Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag

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.

I really enjoyed "Spray Paint the Walls." I was a kid in Arizona at the time the SST bands were getting going and it was great to get that vibe again after all these years. We all know the music, but what about the people? That's the attitude this book has and it's pretty good. I also appreciated all the interviews with everyone associated with Black Flag who aren't named Ginn or Rollins. Those were great, and well worth the time to read this book. Reading about Ginn's (and Rollins') horrifying treatment of other people was pretty cool too because I like reading about scoundrels and scalliwags.Not so great was the as-usual tedious blather of Brendan Mullen, Chick's mystical love of Ginn's guitar playing (this got a little creepy) and Chick, who is English, doesn't quite get how Black Flag exploited the whole Manson thing in a pretty disgusting manner. Oh and Chick could mention Carducci's politics because the uninformed reader might get the wrong impression. But overall you can read it right through with enjoyment and for me in particular it pretty much was the final word on why a band I grew up with is now a band I grew out of.

I love Black Flag as much as the next guy, but pretty much lost interest after the TV Party record. I thought they became really self indulgent. This book chronicles their whole career not just the Rollins era. I found it pretty interesting how all the characters knew each other and came to know each other. I wish there wasn't so much attention paid to extraneous people and bands, but I assume it will be helpful to people with well rounded lives who didn't pay such close attention. There were a few little inaccuracies (like referring to the Misfits as a California band) that make me question a couple other things, but overall seems very well researched and it made me feel more punk by knowing stuff the author didn't. I thought it went too easy on Greg Ginn who, essentially tried to make Black Flag his back up band by the end of their run. It's probably fair though and Like I said most people reading this had fuller lives than I did.

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.

Being a big Rollins fan and a Flag fan, I couldnt wait to get my hands on this. I've read Hanks "Get in the Van," and was a little confused about the end of Black Flag. This book puts it all out there and comes from multiple sources. At serveral points the book gets off course into other bands and people, but by the end of the book, I found that these "side trips" added substance to the overall story, especially concerning the LA/Hermosa/HB punk and hardcore scene. I would give this book five stars, but it was missing interviews with two main Flag members. It was still a great read regardless. Cheers!

I've been a big fan of Black Flag since 1985. This book answered a lot of questions I've always had and painted a well-rounded picture of the history of the band and the scenes that it was a part of. Sure, there were some mistakes but none that I condsidered crucial (like saying the Misfits were from CA). I found myself gripped with the story and read it for hours on end. This is no brief overview, it's extremely in-depth and in the beginning it seemed TOO in-depth but all of the "too in-depth" parts made sense when I realized it was to give the band's history and broader context. I am way more than satisfied with the money I spent on this book. My biggest complaint? Greg Ginn should have been on the cover! Greg's guitar playing, not Henry's bodybuilder poses define the band.

Well worth the read.

Great read-well put together story of a band whos influence on others since is legendary. Highly recommended👍

Long winded and full of pointless information regarding nothing to do with Black Flag. Three pages to describe a rehearsal space? Five pages to tell the biography of a roadie? Save your time and money and purchase Henry Rollins " Get In The Van"

Sehr lesenswertes Buch für jeden, der an den Anfängen des US Hardcore im Allgemeinen und der damit verbundenen DIY-Szene interessiert ist.

Bienvenus dans le monde de Black-Flag,ou le groupe écume tout les clubs de la cote ouest à la cote est,la ou le mouvement hard-core allait naitre,le tout raconté dans ce superbe livre via Henry Rollins bien sur et beacoup d'autre acteurs de l'époque,sur fond de musique lisez ce livre qui vous narreras l'aventure d'un des plus grand groupes de rock que la terre ait engendré.