Henry Rollins' fluke hardcore hit, "Liar"

[GoogaMooga]

What have we got: Rollins Band's 1994 album, "Weight", the original on Imago, original cover and all. Sure, I remember the "Liar" video from back in the day, great fun, and the rest is of a similar nature: rip-roarin', punishing hardcore, funk bass, jazz drums, and Henry's sing-songy shouting. This is the best that Rollins Band had to offer, the closest they ever came to a commercial success. No lie! It's okay, if you MUST dip your toes into the dirty water of hardcore rock. It will, uhm, do for me. Never been much of a hardcore fan, oh wait, "Liar" is playing now! Fookin' hey!



Check out his yearbook photo from ‘79!

[naughty boy]

It's okay, if you MUST dip your toes into the dirty water of hardcore rock. It will, uhm, do for me. Never been much of a hardcore fan

[GoogaMooga]

You like hardcore in general? Never seen you talk it up.

[naughty boy]

I couldn't care less about it.

[GoogaMooga]

I couldn't care less about it.

That's what I thought. I can usually find a few exceptions in even my most hated genres. No genre is 100% awful.

[Dayodead]

It's a good album...The addition of Jazz bassist Melvin Gibbs on this and the follow up, gave Henry a bit more nuance

[BARON CORNY DOG]

He's worse than Nic Cave.

[Snarfyguy]

As much as I loved Black Flag -- and still do, and for all the good will I have toward Henry Rollins as a talking head/cultural commentator, I've never been remotely curious about "Rollins Band."

[sloopjohnc]

He's worse than Nic Cave.

I have never ventured to listen to any of his stuff outside Black Flag.

[GoogaMooga]

I don't own any Black Flag - what am I missing?

[Count Machuki]

I don't own any Black Flag - what am I missing?

Never been much of a hardcore fan

[sloopjohnc]

I don't own any Black Flag - what am I missing?

Well, there's two Black Flags. The Keith Morris years and the Rollins years. Both are good, but I personally like the Rollins years a little better.

Morris went on to form the Circle Jerks and Off!

[bobzilla77]

Boy I don't think I ever turned quite so hard against a band i once really enjoyed, as I did against RB. My friends were his bassist and drummer and I really liked their work. I can get into some of their straight forward songs. But by the time of his third album, it was just not rewarding listening.

[Charlie O.]

His/their live-in-Australia album Insert Band Here is one of the most relentlessly over-the-top things I've ever heard. None of the studio records I've heard come close.

Even so, I prefer him when he's talking. (And that's a relatively recent development. I can remember saying here on BCB, years ago, that I didn't know why anyone would pay to hear him do that. But he's gotten really good at it.)

[Kinkhurt]

His/their live-in-Australia album Insert Band Here is one of the most relentlessly over-the-top things I've ever heard. None of the studio records I've heard come close.

Even so, I prefer him when he's talking. (And that's a relatively recent development. I can remember saying here on BCB, years ago, that I didn't know why anyone would pay to hear him do that. But he's gotten really good at it.)

I think they peaked on 'End Of Silence' that tour was incredible - Haskett, Weiss and Cain - they were as tight as a ducks ass, almost Flag-like. That sun tattoo was still fresh on his back. I'd been reading his book where he said he hated and refused giving autographs and shaking hands, so I took some LPs to one gig for a signature - he grumpily did them all, on the last one the pen leaked all over his hands creating a nice silver spatter effect on the cover. Rather than discuss the Rorschach properties of his work or how they enhanced the original cover concept, he had a good chunter using a vocabulary set he hopefully wouldn't use with his mother- quickly I shook his hand thanked him for his time, didn't tell him he looked shorter in real life, and legged it. So, thats my 'I didn't get beaten up by Henry Rollins' story.

Weight is a bit crap - just too drab/tuneless (even for Henry) Gibbs didn't work on bass, not neanderthal enough. I saw them a few times that time round, the best was Reading festival where he insulted Johnny Rotten and made some sniffy reference to our green vinyl punk records - which got the most outstanding reaction from an audience I've seen at a festival. The crowd united to drown him out and throw coins and bottles at him. You could colour him surprised, he had to pull the 'i'm louder than you Schick', to pull it back, he took it well.

[GoogaMooga]

He's made several apperances in Copenhagen with his spoken word sets. I bought Weight because I was curious and it was cheap, plus I remembered "Liar", which I still think is good fun.

[harvey k-tel]

I bought 'Life Time' a couple years after it came out. I don't really know why, as I was never a huge Black Flag fan - maybe because it was produced by Iain MacKaye? I dunno... Anyway, it was good agro fun, but I never followed up with anything else by him.

[bobzilla77]

I think it's just the obviousness of it got to be too much. Like I remember this little ditty.

The way you look at me is tearing me apart
And the things I say to you are tearing you apart
And the way I feel inside is tearing is me apart
Ant the things we say to each other are tearing us apart
I don't mean to do it
You don't mean to do it
But we better stop it now
Because we're tearing each other apart

I dug their cover of Do It though. Probably the last thing they did that I really liked. And the live recordings from 1987-88 had some good moments where they got all King Crimson-y in the instrumental segments while Henry moaned "AAAAAARERRRGH!"

[Fonz]

I think it's just the obviousness of it got to be too much. Like I remember this little ditty.

The way you look at me is tearing me apart
And the things I say to you are tearing you apart
And the way I feel inside is tearing is me apart
Ant the things we say to each other are tearing us apart
I don't mean to do it
You don't mean to do it
But we better stop it now
Because we're tearing each other apart

I dug their cover of Do It though. Probably the last thing they did that I really liked. And the live recordings from 1987-88 had some good moments where they got all King Crimson-y in the instrumental segments while Henry moaned "AAAAAARERRRGH!"

Yeah, but it also had this couplet

“It’s hard to be alone
But it’s harder to be with you”

A simple lyric, but I’ve got to say, at one point in my life it completely summed up a relationship, and the song fortified me, somewhat.

I’m a fan.
Check out ‘Disconnect’

[Charlie O.]