Monday, February 22, 2010

In My Head


 

I know there's lots of squabble around the internet regarding Black Flag and their various singers and sound - when it comes down to it, the band was so ahead of its time that they were not only creating musical genres, they were destroying them. In My Head is the band's final studio album; as with most it's a significant stylistic departure from the album before (1985's Loose Nut) which can be attributed to guitarist Ginn's endless experimentation into (at that point) was what has been termed "bluesy proto-grunge-metal." Sure. It is crazy to look back 25 years at what an incredible guitarist Ginn is, it's too bad he'll probably never get the recognition he truly deserves. His all-over-the-neck chord progressions and harmolodic wanderings up and down the fretboard are sometimes a little off-beat (as if the rest of the band is trying to catch up with him) but nonetheless fascinating. There is criticism that Rollins' vocals are mixed low - while admittedly they are I don't think it hurts the album at all, and each album was Ginn's latest showpony to tinker with anyways. I'm a big fan of In My Head; twelve lasting, classic Black Flag tracks - "White Hot" and "Drinking And Driving" are without a doubt two of their best tunes.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is the album that introduced me to Black Flag, and I saw them when they toured for it. The show was the same day the shuttle Challenger blew up, and I pissed Henry off by asking him to sign one of his poetry books and handing him a pen with no ink.

The next day I went out and bought Damaged, and all the others by next weekend.

winston95 said...

Awesome brother - thanks for sharing. I love stories about Hank getting pissed off. Have a good one.