Black Flag

Hermosa Beach

Black Flag began in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California, as Panic, founded by guitarist Greg Ginn and singer Keith Morris. Ginn said he and Morris saw the Ramones on their first Los Angeles tour that year and decided that if the Ramones could do it, so could they. Bassist Chuck Dukowski joined and pushed the group to rehearse far more often. In late 1978 they became Black Flag, a name suggested by Ginn's brother, the artist Raymond Pettibon, who also drew the four-bar logo. Pettibon said a black flag stands for anarchy. Henry Rollins later said it meant anything you wanted.

The group arranged its own gigs at picnics, house parties and schools and covered the city in flyers. The Los Angeles police often broke up their shows. Ginn paid for their first record with money from his mail-order radio electronics business and, with Dukowski, started SST Records, named after that business. SST's first release was the Nervous Breakdown EP in January 1979, pressed in a run of 2,000. Dukowski called it a badge of legitimacy for getting gigs.

Four singers

Morris left the band in 1979 and Ron Reyes took over for the Jealous Again EP. Reyes walked out mid-set at the Fleetwood in Redondo Beach in 1980, and Dez Cadena, a fan, replaced him. By the summer of 1981 Cadena preferred to play guitar, and while touring the East Coast the band found Rollins, a 20-year-old fan who sang for the Washington, DC hardcore band State of Alert. Ira Robbins of Trouser Press later called Black Flag America's first hardcore band.

Damaged and the Unicorn fight

Damaged, their first album, came out in 1981, produced by Spot with the band. The backing tracks went down without Rollins, who added vocals afterward while Ginn and Dukowski coached him. It brought Rise Above, TV Party and Six Pack, and it closed with Damaged I. Its distributor Unicorn was associated with MCA Records, which refused to distribute it in September 1981 after label president Al Bergamo told the Los Angeles Times he found it an anti-parent record. The band stuck a sticker with his words over the MCA logo. Unicorn then sued, and a court barred Black Flag from recording under its own name.

For almost two years the band could not release new records as Black Flag. The double album Everything Went Black appeared in 1982 with the members' names on the cover in place of the group's. Damaged was largely ignored on release. Robert Christgau gave it a warm review in January 1982, and Rolling Stone later said punks still listen to it and parents still hate it.

Slower, heavier, busier

After Unicorn went out of business the band returned in 1984 with three albums. My War was made by a trio of Rollins, Stevenson and Ginn, who played bass under the name Dale Nixon. Its three long, slow tracks on side two divided the audience, and Tim Yohannon of Maximumrocknroll mocked it as Black Flag imitating Iron Maiden imitating Black Flag. Kira Roessler joined on bass for Family Man, a record of Rollins's spoken word and group instrumentals, and for Slip It In. Rollins counted 178 shows in 1984 and about as many in 1985, the year of Loose Nut and In My Head.

Black Flag played their last show in Detroit on 27 June 1986. In Get in the Van, Rollins wrote that Ginn telephoned him in August 1986 and told him he was quitting the band.

Afterward

Black Flag played three reunion shows in September 2003, with Cadena on vocals and guitar. In January 2013 it was announced that Ginn and Ron Reyes would reform the band, and the album What The... came out that December and was poorly received by critics and fans. Mike Vallely was named the band's singer in January 2014. Also from 2013, Morris, Dukowski, Stevenson and guitarist Stephen Egerton, later joined by Cadena, toured Black Flag songs under the name FLAG. On 2 August 2013, SST Records and Greg Ginn brought a trademark infringement action in Los Angeles federal court against Morris, Dukowski, Stevenson, Cadena and Egerton. The current line-up listed on the band's website is Ginn with Max Zanelly, David Rodriguez and Bryce Weston.

Black Flag is the first of the 13 bands in Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life, and SST went on to release Bad Brains, Minutemen, Descendents, Meat Puppets and Hüsker Dü. Mudhoney's Steve Turner said My War was a huge influence on his band.