Saturday 16 June 2007

BLACK FLAG – TV PARTY (SST RECORDS)


BLACK FLAG – TV PARTY (SST RECORDS)

I think it would be a safe bet to say that for more people than not this is the very first Black Flag song they ever get to hear (or see). Certainly in my own case I felt truly blessed one Sunday night when MTV 120 Minutes served the ultimate gift by playing the truly great and earnestly funny lo-fi music video that accompanies this song.

Perhaps not truly representative of the gnarly hard and fast element/side of Black Flag in their prime it does still serve as an exciting feat and blindingly fun piece of hardcore punk with so many tangible references that only a complete fool could not tap into.

The TV party is one of the greatest social conceits in modern live, a bunch of guys just staying/sitting in and slowly getting drunk/tanked while lazily just watching and ripping on what is on television can often be as entertaining as it gets. This is a very male experience and world, one much like Black Flag that girls just don’t seem to get/understand. Why out into the outside world at all? Are you insane?

Despite the fun part of the song there is an element of novelty element to the single that does really do the band a disservice but unlike many hardcore bands of both that era and now it does display the rare commodity of the band actually possessing a sense of humour.

Let the freaks have their sports songs; this is the true of anthem of the working man. Being dumb never sounded so clever.

Thesaurus moment: Quincy!

Black Flag
SST Records

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