Now that I've been blasting so much newer weirdo hardcore and fucked-up punk, I've been getting a gnawing urge to pull out all of Black Flag's old records that had such a strong hand in influencing not only all of the bent adolescent skuzz that I'm addicted to, but also much of the noisy, brutal rock and sludgy crush that makes up so much of the music that I carry here at C-Blast. And what better place to start than with those early 7"s that introduced Black Flag's ferocious punk to the world...

Here it is, the first record from Black Flag, five minutes of visceral suburban mutant rage circa 1978 blasted with all of the immolating heat of a nuclear explosion, packaged with the Raymond Pettibone's disturbing, iconic artwork. This of course is from the original lineup that had Keith Morris (later of the Circle Jerks) on vocals, and if you're some poor soul who loved that box set from Morris's new hardcore band Off! and hasn't heard his work from 'Flag, oh boy... The a-side "Nervous Breakdown" is a classic Black Flag jam, a snarling ode to psychological destruction painted in raging buzz saw guitars and howling distress as Morris slobbers his cynical lyrics all over himself. Compared to where hardcore would head a couple of years later, it's not that fast or extreme, but it's definitely loaded with power, and in 1978 this was as violent as music could get. The flipside then jams three more songs down yer throat in a row, "Fix Me", "I've Had It", "Wasted", each one a perfect blast of primitive hardcore. Of course, Black Flag would get wonkier and weirder with later albums and lineups, but this early stuff is unfuckwithable, the apex of brutal L.A. punk.