So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June. That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal. UPDATE: Greg Ginn has since gotten the movie pulled from Vimeo.Ĭlick here for more music features from Mother Jones.īy signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. And like Cocksucker Blues, it’s cool to see-at least once anyway. It’s very meandering, not unlike The Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour doc Cocksucker Blues-minus the groupies, planes, and copious drugs. Just jumping in a van with a bunch of guys, capturing the tedium, bad inside jokes, reactions of fans and passersby, philosophical conversations, and plenty of live footage. It recollects a particularly awkward moment in the history of punk, with the luminaries of the first ten years (Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Minor Threat) winding down or long gone and the next big wave (Green Day, Nirvana, Fugazi) still in its gestation stage.Īs a movie, though, it leaves a bit to be desired. As a cultural document, it’s pretty cool. Markey says, “I decided after 20 years just because one man doesn’t want the world to see something doesn’t make it right.”Įarlier this month, using the power of the internet to slip around Ginn’s notoriously tight fist, Markey posted his film on his vimeo page. The doc is legendary within certain circles, but not even bootleg VHS copies could be had. Though the film, Reality 86’d, carries a 1991 copyright, Black Flag founder/guitarist and SST label owner Greg Ginn never gave permission for it to be released.

While front man Henry Rollins documented the rigors of touring with one of punk’s best-known bands ( Get in the Van), filmmaker David Markey captured the band’s final, six-month trip across North America in 1986.

The band spent months at a time on the road, booking shows as it went, with certain band members reportedly eating dog food because they were that broke. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.īlack Flag’s grueling tours are the stuff of legend.

Black flag get in the van