BLACK FLAG — Nervous Breakdown (review)

BLACK FLAG — Nervous Breakdown album cover EP · 1979 · Hardcore Punk Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
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.
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