Black Flag

Black Flag stood out as the quintessential hardcore punk outfit from Los Angeles in numerous respects. While their sound incorporated elements of heavy metal alongside experimental noise and jazz far more often than most peers in the hardcore realm, the group shaped the visual style and overall approach that came to define the movement. Their nonstop roadwork helped nurture the nationwide underground punk community, as the band performed across every region of the country year after year and left an imprint on innumerable subsequent acts. Despite a protracted legal battle that stalled their studio output and led to a long succession of self-released titles, Black Flag remained one of the most pivotal American post-punk ensembles. Well over a decade before punk-metal hybrids gained mainstream traction, they forged a fierce, abrasive, and sardonic blend of subterranean sensibilities with visceral metallic force. Their words touched on societal critique and ideological stances, yet always filtered through raw, disillusioned rage that sometimes veered into dark humor. At the same time, the band displayed a clear affinity for avant-garde circles, evident in both sonic exploration and an appreciation for verse, which underscored their roots in the underground and kept them from devolving into straightforward heavy metal. Regardless of personnel shifts that repeatedly altered the lineup over time, the Black Flag moniker and four-bar emblem achieved iconic status within punk.

Guitarist Greg Ginn, a UCLA alumnus, launched the band in 1976 alongside bassist Chuck Dukowski. The pair quickly enlisted drummer Brian Migdol and singer Keith Morris. Concurrently, Ginn and Dukowski established the independent imprint SST, which issued the group’s debut EP, Nervous Breakdown, in 1978. Morris and Migdol exited the next year—after which Morris founded the Circle Jerks—and were succeeded by Ron Reyes and Robo. With the arrival of 1980’s Jealous Again, Black Flag had already begun crisscrossing the United States on tour, steadily cultivating a small yet devoted audience. Following that release, Reyes departed and Dez Cadena stepped in, though Cadena soon shifted to guitar, imparting a heavier tone by 1981; his vocal replacement was Henry Rollins, a Washington, D.C., admirer who had spontaneously joined the band onstage during a New York gig.

In early 1981 Black Flag inked a deal with Unicorn Records, an MCA subsidiary. They submitted their first full-length effort, Damaged, but the label declined to issue it, deeming the material excessively provocative and profane. Ginn proceeded to put the album out on SST anyway, where it garnered widespread critical praise. Unicorn promptly filed suit against the band and the label over the release, blocking Black Flag from employing its name or logo on any recordings for the ensuing two years. Throughout the litigation the musicians kept touring and covertly issued Everything Went Black, a double-album overview that omitted any band reference while still listing member names on the cover. The conflict concluded in 1983 when Unicorn declared bankruptcy, returning rights to the Black Flag identity and insignia to the group, by which point Cadena had already left to start his own project.

Intent on compensating for the lost period, Black Flag turned extraordinarily productive upon resuming recording in 1984. A revised configuration—Ginn handling guitar and bass (the latter credited under the alias Dale Nixon), Rollins, and drummer Bill Stevenson—tracked My War and Family Man. Once those sessions wrapped, bassist Kira Roessler joined, and the expanded lineup completed Slip It In, the third official album of that year. Beyond those three LPs, the band also put out the cassette-only Live ’84, the retrospective The First Four Years, and a properly credited reissue of Everything Went Black. The relentless schedule persisted into 1985 with the arrival of Loose Nut, The Process of Weeding Out, and In My Head. By year’s end Anthony Martinez had supplanted Stevenson on drums, and for the 1986 tour supporting the live set Who’s Got the 10½?, Cel Revuelta replaced Roessler on bass.

Ginn dissolved the band in fall 1986. He later recorded two albums with the more experimental project Gone, yet devoted most energy to operating SST, which had emerged as one of the era’s leading American independents. By the time of the breakup, SST had already documented releases from acts including Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen, Meat Puppets, and Sonic Youth. Throughout much of the late ’80s Ginn stepped away from performing to focus on the label, which during those years introduced early material from Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr., and Screaming Trees. He reentered music in 1993 with a solo album on his newly founded Cruz imprint and, over the following two decades, issued dozens more recordings, some credited to himself and others to groups such as Confront James, Hor, Jambang, El Bad, and the Taylor Texas Corrugators.

After the split, Henry Rollins assembled the Rollins Band. For the remainder of the ’80s he issued recordings with that group on multiple labels while also producing solo spoken-word works, establishing himself as one of alternative music’s most visible personalities. In 1994 Rollins released the memoir Get in the Van chronicling his Black Flag tenure, whose success helped renew attention toward the band’s catalog. Although both Ginn and Rollins long avoided performing the group’s material, Rollins participated in the 2002 benefit project Rise Above, a set of Black Flag covers featuring various guest vocalists that supported the legal defense of the West Memphis Three. The Rollins Band backed the effort with a corresponding benefit tour on which Rollins and Keith Morris performed signature Black Flag songs. In 2003 Ginn briefly reconvened the band for three benefit concerts aiding cat-rescue causes, though many followers noted the absence of most prior members aside from Robo, Cadena, and Revuelta.

Late in 2011, during Goldenvoice’s 30th-anniversary events, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, and Bill Stevenson teamed with Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton for a brief selection of early Black Flag numbers. Strong audience response prompted the quartet to organize a full tour in 2013 under the name FLAG, with Dez Cadena added to the lineup. Around the same period Greg Ginn announced his own reactivation of Black Flag for concerts and a new studio album, bringing back Ron Reyes on vocals and enlisting Gregory Moore (also known as Gregory Amoore), a prior collaborator on Ginn’s solo work, on drums. The reconstituted Black Flag delivered What The … in late 2013, roughly two months after a judge rejected Ginn’s trademark-infringement claim against the members of FLAG.