Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag [Paperback]

Stevie Chick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

They were the pioneers of American hardcore, forming in California in 1878 and splitting up 8 years later leaving behind them a trail of blood, carnage and brutal, brilliant music. Throughout the years they fought with the police, record industry and their own fans. This is the band's story from the inside, drawing upon exclusive interviews with the group's members, their contemporaries and the groups who were inspired by them. It's also the story of American hardcore music, from the perspective of the group who did more to take the sound to the clubs, squats and community halls in American than any other.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...essential reading for any fan. - Rock Sound

About the Author

Stevie Chick has been writing about music for more than ten years, contributing to such titles as MOJO, The Guardian, Kerrang!, Plan B, Arena, The Times, NME, Sleazenation, Melody Maker and Careless Talk Costs Lives and editing underground rock magazine Loose Lips Sink Ships with photographer Steve Gullick. He is the author of Psychic COnfusion: The Sonic Youth Story, also published by Omnibus Press. He lives in South London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 403 pages
• Publisher: Omnibus Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847726208
• ISBN-13: 978-1847726209
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #700,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you need to know., March 12, 2010

By 

The Preacher (PA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag (Paperback)

I've read as much as I can find about Black Flag via interviews and articles found on the web, but this book has so much info that at times it reads like a text book. One minute you'll be reading about Black Flag gearing up for a show at a certain club, then the story will derail into giving you more info than you wanted about the club where they're playing.

There are so many different topics in this book that if you're looking for Black Flag information and only Black Flag information, you might get bored here, so bored that you may put the book down and never pick it up again. I honestly didn't start flying through the pages until Dez joined, the book staying interesting with Henry at the mic as well.

The book often paints Ginn in a negative light, and I would have never thought there was so much anger/animosity among the band members. It's kind of a bummer when reading this stuff, to think that my favorite band of all time basically hated each other, it kind of makes the music seem like a lie.

Overall this is a really great book, even if the writing is sometimes forced or full of filler. If you don't know much about Black Flag and you'd like to learn a lot, buy this book.

P.S. To the sellers who are pricing this book around $30 to $70, shame on you. It's collector/sellers like you that ruin music, books, art, ect. making it unavailable to those with less money.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth Reading, Despite Misinformation, December 31, 2010

By 

Gavin (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag (Paperback)

This book is filled with inaccuracies, as previously mentioned below. Some of which are too big to let slide. For example: the Misfits being a California band. The author is from England and obviously is not familiar with California, but, he makes a big deal about the difference between L.A. and O.C. and how the scenes were so different, the violence and so on. The author has no idea which bands are from OC and which are from LA.For instance he says Eddie and the Subtitles were from Manhattan Beach (LA), and Wasted Youth and Circle One were from OC with "deep connections to the local punk gangs." This is in reference to them playing at The Cuckoo's Nest.

The Screws are referred to as The Skrews or The Skrewz. Chick also refers to HB as Huntingdon. This was weird because it was sometimes spelled correctly during interviews. Chick included a section about the Dogtown skaters and their influence on the Southern California punk scene. OK, but it was clearly ripped right out of a recent viewing of the Dogtown and the Legend of Z-Boys movie. The author then goes on to say Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Steve Alba are from Orange County. WTF? Oh, and if you want to mention something about SoCal skaters influence on SoCal punk at that time, at least mention Steve Olson.

The author is completely unfamiliar with California, which got aggravating at times. But still, this is an interesting, and important book about an important band. Deducting stars for misinformation. The other most aggravating oddity in the book was when the author says something about hipsters who were too young to see BF back when they were starting like to say they prefer Keith, Ron, Dez over Henry because it is cool to say that. WTF? That is an opinion. Some of us are just old. We saw them with the earlier singers, therefore, we tend to prefer those singers. Or, perhaps a particular one. I never saw Black Flag with Henry, but now I am going to check out those later albums. The cover shot should have been of the only member who remained constant in the band from start to finish. Or better yet, Greg and Chuck.

To end on a positive note, despite the criticisms, it was definitely a worthwhile read. I really liked when Chick said Henry could never sing Nervous Breakdown as well as Keith and Keith could not sing Damaged as well as Henry, or something like that.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I didn't learn much..., February 10, 2010

By 

Joe Franke "reader of books" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag (Paperback)

This book is predominantly a batch of information derived from a few books that have come before it; Henry Rollins' GET IN THE VAN, James Parker's TURNED ON, WE OWE YOU NOTHING (from the punk planet interviews), and THIS BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE by Michael Azerrad. I've read all of those books and was excited to read something historical about Black Flag. Unfortunately there wasn't much I didn't know already (from reading the aforementioned books and seeing the band). There were new interviews that almost filled in some holes in the band's history and bits of trivia, but there were also those passages that biographers that don't know a lot firsthand about their subject inject, like "Hermosa Beach, California in the late 70's was all surf and sun, Jimmy Carter was president, and Fleetwood Mac was dominating the airwaves, blah blah blah...." (not an actual quote from the book.) Sometimes that gives the reader a sense of time or context, and at other times it seems to be a method of filling up a book. One important point the author does make is the importance of Chuck Dukowski in the band versus who anyone's favorite singer was. I would recommend the books that were mentioned earlier and probably Joe Carducci's ROCK AND THE POP NARCOTIC before reading this.