#340 - Black Flag - Damaged (1981)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BLACK FLAG BIO
Initially called Panic, Black Flag was formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, CA. Greg Ginn formed the band with the band's first vocalist Keith Morris (who later went on to form the Circle Jerks). Chuck Dukowski eventually joined to play bass, and Brian Midgol was the initial drummer, later replaced by Columbian drummer Robo. There was another band called Panic, so they changed their name to Black Flag. The name was suggested by Ginn's brother, artist Raymond Pettibon, who also designed the band's iconic logo: a stylized black flag represented as four black bars. Pettibon stated "If a white flag means surrender, a black flag represents anarchy. They had one release with Morris in 1978 (the Nervous Breakdown EP) before he left the band and was replaced with fan of the band Ron Reyes. He was the vocalist on the Jealous Again EP before he quit mid-performance because of escalating violence in the crowd. He was then replaced by another fan, Dez Cadena. Cadena did well as a vocalist, but with no experience singing nor vocal training, combined with an intense touring schedule, he blew out his voice and decided to only play guitar instead. DC Native Henry Rollins (aka Henry Garfield) fronted the band State of Alert, and the two bands had formed a friendship. At an impromptu show at A7 in New York City, Rollins had asked the band to perform "Clocked In", and the band offered to let him sing. Since vocalist Dez Cadena was switching to guitar, the band then invited Rollins to audition. Impressed by his stage demeanor, they asked him to become their permanent vocalist. He acted as roadie for the remainder of the tour while learning Black Flag's songs during sound checks and encores. Rollins came into the group with one recording credit to his name with his prior band, who recorded No Policy, an EP released earlier that year.
There were few opportunities for punk rock bands to perform in Southern California. Los Angeles club The Masque was the center of the L.A. punk scene, but did not often admit bands from outside L.A. proper. Black Flag organized their own gigs, performing at picnics, house parties, schools; any place that was available. They called club owners themselves to arrange appearances, and plastered hundreds of flyers on any available surface to publicize performances. Dukowski reported that the "minimum number of flyers that went out was 500 for a show."
BACKGROUND – DAMAGED
This is the debut album release from the Henry Rollins version of the band, and he only joined weeks before recording this album. It came out on December 5th 1981, and was recorded the prior October in West Hollywood. The band lived in another part of the building that housed the Unicorn Studios.
With Rollins, Black Flag began work on their first full-length album. The sessions for were a source of conflict between the band and engineer/producer Spot, who had worked with the band and the SST label since their early years. Spot had already recorded many of the Damaged tracks with Dez Cadena on vocals (as well as Keith Morris and Ron Reyes) and felt that the band's sound was ruined with the two guitar line-up (these versions can be heard on the albums Everything Went Black and The First Four Years). Whereas the earlier four-piece versions are more focused and much cleaner sounding, the Damaged recordings are more akin to a live recording, with little stereo separation of guitars, and somewhat muddy. When asked about the lo-fidelity production, Spot has said "They wanted it to sound that way." However, the artistic content and expression on the album showed the band pushing punk or hardcore music to a new level, with deeply personal and intensely emotional lyrics. As such, Damaged is generally regarded as Black Flag's most focused recording.
Ginn once stated that after Rollins joined, "We couldn't do songs with a sense of humor anymore; he got into the serious way-out poet thing."
Drummer Robo was wearing bracelets on his left wrist that rattled when he played; the rattling, whenever he hit his snare drum, especially when he hit downbeats on it, became part of the sound