Saturday, November 14, 2009

Weeded

Okay, this was a bit hard to take when it came out. I was all of fifteen and it seemed my favorite punk band had discovered free-jazz, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and pot smoking. Actually I suspected they were already well versed in all these transgressions to punkdom, but now it was real and it was being reflected in their recorded output and live show. But you get older and your rigid teenage rules of what is acceptable when it comes to art weaken, they have to, or else a corrosive jadedness creeps in. Now The Process of Weeding Out holds much merit as I just let go and appreciate the sheer beauty of Ginn wrestling squonks and squeals from his Mosrite over the Roessler/Stevenson angular THC robot. Black Flag, at this point, was so honed and so prolific that they had license to do whatever they wanted. For that reason alone, Process (along with Family Man) may be Black Flag's punkest album, a buzzing sonic "Fuck You" to the rigor mortis that was setting in the scene in 1985.


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19 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 4:51 AM

    here's a live flag set of the wedding out material: http://www.mediafire.com/?mtodiimnyxg

    enjoy...
    -jeff

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  2. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 5:24 AM

    So what's better? Rollins in State Of Alert or Rollins in Black Flag?

    I only have the Dischord comp to go by re: SOA. All I know of Black Flag is Rollins was in it.

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  3. CoreopsisNovember 14, 2009 at 6:09 AM

    I fuggin' love this, along with October Faction, Gone, and pretty much any other meandering Ginn skronk thang. It was liberating back in the day to check out the latest SST offering, since I was from Boston, and I hated the whole fake-jock straight edge x-core thing.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 7:10 AM

    I agree this was NOT the Black Flag I wanted to hear when I was 15. Now, this slab of vinyl is spun at least once a month. Kira's bass lines should be commended for holding this record together. Mr. Stevenson's drumming on "Your last Affront" is very special to me.

    -jabladav

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  5. catatonic disassemblyNovember 14, 2009 at 8:25 AM

    whenever I hear that main riff, i think of it as some kind of TV theme song to some program we've never seen but apparently all know...

    and then (ironically) as i hummed it during the height of Beavis & Butthead, a friend associated my "dant dant dant DANT DANNNN" with them LOL...

    i'm not gonna say i love this record, but it's ok...it has it's merits and across the entire Flag catalog it definitely fits and i think is even needed...if i'm doing a playlist on randomn through their entire catalog, i expect at least 1 song to pop up or else i feel incomplete in listening heh...

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  6. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 8:32 AM

    I thought it interesting that when "googling" this release, it looks like every Blogger out there simply c/p whatever comment some other blogger wrote. That is why Cosmic is special to these ears.

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  7. justinNovember 14, 2009 at 8:58 AM

    In retrospect it makes you wonder what they were "weeding out". True fans, people who can appreciate well written music, Henry Rollins, what?

    "But you get older and your rigid teenage rules of what is acceptable when it comes to art weaken, they have to, or else a corrosive jadedness creeps in", a chapter in the book on how metalheads/punkers grow old.

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  8. IckyNovember 14, 2009 at 9:18 AM

    Indeed. Their punkest move ever.
    I actually had the Pettibon scissors cover-art tattooed on me many moons ago...

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  9. prunalogsusanNovember 14, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    i hear ya. yeah when it came out i was like huh? but then somewhere later on i started to like it, mostly because it pissed off alot of my punk friends. and then some time after playing it alot, i ended up really liking for it for real. i still throw it on from time to time. it really is great stuff. and i agree as well that it ends up being one their 'punkest' releases upon the look back. nice one man!

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  10. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 10:02 AM

    Fuckin' brilliant release. Good on Black Flag for progressing and not releasing the same old punk bullshit over and over again...

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  11. Tanners666November 14, 2009 at 10:13 AM

    What set Black Flag apart from their HC contemporaries was that they always did what they wanted and didn't care what their established fanbase or the HC community cared. I pity all those who won't listen to anything apart from "First 4 Years" and "Damaged", it's their loss.

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  12. GregNovember 14, 2009 at 4:38 PM

    One of the top Flag records!

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  13. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 4:51 PM

    thank you jeff. very cool live showl

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  14. kris138November 15, 2009 at 11:55 AM

    i was a bit unsure at first, but im really liking this now

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  15. yellow.eyesNovember 16, 2009 at 4:00 PM

    The live Weeding out show I heard (2/8/85) is one of my favorite BF finds on the interweb--other being the amazing '82 demos. First BF shirt I owned was the cover of this. Still have it--falling apart and faded to hell.

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  16. AnonymousNovember 18, 2009 at 2:02 PM

    Surprised this did not generate more comments. This was "Shut up and play yur guitar" on a different level for me. The other fact it being BF.

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  17. AnonymousNovember 22, 2009 at 8:11 AM

    Actually, Ginn played a Dan Armstrong, not a Mosrite.

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  18. FXNovember 22, 2009 at 12:01 PM

    classic record, keep up the ill blog aesop

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  19. AnonymousNovember 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM

    This is what black flag were about. great find as every complete black flag download has everything but this and family man which were actually the lps that made me step back and think rather than stick to the 1234 discharge ramlama and put some jaz in my punk

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