Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Black Flag - 1982 Demo


When Black Flag released Damaged originally on Unicorn Records, parent company MCA Records refused to distribute the record for being "anti-parent". The band took matter into their own hands and had the pressing plant put a sticker over the MCA logo and tried to release it themselves on SST Records. Unicorn Records soon filed suit against Black Flag siting breach of contract. During the legal tie up's Black Flag was not to release any records with their band name on the label. To counter this, the band released the double lp of demo recordings and studio outtakes entitled "Everything Went Black" in 1983. Black Flag already had new songs written for a new album during this time but waited until they were out of legal troubles with Unicorn/MCA to release any of it. During this time Black Flag recorded their 1982 demo. Black Flag at this time was still a five piece with Rollins on vocals, Ginn on first guitar, former vocalist Dez on second guitar, Chuck Dukowski on bass, and the only appearance of Chuck Biscuits on drums. These recordings have been bootlegged a couple of times on vinyl with extra tracks added from a live radio performance. I decided that I just wanted to upload the original demo recordings. Most of the songs on the demo will later be released on Black Flag's next two releases, My War and Slip It In (both released in 1984). The demo also has two never officially released songs What Can You Believe and Yes I Know. Overall, demo recording or not, these songs are some of the best Black Flag performances ever recorded. Chuck Biscuits drumming ability really take the band to new levels of energy and playing skill, and the Greg Ginn's solo on Black Coffee alone is awesome. Dez on second guitar really add to the bands power as well. I wish this lineup would have stuck around until the end. Sadly, it was short lived, and only this demo exists from this lineup. Fuck these songs rule.

Click HERE to download


Black Flag live at the Ritz, 1982 as a five piece

1 comment:

  1. I always loved this session, it has the rawness of Damaged, but in the later material. A great lineup on this as well.

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