BLACK FLAG – SIX PACK
EP (SST RECORDS)
Six packs are amazing
things. They have two meanings (three if
you include this song). The first is
likely to get you intoxicated in a potentially sociable manner while the other
is a nod to fitness, to good health, to gearing your body towards getting
laid. All in all these are powerful
personal movements, decisions and times attached to being and adventure.
“Six Pack” is one of
Black Flag’s satire tracks. I guess Greg
Ginn would claim it to be satire but the humour is just too broad, too base to
be that subtle. On a visceral level, it
hits like a sledgehammer. The song’s
structure is similar to “TV
Party” with its call and response chorus and general loutish
behaviour. It is also a party song.
The track begins with
a very sloppy (almost drunk) baseline accompanied by a very basic click
track. Then thirty seconds in the
scratchy Ginn guitar drops in as eventually all explodes as Dez Cadena lurches
in with a drunken vocal storm. As the
song arrives at the chorus it all has become quite life affirming in the most
loutish manner imaginable.
Stepping up next is
the equally incendiary “I’ve Heard It Before” which also benefits from an
extended build up to one enormous pay off.
Once the song takes hold it kicks hard like a mull representing the kind
of angered reaction the listener would dream of shouting at the authority
figures in their life. This was
vicarious wish fulfilment.
Perfectly formed the
seven inch closes with “American Waste”, a Chuck Dukowski penned zinger that
stomps on the scenery before flying off into ether barely busting the ninety
second mark. Its all about identity and
knowing where you fit on the food chain.
Three songs six
minutes. Long enough for a life to
change.
Thesaurus moment: party.
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