Greg Ginn Picked Black Flag’s New Singer From Crowd

3 hours ago7 min read

In a move that feels ripped from rock ‘n’ roll lore, Greg Ginn, the foundational guitarist and sole constant of the legendary hardcore punk band Black Flag, has once again defied conventional music industry wisdom by plucking the group's new vocalist directly from the audience at a recent show. This isn't just a lineup change; it's a raw, spontaneous act that echoes the very DIY ethos that birthed the band in the late 1970s Hermosa Beach scene.The current incarnation of Black Flag is a study in generational contrast, featuring three young musicians whose collective ages don't even sum to Ginn's 71 years, creating a living bridge between punk's foundational anger and its contemporary expression. This method of recruitment harkens back to the band's chaotic, ever-shifting history, a timeline punctuated by the iconic, if often brief, tenures of vocalists like the primal Henry Rollins, the frantic Keith Morris, and the intense Dez Cadena.Ginn, the band's stubbornly independent architect, has always operated more like a jazz bandleader than a rock star, valuing visceral energy and ideological purity over polished technique, making this crowd-sourcing of talent a perfectly logical, if audacious, step. It’s a testament to the enduring, almost mythical power of the Black Flag bars, a symbol that continues to draw new generations into its orbit of rebellion.While some purists may balk, this move is pure Ginn: unpredictable, unvarnished, and utterly unconcerned with nostalgia. It raises fascinating questions about the future sound of the band—will this new voice channel the raw-throated intensity of ‘Damaged I’ or explore the dissonant, jazz-inflected territories of ‘Family Man’? The gamble injects a jolt of unpredictable vitality into their live sets, transforming every future concert into a potential audition and ensuring that the spirit of Black Flag, forever teetering on the edge of chaos, remains as dangerously alive as ever.

#Black Flag

#Greg Ginn

#new singer

#lineup

#punk rock

#concert

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