Slip It In

black coffee

This album should be titled "Rat's Eyes" instead becaused that covers the album in its entirety, and "Slip It In" with its current artwork and explanation is more like a single. The cover should be black and white with a rat facing you from the middle of a street with a sidewalk to the left and right of the street and tall buildings to the left and right of the sidewalk. The buildings should be the same heighth but getting smaller towards the center of the album as they are heading towards you, leaning to the left from the side of the left sidewalk and leaning to the right from the right side of the sidewalk at the buildings closest to you. "Black Flag" should be in capital letters in the center of the sky and under it should be written "Rat's Eyes" in a font about half the size of the "Black Flag" lettering. ("Black Coffee," "Wound Up," "Rat's Eyes," "The Bars," and "My Ghetto" would make good singles.) "Slip It In" was not a big deal to me. There was controversy over it but it isn't apparently foreseeable in the recordings. All he's saying is that smart ladies give him issues. (But if a lady is genuinely knowledgeable and intelligent then she will know what to say and do.) Punks are supposed to have righteous politics and if these punks have righteous politics, their affairs and relationships will all be beneficial relationships. That should negate the negativity of his interactions. Regardless, they make it a clearly parasitic scenario if you're listening to the song in its entirety. That lady may have taken nothing from his attitude and politics, and that looseness would only count for her if it was a beneficial relationship. ("You're Not Evil" would make a good single. It clarifies the impact of "Slip It In" as a single.) "Slip It In" isn't a good single.

This album always gets passed over within Black Flags discography, but it is in every regard a classic. It shows more of the ever evolving style that Black Flag became famous for, and does it in a really tight, effective way. Check it out.

Personally I believe this to be the definitive Black Flag album. It combines the raw, punk aggression of Damaged and the Black Sabbath influenced riffs of My War to make for a brilliantly balanced record. If you had just heard about Black Flag, this is the album to pick up to give you a good picture of what you're getting yourself into.

Is this guy below me being serious? I'm thinking not, because it's hilarious! Good joke!

I used to love BF, these days they never make my playlist and i've figured out why. Rollins is just too angry/depressed for my taste. yes, he's interesting and always stood out more than earlier singers but at the same time he kind of overwhelmes the music. and, sure, he had a rough childhood but what's he so mad about at this point? he's with such a rockin' band, rocking out, having fun. would you be as depressed as he is singing alongside ginn and kira and whoever (forgot) is bashing out those drums? personally i love ginn's work and thought these guys were awesome when they would do things like obliteration and jam (10 1/2 live). but where's the fun in rollins? they should have canned him and got someone more peppy- like milli vanilli or rick ashley. :-) well, maybe not that peppy, but someone who could appreciate the killer band behind them. oh yeah, and as for the sst/pettibon album covers- i used to think they were neat in a tongue in cheek kind of way but these days i just think they're distasteful and don't add much to the music.

To me this is the ultimate Black Flag album, a perfect balance between the rage of "Damaged" and the (in my opinion anyway) overly excessive noodling of "Loose Nut" and "In My Head". The songs are a logical extension of the 1-2 minute bursts of rage from their early work; I still feel that "Slip It In" and "Black Coffee" are two of the angriest songs ever written. The longer songs ("Obliteration", "You're Not Evil") get a little repititious, and show where Black Flag would end up, but if you're a fan of early, angry Flag, but the first two songs at least, you won't be sorry. I honestly don't know if I've ever heard music this angry since, a sad commentary on how self-satisfied musicians have become.

Totally raw and aggressive! Although my favorite era of Black Flag is covered by the First Four Years comp the Rollins records were great too! This and Damaged are Henry's two best. This one is abrasive and weird. Totally outsider music! Great American punk rock! Awesome! Rat's Eyes scorches!

slip it in has a great guitar part rat's eyes is nice and sludgy if you prefer pre-damaged era black flag, wait about a couple months when you get bored of simple hardcore and you'll like this

Live 84 has "Black Coffee", "Slip it In" and more. And it sounds better. This album is okay. It sounds better than a good portion of "My War", but the raw energy is still not there.