Circle Jerks: Group Sex (40th anniversary) [EQUAL VISION]

Why you'll love it

This 40th anniversary edition remasters the original album and adds five previously unheard 1980 rehearsal recordings, plus a 20-page booklet with photos and stories from Tony Hawk, Mike Patton, Shepard Fairey and Ian MacKaye. The original is a landmark of hardcore punk.

This edition

• 40th anniversary edition
• Remastered
• Five bonus 1980 rehearsal recordings
• 20-page booklet
• Numbered

About the album

Hardcore punk was never big on patience, and Circle Jerks didn't waste a second of their debut. Keith Morris had just left Black Flag, Greg Hetson came over from Redd Kross, and with bassist Roger Rogerson and drummer Lucky Lehrer they cut it in July 1980 at Byrdcliffe Studios in Culver City for Frontier Records.

Several songs came with Morris from his old band, including "Wasted," while "Live Fast Die Young" reworks a tune Hetson wrote for Redd Kross. Lehrer brought a jazz drummer's ear, borrowing the idea of trading fours on "Red Tape" to widen what hardcore could do, and the title track was co-written by Jeffrey Lee Pierce of the Gun Club. "Beverly Hills," "Deny Everything" and "I Just Want Some Skank" fly by in a blur of sun-bleached Los Angeles snark. The cover is Ed Colver's photo of a crowd Morris gathered in the bowl of the Marina del Rey Skatepark after a show, members of the Adolescents among them.

The anniversary booklet also gathers memories from Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, a sign of how far this little record travelled. The original album packs 14 songs into about 15 minutes, which is roughly how long it takes us to find parking on Queen West.

Also at Kops: more Circle Jerks on vinyl · browse Punk

Listen

On Trust Records (cat# IFR0003), a reissue of the 1980 album.