Henry Rollins/Black Flag

unaccustomed as i am to self-promotion, and hoping this doesn't break ilx rules at all, can i slip a tiny plug in here for my Black Flag biography, Spray Paint The Walls, about to be released by Omnibus? you can read an extract at the Quietus here - http://thequietus.com/articles/03049-an-extract-from-stevie-chick-s-spray-paint-the-walls-the-story-of-black-flag - if yr interested...

nice, stevie! i would read this book.

thanks scott!

Hehe very cool to see this come to fruition after all the legwork you put in to getting the interviews!

i know, it feels like YEARS since we visited you in the OC...

Time to come back!

nice, stevie! i would read this book.

― scott seward, Tuesday, November 3, 2009 7:16 AM

looking forward to this!

I don't think there's any band that's more entertaining to read about than black flag

the flag stuff from that rollins biog is a hoot

lol, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, so this was great to read. I was about 6 months old when this concert took place, so I missed it sadly. This was a legendary story, though. Both Morris and Ginn went to my high school (as did most of the Descendants, I believe). I think there's like a great unwritten screenplay about late 70s punk/beach town culture clashes. Maybe I need to write it. Anyway -- I will read this book! Black Flag is totally fun to read about.

lol polliwog park

they used to have this amazing play structure called "The Sunken Galleon" there. oh man, it was so dangerous. can't believe I didn't die on that thing.

stevie i am going to buy and read yr book, exciting!

tyler have you read "enter naomi" by joe carducci? there's some good stuff in there in the vein of what you're talking about

there is stuff about the sunken galleon in Carducci's book?! kidding -- i haven't read it but I should. i talked to Ginn once for my high school newspaper ... it didn't go very well!

Dude, Stevie, that extract is amazing. You can feel the dichotomies writhing as they are forced to stare each other in the face, then you notice that one face is full of blood.

I will buy the hell out of this book.

thank you all for the kind words and promises of purchase, dudes - and tyler, i second matt's recommendation of 'enter naomi', which is a really great personal take on that whole era (buy my book 1st tho!). was a great thrill to visit polliwog while researching the book, and soak up the pleasant valley sunday vibe that the Flag doubtless shattered that afternoon...

Great stuff Stevie, I'm in. When does it come out in the UK?

should be out now, but i think there have been slight delays - its still a pre-order on amazon... i have yet to see a copy!

it is in stock on amazon! also, i'll be doing a reading/q&a at filthy mcnasty's on tuesday november 10th, as part of the Talking Music Revolutions Volume Four: The Metal Years event, alongside such awesome writers as Carol Clerk, John Robb, Joel McIver, Tommy Udo and Suzanne Moore, so come along if yr in London that night.

thus endeth my plugging...

Suzanne Moore

wait what

I am totally going to buy this book btw

yeah i'm hoping its *the suzanna moore (its not my do so i don't know fo' sho). also i was just informed joel has a parents evening that night and now can't make it, but it'll still be cool!

suzanne

This is LONG overdue and I'm giddily excited about this. Will also 'buy the hell' out of this book.

hey stevie just wanted to let you know that on another board i go to there was a thread about your book that i didn't start! the buzz is building :)

haha LINK PLS MATT!!!

google is on to you

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/spray_paint_the_walls.gif

thumbs up from carducci!!

1 guessed/predicted in Rock and the Pop Narcotic that regarding Black Flag there was never enough sales for the real publishing industry to ever write a check to get to the bottom of the band's story. Back in the late 1980s when I wrote R&TPN only Faber & Faber was even issuing original music titles, and indeed they were the only publisher to take a look at my manuscript. But the 80s/90s roll-out of Tower Books, Barnes & Noble, and Borders did spur a short golden age of the music section in book stores. That's over now. But Omnibus in the UK, which once had the only book on Black Sabbath in print, now issues the first comprehensive book about Black Flag, first in the UK, soon here. Spray Paint the Walls is very well reported and assembled by Brit music writer Stevie Chick, author of the better of the recent Sonic Youth books. Neither Greg Ginn nor Henry Rollins sat for interviews but their voices are included from earlier interviews, and more importantly Chuck Dukowski spoke to Chick - a first I believe. The story, laid out from the band's earliest practices in 1976 to its end ten years later, makes a far more dramatic book than the usual shelf-fillers with their stretch to make the empty stories of various chart-toppers sound exciting and crucial and against the odds. I read a rough draft; I'm sure most of the minor Anglocentric miscomprehensions of timelines, causalities and geography are still in it but the book is powerful because it does the story justice. And those miscomprehensions are shared by most American music writers as well so what the hell...

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/global/kindle-turing-widget-photo_020509._V251249236_.jpg Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Finished the book this morning, have to say Stevie, nice work indeed, really, really enjoyed it, so much great info.

aw thanks mares nest... really glad you enjoyed it.

still looking forward to reading this -- soon! in the meantime, i tracked down a recording of that Polliwog Park show! http://ow.ly/Mv0M Neat ....

that show is nuts... the bootleg is essential, perhaps more for the banter between the roadies and the guy who put the show on than the music, but 'wasted' SLAYS

Yep, made me go back and dig out the albums, was rooting around in the loft yesterday looking for James Parker's book, Planet Joe and Get In The Van.

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/justin-bieber-black-flag.jpg

http://grab.by/grabs/78550b4ceb4e799f5aa4fc25ad6989c3.png

that Bieber jpeg causes my rage to hit 28 Days Later levels

if u want one so bad just buy one

*grabs a lead pipe*

lol, it's the first thing i've ever liked about JB

"performer and world travelernascent Burroughs Henry Rollins has a new favorite portable sound system"

A really good DVD of The Minutemen & Black Flag went up on D!m3ad0z3n a couple of days ago, it's from San Francisco '81 (Dez era) and it's pretty good quality.

Don't know if any of you guys saw anything about this but there was a reunion of sorts here in Vancouver a few weeks ago to celebrate local resident Chavo Pederast's 50th birthday. Greg Ginn showed up and they played some numbers. Here's an interview with Greg Ginn being his usual self. Anyway, Spray Paint The Walls is briefly discussed. Of course Greg hasn't heard of it and tries his hardest to appear disinterested. Was there ever anyone more paranoid about being pigeonholed? There's some clips from the show too.

Greg interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3gg7XUE4s

Interview with Ron too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMHbNOEafsY&feature=related

RADDDDDD!

CHAVO and GREG sound so great (esp when he remembers the lyrics :/ ) and that is a DOPPPPPE t-shirt CP's rockin.

whoah

almost shit myself when nardwuar handed greg the book. i spent MONTHS of my life emailing and calling greg, trying to secure an interview, or at the very least to let him know i was working on the book, and in good faith, but i got no closer to contact with the man than chatting with his assistant. he knew it exists.

<3 ron reyes. that footage is awesome...

in greg's defense, there is the distinct possibility that he may have been high on pot

yeah, and i totally respect that! i may have been high when i was calling/emailing!

and in fairness all he said was that he hadn't seen the book. he comes across pretty well in my book, and not overly defensive.

oh definitely, he seemed fine.

Your book and Beefheart's Through The Eyes of Magic combined were both the kind of books I'd make excuses to go and read throughout my busy day. "Hey there's a lightbulb out in the bathroom, I'm going in to fix it." Then I'd sit and feverishly devour these books. I think I read yours in three sittings. Not trying to blow smoke, but Spray Paint the Walls is really more than any Flag fan could have wanted. Thanks for writing it.

I actually put in to do My War for the 33 1/3 series, got a "good idea!" response email, but never followed up. I think your book sorta nullifies that 'good idea,' anyway.

Just performing my dirty duty as a consumer

anyway reason i was searching for rollins is bc i was wondering if anyone has more info on this

According to Rolling Stone magazine, after Cole's death, hundreds of hours of interviews Cole had taped with "flamboyant street characters" in Venice Beach were edited into an hour of "primo footage" that the magazine described as "an unflinching look at the American dream gone amok."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Joe_Cole

rly interested in listening to those interviews by joe cole but cldnt find anything on the web

search 'god's movie'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGxVfh9lag

from the vid description

A few segments from Joe Cole's "God's Movie", an unfinished documentary series documenting the street people of Venice Beach. This was shot in 1990 by Joe and myself, and I help out with the some of the interviews. This was originally released in a longer form as "God's Movie Volume 1" on VHS by Henry Rollins' 2-13-61, and has been long out of print. I am more than glad to share a few moments of this work with you here. Joe was shot and killed in a robbery a little more than a year after this. I miss him to this day and it is great to hear his voice here. If you like this I suggest searching for "How Much Longer" posted on Google Video, a video documentary I did with Joe all about the Desert Storm Victory Parade in Hollywood, 1991.

Amazing anecdote on the newest Henry & Heidi podcast about Hank being pressed into service by Sharon Osbourne at the famous Sabbath reunion gigs.

She asked him to help with an EPK and interview people backstage, so he goes over to interview Brian May and after they film the segment May says to him "by the way, I just want you to know, Freddie loved Black Flag"!!!!

https://youtu.be/G1hx4Ajnhiw?t=42m4s

Bullshit

I see "Black Flag" is playing in Baltimore in August. Is this Greg Ginn and 3 to 4 others? There's a mention of "First 4 years" 1983 comp that included pre-Henry stuff , on the Ottobar website. Will that be the musical focus?

https://x.com/hearinladotcom/status/1746282064192884916?s=46&t=u2ZSlsY3trRV36IPP6jNDQ

Black Flag’s 2024 lineup consists of founding guitarist Greg Ginn, singer Mike Vallely, who first appeared with the band as a guest in 2003 and became the band’s fifth vocalist in 2014,

and a rhythm section of Harley Duggan and Charles Wiley (both from Seattle band DARKHORSE RISING).

That would be a nice subtle bit of graffiti if someone added quotation marks on the posters for that show.

I've seen some youtube footage of recent Black Flag, and I would steer pretty clear of that tbh

Gonna skip it.

EVERYONE SHOULD LSITEN TO RAY PETTIBONE'S NEW BAND ITS SO GOOD

https://surdrone.bandcamp.com/album/full-length-2

sitting at the bar at a restaurant near my neighborhood and it’s crowded on a monday. realize the music venue across the street has the Black Flag (“black flag”?) show in an hour and, outside of two tables of people obviously going to it, I am trying to puzzle out the rest of the people in here

are the dudes in their 50s waiting around in the entryway here for the band? is there another event nearby? a mystery