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Black Flag
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Black Flag is an American punk band founded in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California, by the guitarist Greg Ginn and the singer Keith Morris, under the name Panic. Morris was originally going to drum, but Ginn found his energy and charisma so great that he became the frontman. The band had difficulty finding a permanent bassist and often rehearsed without one, which contributed to Ginn's idiosyncratic guitar sound. Most of the material appeared on Ginn's own label SST Records.
Music and breakthrough
They are regarded as one of the first hardcore punk bands and as a pioneer of post-hardcore. In 1981 Henry Rollins joined as singer, the year of the album Damaged with Rise Above. In 1984 came My War, Family Man and Slip It In, in 1985 In My Head and Loose Nut. In 1986 the group broke up. Reunions followed in 2003 and 2013, with the album What The… in 2013, and a legal dispute between Ginn and the group FLAG.
Influence
The sound combines the raw simplicity of the Ramones with atonal guitar solos. The lyrics deal with resistance to authority, social isolation, poverty and paranoia. Later, influences from heavy metal, free jazz and contemporary classical music were added, and the band played longer, slower songs in a scene of fast three-chord numbers. Black Flag is considered a key figure of American punk, especially on the West Coast.
Listening
Rise Above · Black Flag, 1981Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1981Damaged
- 1984Family Man
- 1984My War
- 1984Slip It In
- 1985In My Head
- 1985Loose Nut
- 2013What The…
Mentioned in other articles
- Hardcore punk Genre
Black Flag from Los Angeles, and Minor Threat and Bad Brains from Washington, played songs of less than two minutes in small venues.