound like Jello Biafra, who they’ve never heard of.

As the Dead Kennedys’ appearances at demonstrations – including rallies at the 1984 Democratic and Republican conventions – established the band as punk’s most committed agitators, their third album,
Frankenchrist
, landed them in the midst of a political battle of their own. The album’s poster insert featured a work by well-known Swiss surrealist H. R. Giger which depicted uniform rows of penises as a comment on consumerism and conformity. California law enforcement deemed the image pornographic and, in a raid on Alternative Tentacles offices, seized all copies of Frankenchrist. Charged with “distribution of harmful matter to minors,” Biafra and four others faced a possible year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

The attention and resources devoted to Biafra’s obscenity trial exacerbated tensions within the band. By the time their long-delayed fourth album,
Bedtime for Democracy
, came out – filled with inserts detailing Biafra’s case and the right-wing crusade against music – the Dead Kennedys had already decided to call it quits. Though Biafra eventually won his war against censorship when his case was dismissed (the jury deadlocked), with his band dissolved and his records banned from stores across the country, he seemed to have lost most of the battles along the way. What remained, though, was his integrity and a new career as an anti-censorship spokesperson.