Damaged (CD - 1981)

Personnel: Dez Cadena (vocals, guitar); Henry Rollins (vocals); Greg Ginn (guitar); Robo (drums).

Photographer: Ed Colver.

Perhaps the quintessential California punk band, and one of the founding fathers of hardcore, Black Flag is to America what the Sex Pistols are to the U.K. DAMAGED is the band's most loved album, featuring some of its best-known songs. Though the group's speedy, full-frontal assault laid the groundwork for the faster-and-louder generation of punks to come, the guitar interplay of Greg Ginn and Dez Cadena is still melodic, and often even hook-filled.

The songs, delivered in an impassioned rant by a young Henry Rollins, are classic Cal-punk, mocking American complacency ("Six Pack," "TV Party") with a winning combination of anger and satire, as well as an ingratiating sense of structure. Also included on the disc is the early, pre-Rollins EP JEALOUS AGAIN, on which the band similarly rages against the machine, though the attack is a bit less refined. DAMAGED is an American punk classic, and the cornerstone of any punk collection. minimize