Black Flag's most experimental album,
Family Man features one LP side of spoken word performances from
Henry Rollins and another of instrumental music from the late-
Flag lineup of
Greg Ginn (guitar), Kira (bass), and Bill Stevenson (drums). Although occasionally chilling in its intensity, the spoken word material, much like the between-song recitations of fellow Californian
Jim Morrison (with whom
Rollins sometimes shares a vocal similarity here) on the live
Doors albums, mostly sounds juvenile and dated after the fact. That said,
Family Man's spoken word tracks, along with
Jello Biafra's recordings with
the Dead Kennedys, can largely be credited with bringing "alternative" spoken word to a larger audience who were either unaware of, or could not relate to, the
Patti Smith/downtown New York scene. Unlike the solo
Rollins tracks, the instrumental music is still challenging and vibrant. Although sounding at times like a high-school garage band attempting to perform
Rush covers,
Ginn and company play with a sense of desperation and punk rock fury that makes much of the music positively electrifying. Similar in spirit to the less poppy tracks on
Hüsker Dü's contemporary
Zen Arcade, side two of
Family Man is characterized by its emotional purity.
Ginn reveals himself as a refreshingly and brilliantly free improviser and his playing should serve as an inspiration and lesson to later "punk" bands who value technical proficiency over rockin' out. Overall,
Family Man is an essential, if atypical, part of the
Black Flag canon and should appeal to fans of
Sun Ra,
Ornette Coleman, or the New York "noise" scene as well. ~ Pemberton Roach