Panic!-photo book; Ryebread Rodeo Press, 2018

It took a day, maybe two, for Disaster Amnesiac to splurge on Ryebread Rodeo's great new hardbound book, Panic!, upon hearing of its release. Being a huge fan of Black Flag and pretty much anything SST and Greg Ginn related, there really wasn't much choice for me. Kinda HAD to have it. I figure that's the case for many out there, and they'll surely enjoy the photos of Hermosa Beach based Punk Rock group Panic!, a few months before they'd morph into being Black Flag. Robo looking half naked and totally feral, Keith holding onto a can of cheap beer for dear life, Chuck looking every bit the philosophy professor gone Col. Kurz, Greg with his piercing stare and lanky frame. The four of them rehearsing in their padded cell (I've marveled at how clean it looks!) and goofing off inside of what I think is the fabled Church, posing dangerously, while being double exposed, on Aviation Blvd., sitting in Keith's car (there's that brewski again, too). Also of note are the rough, naturalistic backgrounds that show Los Angeles in 1978. One can almost feel the grit and smell the exhaust coming off of the contact sheets.
The most instructive takeaway for Disaster Amnesiac, though, has been the repro'd contract with Bomp! Records. After reading it, I was struck by the "in perpetuity" clause mentioned. Is it painting with too broad a brush to suggest that this clause in some sense was the seed for the underground, do it yourself ethos which Black Flag would pioneer?
Dig: Disaster Amnesiac has been trying to imagine the conversation between Ginn and...who? His inner voice? Dukowski? Regis? In which, he saw that some other entity would own his vision for ever. For me, it's fascinating to ponder this, and the final decision to jettison the Bomp! plan and go completely independent. It seems likely that, had Panic! been signed to Bomp!, they would have put out a few 7 inches, maybe a 12 inch, and withered upon the vine of their boutique aesthetic. As we all know, Black Flag took over their own destiny (or, at least made a bold attempt to do so), got that first single out, and proceeded to carve out a tour circuit that is still extant into the 21st Century. Granted, this is pretty speculative statement, but it seems logical from where I sit. From a historical perspective, the contract is really the most compelling piece in the Panic! book for me.
Anyone interested in SST Records, or Black Flag, or Los Angeles, will likely spend a ton of time with it, should they grasp a copy of Panic! It does not feel as seminal a description of them as, say, Enter Naomi, but they most definitely expose some heretofore obscured views of the very important cultural achievement that they represent.