The two stories hit the web on Friday, January 25, within a couple hours of each other. First, at 11:30 AM, Invisible Oranges reported that legendary hardcore band Black Flag was reuniting. Then, at 1:30 PM, Pitchfork revealed that a quartet calling themselves FLAG, featuring three former Black Flag members, would be touring this year, performing material from "all eras of Black Flag's history."
The details revealed a complicated and not entirely kosher situation for both of these reunion lineups. Greg Ginn, Black Flag's lead guitarist and only constant member through their nine-year history, will be working with vocalist Ron Reyes, the second of Black Flag's four singers, who recorded 1980's Jealous Again EP with the group. The new Black Flag lineup will also feature Gregory Moore, aka "Drummer," who has been manning the kit for Ginn's on-again off-again instrumental trio Gone since the early 90s, and "Dale Nixon," a pseudonym Ginn used when he performed the bass tracks on Black Flag's 1983 album My War. In reality, this means Ginn will be playing both guitar and bass in the reformed Black Flag.
Meanwhile, FLAG consists of three former members of Black Flag--original vocalist Keith Morris, who sang on Black Flag's debut EP, Nervous Breakdown, in 1978, before leaving to form The Circle Jerks, another 80s LA hardcore band who are legendary in their own right; original Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski, who played in Black Flag from 1977 until mid-1983, leaving just before the recording of the My War album; and drummer Bill Stevenson, who played drums in Black Flag from late 1982 until early 1985 and appeared on six of their albums (My War, Slip It In, Family Man, Loose Nut, The Process Of Weeding Out, and In My Head). Like the reunited Black Flag, FLAG also features a member who was never previously in Black Flag--guitarist Stephen Egerton, who has played with Stevenson in The Descendents and All since 1985. This lineup previously performed a short set of Black Flag songs at a 30th Anniversary show for California promotion firm Goldenvoice in December 2011.
The simultaneous appearance, 27 years after Black Flag's breakup, of two competing reunions, both of which have a somewhat but not fully valid claim to be the true reincarnation of the original band, is the latest development in a cold war between various ex-members of Black Flag that has roots dating all the way back to the band's earliest years. In Stevie Chick's excellent biography of the band, Spray Paint The Walls, the author extensively documents the intra-band struggles, fueled by animosity and resentment, that led Black Flag, unlike most of the other early hardcore bands, to have a constantly changing lineup. Being a member of Black Flag was a hard job that only got more difficult in light of the band's inability, throughout their career, to earn significant profits. Being in Black Flag required too much work to allow members to have other jobs, and yet paid so little that they could barely afford food and shelter. In Get In The Van, his chronicle of his years in Black Flag, Henry Rollins tells a story about spending eight hours on the streets of LA putting up posters for an upcoming show, and literally having $1 with which to buy food for the day.
It wasn't just random circumstance that created this situation. Greg Ginn's military-style work ethic dictated the parameters of the Black Flag experience. He demanded a punishing practice regimen, the equivalent of a 40-hour-a-week job, and kept the band on the road as often as he could. Ginn was the band's chief songwriter and, by 1979, the only original member. He saw Black Flag as his band, and the band's style as something that should grow and change with his own personal musical evolution. In recent years, Ginn has been dismissive of the raging hardcore punk of the band's early years--regardless of the fact that this sound had built Black Flag's initial popularity, Ginn had no qualms about leaving it behind, and belittled his erstwhile bandmates who encouraged him to stick with the sound that had made them successful. "Band-member changes and evolution led it to where it could be more improvised," Ginn told Invisible Oranges in a 2012 interview. "Early on, the other band members pretty much discouraged that kind of stuff. [In] the early punk scene, there was a certain strain of 'You shouldn’t practice; you should just bang it out, and we’ll be fine.' And that’s something I always went against the grain about. And sometimes that meant going against bandmates."
The fundamental conflict between Ginn and one of his bandmates was (and perhaps still is) with Henry Rollins, Black Flag's fourth and longest-tenured singer, who joined the band in 1981 and remained in the lineup until their breakup in summer 1986. In some ways, Ginn's role in Black Flag was contradictory--while behind the scenes, he was the hard-driving bandleader whose work ethic was second to none, he preferred to stay out of the public spotlight, and ceded the role of band spokesperson to others. Bassist Chuck Dukowski filled the position in the early days, but with Dukowski's 1983 departure from the group, the spotlight fell more and more on Rollins. A menacing yet charismatic frontman with a gift for spontaneous eloquence, Rollins was a confident spokesperson who drew more and more attention, and not just for Black Flag. By 1984, he was also publishing books of poetry and essays, and doing solo spoken-word tours, both of which he continues to do today. Rollins's abusive relationship with his father (discussed extensively both in Rollins's writing and in Turned On, James Parker's biography of Rollins) prepared him for his relationship with Ginn. A stern, male authority figure that was impossible to satisfy was nothing new for Rollins, and he was prepared to put up with whatever Ginn could dish out. Between Rollins joining Black Flag and the band's eventual dissolution, nine other members quit the band, but Rollins stuck it out to the bitter end--it was Ginn who ultimately made the choice to end Black Flag in 1986.
The current dueling-reunions situation has a strong parallel to a previous flareup in tensions between ex-members. In 2002, as part of some charity work Rollins did to help the West Memphis Three, he and the members of his post-Black Flag group Rollins Band put together an album entitled Rise Above. This was a compilation of 24 Black Flag covers, performed by the Rollins Band and featuring guest vocalists including Iggy Pop, Ice T, and Hank Williams III. Rollins himself sang seven songs, and former Black Flag members Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, and Kira Roessler all made appearances on the album. The tour supporting the album featured the Rollins Band performing full sets of Black Flag material, with vocal duties divided between Rollins and Keith Morris. The tour was widely considered to be a hit--no one was under any illusion that they were seeing a Black Flag reunion, but the Rollins Band played the songs well, and Morris and Rollins both delivered high-quality vocal performances.
Not one to be outdone, a frustrated Ginn organized several LA-area shows in 2003. Referring to this as a Black Flag: The First Four Years reunion, in reference to the compilation that collects the band's four pre-Rollins releases, Ginn debuted the live incarnation of "Dale Nixon" at these shows--a machine that played back bass tracks that Ginn had pre-recorded. Inexplicably beginning the shows with a performance of the band's My War album in its entirety (an album that featured Henry Rollins and was definitely not from the band's "first four years"), Ginn and the "Dale Nixon" machine were accompanied by pro skater Mike Vallely on vocals and Gregory Moore on drums. The bass machine was reported by attendees to be a malfunctioning clusterfuck, while the choice to include My War in a "first four years" reunion was widely regarded as questionable, to say the least. A second set featured third Black Flag singer Dez Cadena on vocals, 1978-81 drummer Robo, and final bassist C'el Revuelta (only in the band for one 1986 tour). Without the bass machine, this set was apparently less prone to difficulties, but still not all that impressive.
While Rollins is, shockingly, completely uninvolved in this latest example of the lingering tensions between ex-members of Black Flag, the links between this incident of dueling reunions and the previous one are undeniable. In reality, Greg Ginn's claim on the Black Flag name and legacy is the most valid. He wrote the vast majority of their songs and was the only member who stayed in the band throughout its history. However, to Ginn, Black Flag is whatever he says it is. He feels no loyalty to the songs and albums that have given the band such a revered place in history. Towards the end of the band's career, tempos grew slower, songs got longer and more complex, and simple, memorable hardcore riffs were in short supply. There's a story related in Spray Paint The Walls about the recording of the band's last album, In My Head (1985), in which Rollins supposedly expressed a desire to slow down Ginn's headlong innovation, "let the fans catch up a little." Ginn responded with disdain, and instead, In My Head is weirder than ever, and regarded by most fans as Black Flag's worst album. Over 25 years later, Ginn generally plays in either improv jazz ensembles or jam bands, and has recently expressed admiration for jamtronica groups like STS9 and Disco Biscuits. With plans for a new album announced at the same time as the reformation, it seems likely that we can look forward to a collection of songs that makes In My Head and other less-loved later Black Flag material seem quite conventional and crowd-pleasing.
Meanwhile, FLAG has a more similar profile to the 2003 Rise Above tour on which the Rollins Band faithfully recreated the most popular Black Flag material. Keith Morris's involvement is a common factor, and Morris has spent his recent years playing in OFF!, a fast hardcore band featuring members of other well-known Southern California hardcore bands of various eras (Redd Kross, Burning Brides, Hot Snakes, etc). Stevenson and Egerton are still active touring musicians with both the Descendents and All, bands that feature complex song structures at times but retain a solid connection to the roots of punk rock. Dukowski has been least active of the four band members in recent years, but has led the Chuck Dukowski Sextet, a jazzy postpunk group that proves his ongoing affinity for the punk mentality. As with the 2003 Rollins Band tour, FLAG doesn't appear to have any ambition to write new material; instead, it seems they are content to have fun onstage, playing old Black Flag songs that are well-loved by hardcore fans the world over. If Ginn's Black Flag revival is an attempt to carry on the band's original creative spirit, FLAG is more like a reverent theatrical revue.
And really, neither one of these options are entirely satisfying. For fans who feel some sense of loyalty to the true Black Flag, the Ginn-led revival of that band looks better on paper. But those fans are also aware enough to realize that the material Ginn comes up with for this new incarnation will most likely bear no resemblance to the music that originally led them to love Black Flag. While the FLAG tour promises a much more faithful recreation of what made everyone love Black Flag, the truth is that it's more like a cover band than anything deserving to be labeled a reunion. FLAG will probably put on a more enjoyable live show, but one devoid of creativity. So which will you choose--the true original and their likely-terrible attempt to carry on Black Flag's legacy, or the capable and crowd-pleasing but completely uncreative high-profile cover band? Let's face it--both of these choices suck. I think I'll stay at home and listen to Damaged instead.
Words by Andrew Necci
"Can't Decide" Illustrations by Brian Walsby