Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn's growing drive to express himself instrumentally led him to form a dizzying array of side bands, with varying degrees of success. This sprawling collective of musicians from Ginn's SST label offered his most uncompromising expression, being a free-form enterprise whose participants could play what they wished. (The back cover boasts an unlikely quote from U.S. President George Washington to bolster that philosophy: "He who would trade his freedom for his security deserves to lose both.") SST merchandising man Tom Troccoli had already been playing in yet another Ginn side band, Tom Troccoli's Dog, so he slid into the frontman's role, telling stories on-stage as the music wound behind him. (He also blows some unimpressive, off-key harmonica.) Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins also appears, along with its drummer of the time, Bill Stevenson, and ex-bassist Chuck Dukowski, who contributes his own off-kilter vocals. Saccharine Trust guitarist Joe Baiza is Ginn's sparring partner. The credits suggest an indie-punk supergroup, but the results are anything but predictable, as Ginn and company squawk and snarl through seven totally improvised compositions before a live audience. David Claasen's dense, murky mix -- as improvised as the music -- makes it hard to tell who's doing what, forcing listeners to get the drift from such potentially intriguing titles as "Trail of Tears" and "It Don't Mean Shit." They won't get much help from Troccoli's hoarse vocals, which are equally hard to pick out. The vocal and instrumental hurricane does yield some powerful moments -- particularly the self-explanatory "Bad Acid" -- but only the most die-hard SST collector will revisit this territory often. That's not to say the idea is bad, but the execution is uneven, and some judicious editing would definitely have helped the cause. ~ Ralph Heibutzki, All Music Guide
Tom Troccoli (Vocals), October Faction (Producer), Joe Baiza (Cover Design), Joe Baiza (Vocals), Greg Ginn (Guitar), Dave Claasen (Cover Design), Dave Claasen (Mixing), David Claassen (Mixing), Joe Baiza (Guitar), Tom Troccoli (Harmonica), Chuck Dukowski (Bass), Ethan James (Mixing), Chuck Dukowski (Vocals), Bill Stevenson (Drums), Henry Rollins (Percussion)
The album was recorded live in one take during a live performance at The Stone, a nightclub in San Francisco where Black Flag would regularly do their "Frisco weekend", the band's term for a monthly residency the band would do at the club when they were not touring. Black Flag's Live '84 was recorded on the same night as this album.
It is presumed that the performance took place on an evening when Black Flag were doing one of their "Frisco weekends", since then-Black Flag drummer Bill Stevenson is credited as the drummer on the album's back cover (even though Greg Cameron, who is depicted on the front cover of Joe Baiza's artwork, had played other shows with October Faction and would play on the band's second album); in the course of the performance, Tom Troccoli introduces Stevenson as substituting for "The Nazi Sex Doctor" (a band nickname for Cameron). Henry Rollins, then Black Flag's lead singer, plays percussion (i.e. he would stand behind Stevenson's drum kit and bang on the floor toms and cymbals, as he is seen doing on Live '84's "I Won't Stick Anyone...").
Three other members of Black Flag and SST Records' extended family are also credited as participants on the album. Sometime roadie/musician Tom Troccoli (who played with Black Flag roadie and SST Records partner Steve "Mugger" Corbin in The Nig-Heist, and in his own band Tom Troccoli's Dog with Ginn on bass) contributed vocals and unintentionally off-key harmonica (he accidentally used a harmonica in a key that clashed with what the rest of the band was playing). Black Flag's soundman, Dave Claassen, who is credited as "Mixing Board Meister", also mixed down the album and contributed artwork of his own to the album's back cover. Mugger, himself, received a credit of "live engineer" under his given name.
As part of Tom Trocolli's Dog, Trocolli and Ginn would later record a more organized version of "Todo Para Mi" for that band's sole, eponymous LP.
Track listing
On the compact disc edition of the album, the performance is presented as one single extended track, even though individual index numbers for every song are erroneously given on the CD label.
It Don't Mean Shit (October Faction/Tom Troccoli)
Todo Para Mi (October Faction/Chuck Dukowski/Tom Troccoli)[1]
You, Me (October Faction/Chuck Dukowski)
Trail of Tears (October Faction/Chuck Dukowski)
Ten Hour Drive (October Faction/Tom Troccoli)
Gimme A Quarter, Twenty-five Cents For The Bus (October Faction/Joe Baiza)
Bad Acid (October Faction/Chuck Dukowski/Tom Troccoli)
The songwriting credits are presumed to reflect that the entire band was credited with composing the music, while the individual names are those of whoever was improvising lyrics at the time.[2]
^ The CD label credits one "Jesus Martinez" as the lyricist, while BMI's database credits Dukowski and Troccoli only. For the purposes of this article, a consistent naming convention using both sources was used.
^ BMI's database does not list any of the individual tracks on its database, except for "Todo Para Mi", but there is an entry for a song entitled "October Faction" that may actually be the title of the extended composition on this LP as registered with BMI in 1985; the registry credits Joe Baiza, Greg Cameron (erroneously, since Bill Stevenson drummed on the album and should have thus gotten a co-writer credit for his role), Greg Ginn, Gary McDaniel (Dukowski's real name) and Tom Trocolli as writers.
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