Slip It In

Untitled

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Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Piero Scaruffi
Robert Christgau	(C+)

Slip It In is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag, released in 1984 on SST Records.

Slip It In is an extension of the sound Black Flag utilized on its predecessor My War, that is: heavy, cathartic, intense, dense and progressive. At this point, Black Flag was considered by many to be one of the leading bands of the American punk scene. The album pursued the newer, lengthier song arrangements that Black Flag would develop until its demise. It also features Henry Rollins' further development as a songwriter, contributing four of eight tracks on the album. This album also demonstrates Black Flag’s increasing use of instrumentals, where Greg Ginn demonstrates his increasingly more complex playing style.

Recording and style

Slip It In was recorded on a brief brake on the continuous tour for My War, My War saw Black Flag at their most ambitious. This year they would release three full-length albums, and toured nearly constantly, with Rollins noting 178 performances for the year, and about that many for 1985. With Dukowski gone, Ginn ceded much of the spotlight to Rollins, who had expressed some discomfort over being the group's de facto spokesman, while Ginn was the recognized leader (Ginn wrote the majority of the group's songs and lyrics). The style of Slip It In is very similar to there previous release My War but is not exact. The songs are considered heavy metal music, but are in a faster tempo like there influential début album Damaged. At the middle point of the album, there is an instrumental track called "Obliteration" which highlights Ginn's chord progressions where Brandon Sideleau of Punknews.org claims that it "...mashes sludge and jazz into an ominous hybrid." Greg Ginn's lyrics on the title track "Slip It In" are raunchy and angry, the song in general is about people and their choices and caring about them more than anything else. One time, Ginn himself once described it as something along the lines of "why is it that only guys can openly express their enjoyment of promiscuous sex without being labeled 'sluts?'"

With Roessler on board, Black Flag began earnest experimentation, sometimes to critical and audience disdain: One critic writes that Slip It In "blurs the line between moronic punk and moronic metal"; Rollins reports that Black Flag's set-lists in this era rarely included older crowd favorites like "Six Pack" or "Nervous Breakdown", and that audiences were often irritated by the new, slower Black Flag. Violence against the band (and especially Rollins) was ever-present, although the vocalist was now an avid weight lifter, and more than able to defend himself. Furthermore, to Rollins' chagrin, Ginn's interest in marijuana steadily increased; as Rollins put it, "By '86 it was 'Cannot separate the man from his Anvil case with a big-ass stash.'"

Marketing

File:SlipItInMusicVideo.png

A screenshot of the Slip It In music video, one of the only few music videos by Black Flag

Even though SST Records was very low on advertising there records to the general public, there was a music video made for the title track. The music video is very low budget and was made quickly. The music video revolves around a teacher lip syncing to the vocals to the song along with the class and cuts to clips to the band preforming to the song. The video ends with the teacher telling about the album coming out and promoting their students to see them on there tour.

The music video had brief play on MTV but was not a lot due to the length of the video (six minutes) and it's lyrical content. While it is only one of the few music videos by Black Flag, the move of airing the video on MTV was controversial among fans due to the fact that the band members were against the act of selling out and was based on promoting there material DIY by flyers and other low budget promotion.

Track listing

1. "Slip It In" (Ginn) – 6:17
2. "Black Coffee" (Ginn) – 4:53
3. "Wound Up" (Ginn/Rollins) – 4:17
4. "Rat's Eyes" (Ginn/Rollins) – 3:57
5. "Obliteration" (Ginn) – 5:51
6. "The Bars" (Dukowski/Rollins) – 4:20
7. "My Ghetto" (Ginn/Rollins) – 2:02
8. "You're Not Evil" (Ginn) – 7:00

Personnel

• Henry Rollins - vocals
• Greg Ginn - guitar, producer
• Kira Roessler - bass, backing vocals
• Bill Stevenson - drums, producer

Additional personnel

• Davo Claassen - backing vocals
• Suzi Gardner - backing vocals
• Chuck Dukowski - backing vocals
• Spot - producer, engineer, mixer
• Raymond Pettibon - artwork