Wasted (by the heat, by the police)

After being assaulted by the police a few short weekends ago, Ontario is now being assaulted with an intense heat wave, so I'm sticking inside to avoid provocation with either. I was spending that last week outside biking, hence no updates.

Any discussion of the police should provoke a discussion of Black Flag. Each action has an equal opposite reaction right? Well, actually I guess even they did not believe it was equal; "Understand we're fighting a war we can't win..." Anyways, a recent thread on VLV (which is currently down so I cannot link you) prompted the following question:

Which is better; the Black Flag or Circle Jerks rendition of the Ginn masterpiece, "Wasted" ?






I think it is pretty crazy that we even have these two versions, both with Morris on vocals. Of course Circle Jerks stole the song, along with other Black Flag tunes such as "I Don't Care" which appears as a demo on Everything Went Black, and "Red Tape," which was never properly released, as well as some Redd Kross songs. Black Flag's response was to re-record "I Don't Care" with new lyrics. This is the song "You Bet We've Got Something Personal Against You!", the last track on the Jealous Again EP.

So which is better? If you know me at all, then you know my vote is being given to Black Flag. Don't get me wrong though, even with the stolen song stigma, Group Sex rips. More interestingly however, is how each respective take on the song represents the group. For example, The Circle Jerks, and Group Sex, are enjoyed by most as a quirky and fast punk band - a great representation of early Cali hardcore. Their version matches this description, with it's sped up tempo, fairly clear guitar sound, and shouted vocals. Black Flag on the other hand are a whole other entity, even if this may not have been established at the time of the Nervous Breakdown release. Even just the way their  name is brought up sounds serious and heavy, music verging on psychotic. Their original version of Wasted matches such an identity as it is being formed. For a seminal classic punk 7" (and years before side two of My War was even conceived), the whole sound is heavy as fuck, and not to be messed with. The instrumental opening is simply brooding, whereas the Circle Jerks version jumps in with vocals immediately. The Black Flag version is simply more

In conclusion, the Black Flag version is better because the Circle Jerks version sounds like an angry punk kid, whereas the Black Flag version sounds like a crazy guy who might attack you with a knife. It's simply much more memorable. This will get examined in greater depth later.

Anyway, while we're on a tangent about police or something, remember that you should buy the zine because it comes with the new Germ Attak 7", Death to Cops, with crazy artwork to boot (view side panel). Toronto: my band is playing there on Saturday, I'll bring copies with me.

Post Nazi Germany is Great

When imports are brought up, I think most people would think of two things. Crazily expensive (it must be because of the shipping...) Japanese imports with those weird cardboard panels with all the Japanese letters, and the mandatory 3 B Sides that no one in any other hemisphere got. And then there's boring UK imports, which are generally CDs of dumb bands that people buy in malls. Rather than a cool panel like the Japanese have with cool writing, some bald sticker with some Helvetica ripoff typeface proclaims: UK Import. Boring.


I don't know about other music, but it seems like in the underground scene, there's a lot of cool German pressings of stuff. I guess they're not imports, but I import them through the power of eBay I guess. Here's a select few.


Minor Threat's Out of Step EP or LP, I don't even know what to classify it, was pressed in the UK (not all UK stuff is boring I guess) as well as Germany. The trademark blue/turquoise stripe gets a green treatment, and recommended price is a very fair 12 DM (Deutsch Marks). The UK has similar changes; red stripe and £2.50 . What makes the German pressing superior to the others is the song titles are listed in German. Ex: Betray becomes Verraten. How bad ass is that? Despite being a German pressing, this remains on Dischord.

Black Flag had a few albums pressed in Germany on what is possibly the coolest label name ever: Aggressive Rockproduktionen. Everything Went Black is pretty cool for a few reasons. First of all, one thing that pisses me off about this album, is that most versions say Everything Went Black on the cover, and then the spine says Everything Went to Black. SST has got to get their shit together like Aggressive Rockproduktionen, who got it right both times. This is also a double LP, but it's a gatefold, with lyrics and pictures of other Aggressive Rockproduktionen releases. The back is similar to the normal one, with a Black Flag bio, but this one is in German. I wonder if the translation is decent or not.




This last one is something I saw on eBay that I don't own, but would like to. The Gorilla Biscuits self titled 7" was apparently pressed on a 12" in Germany. Has the original pressing's lighter blue lettering, and a full size insert, that looks different from the 7" version. Maybe I'll bid hard and include a better writeup for the zine. Speaking of the zine, it will feature other cool German pressings, so you can't always rely on this online garbage as being complete. These photos were garbage, so expect much better photos in the zine that won't result in way too much flash.

Shout out to Soural

"Record collections should be carefully cultivated, like in horticulture"

Finner linked me to this interview with Stephen Blush, the man behind both renditions of American Hardcore. Another Black Flag fanatic, but his collection certainly dwarfs mine. Other similarities in our collection includes Captain Sensible's infamous "Wot", but I have the 7" as well as the LP (Stephen displays the 12" single.) See for yourself here.

Q: Dirtiest, sexiest , filthiest album cover you know or own?

A: Nig-Heist Snort My Load

Anti-Parent

2008, in terms of record collecting, was defined for me by Black Flag. After listening to Black Flag for several years, something clicked, and I had gained a deeper understanding of the band - and yes that includes the last 2, 3, or 4 + albums depending on how much of a skeptic you are. So a search began to gain ownership of a large chunk of hardcore history; the mighty Black Flag discography, with as many pressings as I could. This would unfortunately be a hunt largely carried out over the internet, but I also found some good stuff in Montreal and through trades. If I compare this scavenger hunt to a baseball games, I've easily covered first base (current pressings), 2nd base has mostly been cleared (Original pressings and promos that aren't too rare) and I've been running to 3rd base (90s reissues on coloured vinyl, which are surprisingly more costly than most first presses). Home base would of course be an original copy of Nervous Breakdown with the Black Cover in a baggie sealed with an SST sticker... one day.

Anyway, I began to document the pressing information of the records, in an effort to createsomething similar to misfitscentral.com, but stopped because I had no scanner for LPs, but you can see my work in progress here.

Creating that site made me change the way I looked at records. Like my Black Flag worship, I dove deeper than ever before, and a hobby became a historical archive. Going through every fine detail of each record, including noting the matrix engravings, uncovered things I would have never noticed before, and hadn't read anywhere else before. Example? 4th Pressing (red cover, gold vinyl) and onward of Nervous Breakdown has a typo of the timing for Nervous Breakdown (2:55 instead of 2:05). A discovery only titillating for assholes I guess.

This is my scan, please don't steal.