siLLy puPPy BLACK FLAG was and always has been guitarist Greg Ginn’s baby in that he developed the concepts and has remained the primary songwriter and head honcho through the band’s many incarnations and stylistic shifts. The band started out as Panic in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, CA and adopted the simplistic punk rock constructs of the Ramones in which they added more atonal dissonance, bizarre tempo shifts and a much more exaggerated hardcore attitude which same say qualifies BLACK FLAG as the very first hardcore punk band to emerge after punk’s explosive assault on the world however there is some who claim Sweden’s The Rude Boys to have emerged first with their single “Stranglers (If It's Quiet Why Don't You Play) / Punk Will Never Die!”

While the band would firmly cement their classic sound once lead singer Henry Rollins joined in time for the debut full-length “Damaged,” BLACK FLAG released three EPs with completely different with only Ginn as the common denominator. NERVOUS BREAKDOWN was the first of these EPs and may seem insignificant with a mere four tracks amounting to 5 minutes and 13 seconds of playing time but it’s this very short yet explosive slab of raw primeval outrage in sound that qualifies as the very first example of hardcore punk upping the levels of intensity with more caustic distortion, faster tempos and more erratic unpredictabilities. This stuff made the Ramones look like school boys.

While Chuck Dukowski would play bass on the first two EPs, this was the only release that featured Keith Morris on vocals and Brian Migdol on drums. While Morris was certainly no match for Henry Rollins perfect demeanor and vocal angst, he did more than an adequate job capturing the spirit of punk. Hard to believe but this short specimen of music still is available as a CD single but can more easily be found on the more comprehensive compilation “The First Four Years” which covers all of the loose fodder of these early years. Perhaps not the longest introduction into the newly birthed hardcore punk scene but successful in shouting a big fuck you to the world at large.

Warthur Aptly named indeed, since this EP is very much one of those releases which divides Black Flag fans into two camps - generally (and simplistically) speaking, we're talking those who thought that Black Flag got worse and worse the more they drifted from their original hardcore style, and those who enthusiastically embraced late Flag's post-hardcore experiments. These four instrumentals establish two things. The first is that, much as the Minutemen had been demonstrating in their own way for years, mashing up jazz influences and a hardcore punk attitude is big and clever. The second is that Greg Ginn is a damn fine guitarist.

Depending on whether that sounds unutterably naval-gazey or absolutely fascinating, you probably already know which faction of listeners you fall into here - but that doesn't make the EP redundant, because as well as providing an acid test for who really enjoys a fat slice of experimentation with their hardcore, it's also a nifty little listen in its own right, and perhaps the one Black Flag release where they follow this particular direction with the most purity and consistency.

Warthur Recorded a year after the solid Live '84 release, this finds Black Flag in a downright odd mood. At points they slide into the macho cock rock posturing and bravado (the title itself refers to a sleazy dick joke) which they'd previously always seemed to have been satirising, but which here they seem to outright embrace. There's an honest to goodness drum solo at one point. Perhaps the somewhat second-tier song selection is to blame - aside from a few classics, most of the songs here consist of less favoured Black Flag songs (Live '84 having hoovered up the best of their repertoire) and the Loose Nut era not exactly being their smartest.

Warthur An extensive live document of the Black Flag tour falling after the sessions that capped off Family Man and yielded Slip It In on the one hand, and prior to the sessions that would produce In My Head, Loose Nut, and The Process of Weeding Out on the other. Sound quality is not exceptional, which may perhaps have contributed to making this a cassette-only release in its original incarnation, but the song selection is decent, with a range of material from recent or soon-to-be recorded albums with just a few Damaged-era tracks sprinkled in to keep the fans of that period happy. Not a classic, but worth it if you are fond of this period of Black Flag's development.

Warthur Another fruit of the March 1985 sessions which rounded out In My Head and also yielded The Process of Weeding Out, Loose Nut finds Black Flag in a somewhat more accessible mode than the avant-hardcore of the former or the jazz experimentation of the latter. Essentially a concept album about being horny and frustrated (the guitar tone at points seems to point in the direction of the noisy experiments of Big Black's Songs About Fucking), it's a much more straight-ahead and accessible album than any Black Flag had released since Damaged - which isn't to say that the skewed, oddball direction that they'd taken since then isn't reflected, just that it isn't quite as much at centre stage. It's a lot of fun, but suggests that Black Flag broke up at the last time - after spending so long blazing a trail through uncharted territory, it wouldn't have been fun to watch Black Flag continue in this direction for much longer.