Wednesday, June 6, 2007

CIRCLE JERKS – GROUP SEX (FRONTIER RECORDS)


CIRCLE JERKS – GROUP SEX (FRONTIER RECORDS)

The last time I looked this album lasted fifteen minutes and forty seconds. One day it seemed all albums would be so concise. Jesus, I think I have heard seven inches with more time squeezed onto them but there was nowhere near as much music.

Fronted by Keith Morris, a founder of Black Flag if you didn’t already know, the Circle Jerks were part of the amazing early eighties California hardcore scene and this album is considering to be something of a landmark.

Even now some 26 years after the recording and release of this album the term/title “Group Sex” is one that can still serve to raise smiles and blushes. Listened to with this distance behind it it still manages to sound relevant, possessing integrity and stature that not all hardcore records necessarily mature well as it retains character and personality.

Much about this band remains pleasingly provocative with the explicit imagery and terminology attached to the titles and names associated with their wares. Against such associations the music sounds so inappropriate, all delivered just to shock and offend, designed to make parents worry and angry white teenage males giddy.

There is the same kind of direct looseness to the Circle Jerks that made Black Flag so devastating. The songs are short and to the point not bogged down by the intricacies of exact playing, more powered and fuelled on pure youthful energy and anger. Rarely will you ever find such an accurate statement of young people’s sentiments as they rail against all they see confronting them. These are songs that mean something containing topics and subjects that are so tangible its audience is immediately able to relate to with perfection. There is a timeless element to these motions that kids now can safely invest in. Green Day this is not.

The record opens with “Deny Everything” a brief but affirmative declaration of how to act (react) when faced with heavy (and sometimes unnecessary) accusation. This is the ultimate mantra that despite lasting only 28 seconds the listener is probably singing along with by the close of their first hearing of the song.

Over the course of the fourteen songs the band bludgeons the audience with numerous calls to actions in an edutaining manner that has the shadow of Black Flag and SST looming throughout proceedings. The influence of Morris’ previous band is felt most when “Wasted” shows its face in a form that is almost indistinguishable from the Black Flag version of the song. Likewise the sonic blast of “Don’t Care” sounds achingly like the opening salvo of “You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You.” You get the impression from this that the scene was tight. As to whether ideas were exchanged or stolen is probably open to debate.

Beneficial of a knowing sense of humour you can’t but help find “I Just Want Some Skank” the ultimate in parental baiting ditties. Later when the record reaches “World Up My Ass” the band fucking nails what it is like to be an angry teenager, perfectly putting such emotions into words and music making it a song I truly wish I owned in order to vent through at such an age.

Considering that this review has now taken several times longer to write than it takes to listen to I cannot help but point out that over the years there have been a lot of fakers in hardcore, milquetoasts and people just wearing the lifestyle as a fashion accessory this record is the real deal and a genuine act of innovation of the scene.

Fifteen minutes is the perfect length of time to experience and it also serves as the perfect length of time for an amazing punk record.

Thesaurus moment: cum.

Circle Jerks
Frontier Records

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