Group Sex (CD - 1980)

Producers: Cary Markoff, Circle Jerks, Gary Hirstius, David Anderle.

Principally recorded at Byrdcliffe Studios, Culver City, California.

Frontier 31002 includes only the GROUP SEX album.

This is an Enhanced CD which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Circle Jerks: Keith Morris (vocals); Greg Hetson (guitar); Roger Rogerson (bass); Lucky Lehrer (drums).

Recorded at Byrdcliffe Studios, Culver City, California.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Keith Morris (vocals); Greg Hetson (guitar); Lucky Lehrer (drums).

Recording information: Byrdcliffe Studios, Culver City, CA.

Keith Morris once described his brief tenure as Black Flag's lead singer by saying, "I was the Tasmanian devil, the court jester; I was the dog on the chain who was let out of the cage." So it made sense that after the beer-swilling frontman decided to move on, he would form a band even less subtle and more obnoxious than Black Flag (who represented punk rock at its most brutal in 1979). Group Sex, the first "album" from Morris' group the Circle Jerks, barrels through 14 songs in just under 16 minutes, and pretty much defined the state of the art in SoCal hardcore, circa 1980: raging minor-chord guitar bashing (courtesy of Greg Hetson, later in Bad Religion), speedy drumming (Lucky Lehrer punctuates his manic four-four stomp with short, frantic rolls whenever possible), and a bassist (Roger Rogerson) trying to keep up with it all while Morris bellows about sex ("I Just Want Some Skank"), drugs ("Wasted"), politics ("Paid Vacation"), the idle rich ("Beverly Hills"), and his own post-teenage rage ("World Up My Ass"). Some of it's funny, some of it seems to be serious, and it's all one not-so-long blast of raging energy. As such things go, it's tight, reasonably well played, the songs kinda sorta have hooks, and Keith Morris is a pretty good frontman, but if you're looking for nuance, you're pretty much out of luck. Then again, if you were looking for nuance in a Circle Jerks album, you've obviously been misinformed as to how this punk rock stuff works. ~ Mark Deming

On GROUP SEX, the Circle Jerks' second full-length album, the band makes no great changes in its musical style. On the other hand, there really was no need for revision. Keith Morris (also an early vocalist for Black Flag) and his band mates had pretty much hit the nail on the head the first time out (WILD IN THE STREETS, appended to GROUP on some CD editions). The Jerks play the sort of very fast and very snotty punk rock--complete with thin, weedy vocals--that eventually became all the rage with such chart-topping bands as Green Day, the Offspring, and No Doubt.

As their name and the album title would suggest, the Circle Jerks are not a subtle band. "I Just Want Some Skank" and "World Up My Ass" stand as further examples of their in-your-face lewdness. Standout numbers include "Beverly Hills," an extremely pointed attack on the "upper class," and "Paid Vacation," an anti-military song built on Greg Hetson's buzz-saw guitar. In the latter, the introduction and several bridges recall western TV show theme music sped up to 78rpms. minimize