Western Addiction

Western Addiction signaled their allegiance to pioneering West Coast hardcore act Black Flag by placing the track “Church of Black Flag” on their first Fat Wreck Chords album, Cognicide. Thick, angular riffs rode atop weighty bass lines while Jason Hall barked a caustic blend of sarcasm and confrontation from the microphone. The record even revived vintage artwork motifs. Such choices reflected the quartet’s deliberate effort to revive classic hardcore amid the blurred hybrid styles dominating mid-2000s punk. Hall, Enemy You guitarist Ken Yamazaki, drummer Chad Williams, and bassist Chicken—likewise an Enemy You alumnus—had first connected as coworkers at Fat Wreck Chords. Operating out of San Francisco, the group put out the Remember to Dismember EP in 2003 and a split 7-inch on No Idea with New Mexican Disaster Squad ahead of Cognicide’s arrival in November 2005.