OK, you should probably stop whatever you're doing right now. Make sure you're sitting down. Spit the kombucha out of your mouth and make sure to stow any breakable objects.Black Flag is getting back together.Look at this:
This summer, at the Hevy Fest in Kent, UK, Black Flag's 1979 lineup will reunite: that means Greg Ginn, Chuck Dukowski, Ron Reyes, and drummer Robo. We know you probably don't believe us, so feel free to click here to confirm.This comes at the heels of the formation of FLAG, a different band featuring Dukowski, Stevenson, Keith Morris, and Descendents' Stephen Egerton. We assure you that these are two separate stories - here's the FLAG one, here's the Black Flag one. At news time there's no word of whether or not this is a one-off show, or a full-blown reunion, but we'll be keeping you updated as we find out more information.Some of you out there might be against these reunions, as they go against a bunch of ideas about integrity, timeliness, and not selling out. But come on. Tell me you don't want to see the original lineup of Black Flag belting out tracks from Damaged and My War.On the scale of mind-shattering music news, this comes pretty close to neutron bomb-level shocks to my core. Black Flag is one of my favorite bands and a breezy pick for most obviously influential hardcore band of all time, plus almost every one of my best friends has a Black Flag tattoo. Sure there've been tons of punk bands reuniting in the past few years, but if you're going to shit on Black Flag, then who can reunite? For an fair explanation of how this sits in the category of 2012-2013 Punk Rock Reunions, I turn here to a story from Sogyal Rinpoche's 1992 classic The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying:Patrul Rinpoche tells the story of an old frog who had lived all his life in a dank well. One day a frog from the sea paid him a visit."Where do you come from?" asked the frog in the well.
"From the great ocean," he replied.
"How big is your ocean?"
"It's gigantic."
"You mean about a quarter of the size of my well here?"
"Bigger."
"Bigger? You mean half as big?"
"No, even bigger."
"Is it… as big as this well?"
"There's no comparison."
"That's impossible! I've got to see this for myself."They set off together. When the frog from the well saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces.
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"From the great ocean," he replied.
"How big is your ocean?"
"It's gigantic."
"You mean about a quarter of the size of my well here?"
"Bigger."
"Bigger? You mean half as big?"
"No, even bigger."
"Is it… as big as this well?"
"There's no comparison."
"That's impossible! I've got to see this for myself."They set off together. When the frog from the well saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces.