Just as I often have little to say about soul albums (see yesterday's entry), so too is there often little to say about hardcore punk. It does what it does, usually in around two minutes of thrashy noise – the main differences between the bands are whether the lyrics are a pastiche of Fifties teen angst (mainly USA) or nihilistic political statement (mainly UK).
Black Flag are a little different. For one thing, not every track is the same kind of hyper-fast, hyper-grungy assault – there’s structure to the tunes, even the shorter one. No More, for example, starts with an ominous drum sound that gets faster and faster before it explodes into noise. There’s even some squealy guitar soloing going on, notably on Thirsty And Miserable from, I think, Greg Ginn who is the primary songwriter. Two guitarists are credited, I think the other, Dick Cadena, provides the heavy rhythm rather than the soloing.
Henry Rollins is the vocalist, something of an elder statesman of American punk including, of all things, a collaboration with William Shatner (listen to I Can't Get Behind That if you get the chance). Being punk, he tends towards the shouty end of the spectrum, but with style. Damaged is a track that sees him ranting over the top of a demented musical beat, much like a Public Image Limited track, a lot of primal screams interlaced with how he’s damaged and can no longer do the light and fun things he used to do.
Meanwhile, TV Party is wryly witty, sort of blending the two punk staples of teen angst and nihilism, with Rollins happily declaring at the start that it’s “We've got nothing better to do
than watch TV and have a couple of brews” but as the song progresses we learn that the reason he and his mates stay in and watch TV is that “TV news shows what it's like out there. It's a scare. You can go out if you want, we wouldn't dare” but as a kicker at the end is that the TV set is broken, leaving the group at a loss - “What are we gonna talk about? I don't know! We're gonna miss our favorite shows!”
That mix of hardcore and wit puts Black Flag in the same kind of genre as The Damned, although musically they’re not as varied as The Damned. But it shows that there’s more going on within the music than simply shouting.
And that, my friends, is the end of 1981.
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