RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
Mid-80s selfie. I was obsessed with skateboarding and punk rock music and believed in both as positive lifestyle choices. Even if no one else around me could see it, I was confident in my path and knew that all I had to do was walk it.
October 19, 1984: the night that changed my life. Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open that I didn’t previously know was closed or even existed. After seeing Black Flag play, I was certain that whatever I did in my life, I would do it with 100% intensity and commitment.
When Greg Ginn of seminal Southern California hardcore punk band, Black Flag, sat down to write the lyrics for “Rise Above”, sometime in 1979 or 1980, he was feeling boxed in musically. New songs he was writing that would become the Damaged album, like “Room 13”, and the piece of music he had written that would become the intro for “Rise Above” were not being embraced by his bandmates. It seemed to Greg like they wanted to stop time; they wanted more of the same: “Jealous Again”, “Nervous Breakdown”. Never one to stop striving creatively, Greg’s frustration with his bandmates’ desire for crystallization came out in lyrics that were at first autobiographical. But as Greg continued to explore the song, he felt that the idea of resistance to conformity of any kind served a greater purpose as an anthem for the band itself. “I didn’t want to piss and moan,” says Ginn, “I wanted the song to stand on its own, so it mutated into us, Black Flag, against the world, against the culture, and the original inspiration had nothing to do with the final presentation.”
WE ARE TIRED OF
YOUR ABUSE
TRY TO STOP US;
IT'S NO USE!
The moment I heard the opening drum beat and distorted guitar chords of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” I knew I had picked up the trail to my own adventure. It was September 1984 and the first day of my freshman year of high school. I had left my home that morning wide-eyed, optimistic, and in search of transcendence. Later that day, I met Keith Hartel and Don Bruno in the school hallways and was recruited into their crew of misfits. After school, I followed them to Keith’s basement bedroom, where they proceeded to shear my hair off, school me on punk rock music and skateboarding, and make me a mixtape—the first song on it was “Rise Above”. And later, when I saw the September 1984 “Street-Sequence” issue of skateboarding magazine Thrasher, my world went from sepia-tone to full-blown technicolor—I’d flown over the rainbow. I stepped out into the autumn of 1984 steadfast and battle-ready with a soundtrack and a maxim: Rise Above!
If hearing “Rise Above” and reading Thrasher was the start of my transformation, then seeing Black Flag play live just a little bit over a month later, on October 19, 1984, at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey, was a thunderbolt that forever shattered the illusionary realities of my world. It was a life-affirming experience that remains with me to this very moment.
2003, Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, California. Photo: Mark Waters
In the spring of 2003, my band, Mike V And The Rats, were booked to open twelve shows for the Greg Ginn band. We were excited to be playing with and supporting one of our heroes and the person whose music had the most direct influence on our sound. These shows led to us forming a friendship with Greg, and from there, he invited me to do a guest vocal set at the Black Flag Reunion shows in September 2003. For three nights in a row, I joined Black Flag on stage to perform the My War record from cover to cover, which had never been done before.
2003, SST Records, Long Beach, California. Photo: Jody Morris
When the 2003 reunion shows were over, I visited Greg at SST and had him sign my My War record for me; I shook his hand, thanked him, took this photo with him, and never expected to perform with him again. But on my way out the door, Greg said that if he ever decided to relaunch Black Flag, he’d love to have me do the vocals and that he’d be in touch.
Black Flag attacked the stage with a ferocity and volume I have never experienced since. It was as if this small club in Trenton, New Jersey, had become the very center of the universe, and those of us in attendance were caught in its explosive expansion. Leaving the club that night, ears ringing and drenched in sweat; I could never have imagined that almost thirty years later, I would become the vocalist for this iconic band. That I would share a stage with Greg Ginn night after night and have the honor of performing the song that changed my life and celebrating its message and spirit with new audiences.
WE ARE BORN
WITH A CHANCE
I AM GONNA
HAVE MY CHANCE
Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open, and I skated through it. After seeing them play live, I decided that whatever I was going to do from that moment forward, like Black Flag, I would do it with intensity and purpose. My aggressive approach to skateboarding, my relentless touring, my resolute DIY ethos, my fierce self-reliance, as well as my poetry, lyric writing, and music, all find the spark of inspiration in Black Flag.
But, very much like Ginn’s original motivation for writing “Rise Above”, I, too, even at fourteen years old, began feeling boxed in by my friends and the skateboard and punk cultures. After the initial life-changing discovery, I quickly realized that, like everything else, the punk and skate worlds had barriers to entry, codes of conduct, and were filled with people chasing cool. All of that was uninteresting to me. I was and am grateful for my friends and the world that opened to me, but I wanted to listen to whatever music I wanted to listen to, dress however I wanted, and ride my skateboard uninhibited by rules. I wasn’t looking for anyone’s blessing or approval.
And so, my interest in the punk and skate scenes waned quickly after seeing Black Flag. Almost everything in that arena now seemed weak and contrived through my new eyes. Even the good and inspiring music and bands labeled or who labeled themselves as “punk” felt anchored and caged by a culture that wanted to suffocate anything ambitious or with meat on its bones. And I knew then, without question, that I’d rather be a target of the stranglers than to be one of them. Because of that, I chose to be an individualist, and though I existed and pursued my passions within these cultures, I refused to be pinned down by them.
When you step outside of “society’s arms of control” into a subculture, navigating school hallways, shopping malls, and family functions suddenly becomes difficult. Still, you have a uniform to wear, peers to lean on, magazines to read, and meetings to attend. Take one step further, outside of that subculture, and where do you find yourself? Entirely on your own. That’s where I decided to go. I wasn’t going to ask anyone for permission, and I wasn’t going to wait for the planets to
2012, Taylor, Texas. Photo: Rob Wallace
In 2012, Greg and I started working on songs we would later release as Good For You. We discussed initially releasing some of this material as Black Flag, but I pushed for us to start a new band. I’m proud of the material, but in retrospect, I see how we could have alternatively been more selective in what we put out and started working on Black Flag together at that time. Instead, it would take me a couple of years to warm up to being the vocalist for Black Flag. By then, Greg and I were good friends, and rather than becoming the singer of my favorite band from when I was a kid, I became the singer in my friend’s band.
2019, House Of Blues, San Diego, California. Photo: Rob Wallace
In January 2014, Greg asked me to become Black Flag’s fifth vocalist. By this point, we’d been friends for eleven years and writing and performing music together for two years. We did an extensive North American tour that summer and toured again in 2019 and 2020 all over North America, South America, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. We started our current touring cycle in November of 2022 with plans to keep at it indefinitely.
align; I wasn’t going to seek asylum in the safety of the mainstream culture or the boundary waters of the skate-punk culture. I was determined to paddle out on my own and live my own authentic life. I chose to rise above it all. Whether riding my skateboard or playing in a band, I knew that all I had to do was give it 100%, and my efforts would be their own reward. Black Flag transmitted those blueprints to me through their recordings and their live performances.
“Rise Above” endures. Every time I listen to it, it rings true; it cuts to the bone. Every time I perform it with Black Flag, I feel it, I live it, and it speaks to me as I sing the words into the microphone. I recorded my own solo version of “Rise Above” with Matthew Ryan in 2017 and, more recently, a full-band version with my band, The Complete Disaster. It is the one song that has made all the difference in my life, the one I keep going back to, the one that matters. It mattered when I was fourteen, and it matters now, maybe more than ever.
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA RISE ABOVE
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
Mid-80s selfie. I was obsessed with skateboarding and punk rock music and believed in both as positive lifestyle choices. Even if no one else around me could see it, I was confident in my path and knew that all I had to do was walk it.
October 19, 1984: the night that changed my life. Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open that I didn’t previously know was closed or even existed. After seeing Black Flag play, I was certain that whatever I did in my life, I would do it with 100% intensity and commitment.
When Greg Ginn of seminal Southern California hardcore punk band, Black Flag, sat down to write the lyrics for “Rise Above”, sometime in 1979 or 1980, he was feeling boxed in musically. New songs he was writing that would become the Damaged album, like “Room 13”, and the piece of music he had written that would become the intro for “Rise Above” were not being embraced by his bandmates. It seemed to Greg like they wanted to stop time; they wanted more of the same: “Jealous Again”, “Nervous Breakdown”. Never one to stop striving creatively, Greg’s frustration with his bandmates’ desire for crystallization came out in lyrics that were at first autobiographical. But as Greg continued to explore the song, he felt that the idea of resistance to conformity of any kind served a greater purpose as an anthem for the band itself. “I didn’t want to piss and moan,” says Ginn, “I wanted the song to stand on its own, so it mutated into us, Black Flag, against the world, against the culture, and the original inspiration had nothing to do with the final presentation.”
WE ARE TIRED OF
YOUR ABUSE
TRY TO STOP US;
IT'S NO USE!
The moment I heard the opening drum beat and distorted guitar chords of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” I knew I had picked up the trail to my own adventure. It was September 1984 and the first day of my freshman year of high school. I had left my home that morning wide-eyed, optimistic, and in search of transcendence. Later that day, I met Keith Hartel and Don Bruno in the school hallways and was recruited into their crew of misfits. After school, I followed them to Keith’s basement bedroom, where they proceeded to shear my hair off, school me on punk rock music and skateboarding, and make me a mixtape—the first song on it was “Rise Above”. And later, when I saw the September 1984 “Street-Sequence” issue of skateboarding magazine Thrasher, my world went from sepia-tone to full-blown technicolor—I’d flown over the rainbow. I stepped out into the autumn of 1984 steadfast and battle-ready with a soundtrack and a maxim: Rise Above!
2003, Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, California. Photo: Mark Waters
In the spring of 2003, my band, Mike V And The Rats, were booked to open twelve shows for the Greg Ginn band. We were excited to be playing with and supporting one of our heroes and the person whose music had the most direct influence on our sound. These shows led to us forming a friendship with Greg, and from there, he invited me to do a guest vocal set at the Black Flag Reunion shows in September 2003. For three nights in a row, I joined Black Flag on stage to perform the My War record from cover to cover, which had never been done before.
2003, SST Records, Long Beach, California. Photo: Jody Morris
When the 2003 reunion shows were over, I visited Greg at SST and had him sign my My War record for me; I shook his hand, thanked him, took this photo with him, and never expected to perform with him again. But on my way out the door, Greg said that if he ever decided to relaunch Black Flag, he’d love to have me do the vocals and that he’d be in touch.
If hearing “Rise Above” and reading Thrasher was the start of my transformation, then seeing Black Flag play live just a little bit over a month later, on October 19, 1984, at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey, was a thunderbolt that forever shattered the illusionary realities of my world. It was a life-affirming experience that remains with me to this very moment.
Black Flag attacked the stage with a ferocity and volume I have never experienced since. It was as if this small club in Trenton, New Jersey, had become the very center of the universe, and those of us in attendance were caught in its explosive expansion. Leaving the club that night, ears ringing and drenched in sweat; I could never have imagined that almost thirty years later, I would become the vocalist for this iconic band. That I would share a stage with Greg Ginn night after night and have the honor of performing the song that changed my life and celebrating its message and spirit with new audiences.
WE ARE BORN
WITH A CHANCE
I AM GONNA
HAVE MY CHANCE
Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open, and I skated through it. After seeing them play live, I decided that whatever I was going to do from that moment forward, like Black Flag, I would do it with intensity and purpose. My aggressive approach to skateboarding, my relentless touring, my resolute DIY ethos, my fierce self-reliance, as well as my poetry, lyric writing, and music, all find the spark of inspiration in Black Flag.
But, very much like Ginn’s original motivation for writing “Rise Above”, I, too, even at fourteen years old, began feeling boxed in by my friends and the skateboard and punk cultures. After the initial life-changing discovery, I quickly realized that, like everything else, the punk and skate worlds had barriers to entry, codes of conduct, and were filled with people chasing cool. All of that was uninteresting to me. I was and am grateful for my friends and the world that opened to me, but I wanted to listen to whatever music I wanted to listen to, dress however I wanted, and ride my skateboard uninhibited by rules. I wasn’t looking for anyone’s blessing or approval.
2012, Taylor, Texas. Photo: Rob Wallace
In 2012, Greg and I started working on songs we would later release as Good For You. We discussed initially releasing some of this material as Black Flag, but I pushed for us to start a new band. I’m proud of the material, but in retrospect, I see how we could have alternatively been more selective in what we put out and started working on Black Flag together at that time. Instead, it would take me a couple of years to warm up to being the vocalist for Black Flag. By then, Greg and I were good friends, and rather than becoming the singer of my favorite band from when I was a kid, I became the singer in my friend’s band.
2019, House Of Blues, San Diego, California. Photo: Rob Wallace
In January 2014, Greg asked me to become Black Flag’s fifth vocalist. By this point, we’d been friends for eleven years and writing and performing music together for two years. We did an extensive North American tour that summer and toured again in 2019 and 2020 all over North America, South America, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. We are now preparing for tour dates across the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Indonesia for 2022-23 and beyond.
And so, my interest in the punk and skate scenes waned quickly after seeing Black Flag. Almost everything in that arena now seemed weak and contrived through my new eyes. Even the good and inspiring music and bands labeled or who labeled themselves as “punk” felt anchored and caged by a culture that wanted to suffocate anything ambitious or with meat on its bones. And I knew then, without question, that I’d rather be a target of the stranglers than to be one of them. Because of that, I chose to be an individualist, and though I existed and pursued my passions within these cultures, I refused to be pinned down by them.When you step outside of “society’s arms of control” into a subculture, navigating school hallways, shopping malls, and family functions suddenly becomes difficult. Still, you have a uniform to wear, peers to lean on, magazines to read, and meetings to attend. Take one step further, outside of that subculture, and where do you find yourself? Entirely on your own. That’s where I decided to go. I wasn’t going to ask anyone for permission, and I wasn’t
going to wait for the planets to align; I wasn’t going to seek asylum in the safety of the mainstream culture or the boundary waters of the skate-punk culture. I was determined to paddle out on my own and live my own authentic life. I chose to rise above it all. Whether riding my skateboard or playing in a band, I knew that all I had to do was give it 100%, and my efforts would be their own reward. Black Flag transmitted those blueprints to me through their recordings and their live performances.“Rise Above” endures. Every time I listen to it, it rings true; it cuts to the bone. Every time I perform it with Black Flag, I feel it, I live it, and it speaks to me as I sing the words into the microphone. I recorded my own solo version of “Rise Above” with Matthew Ryan in 2017 and, more recently, a full-band version with my band, The Complete Disaster. It is the one song that has made all the difference in my life, the one I keep going back to, the one that matters. It mattered when I was fourteen, and it matters now, maybe more than ever.
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA RISE ABOVE
Mid-80s selfie. I was obsessed with skateboarding and punk rock music and believed in both as positive lifestyle choices. Even if no one else around me could see it, I was confident in my path and knew that all I had to do was walk it.
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
October 19, 1984: the night that changed my life. Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open that I didn’t previously know was closed or even existed. After seeing Black Flag play, I was certain that whatever I did in my life, I would do it with 100% intensity and commitment.
When Greg Ginn of seminal Southern California hardcore punk band, Black Flag, sat down to write the lyrics for “Rise Above”, sometime in 1979 or 1980, he was feeling boxed in musically. New songs he was writing that would become the Damaged album, like “Room 13”, and the piece of music he had written that would become the intro for “Rise Above” were not being embraced by his bandmates. It seemed to Greg like they wanted to stop time; they wanted more of the same: “Jealous Again”, “Nervous Breakdown”. Never one to stop striving creatively, Greg’s frustration with his bandmates’ desire for crystallization came out in lyrics that were at first autobiographical. But as Greg continued to explore the song, he felt that the idea of resistance to conformity of any kind served a greater purpose as an anthem for the band itself. “I didn’t want to piss and moan,” says Ginn, “I wanted the song to stand on its own, so it mutated into us, Black Flag, against the world, against the culture, and the original inspiration had nothing to do with the final presentation.”
WE ARE TIRED OF YOUR ABUSE
TRY TO STOP US;
IT'S NO USE!
The moment I heard the opening drum beat and distorted guitar chords of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” I knew I had picked up the trail to my own adventure. It was September 1984 and the first day of my freshman year of high school. I had left my home that morning wide-eyed, optimistic, and in search of transcendence. Later that day, I met Keith Hartel and Don Bruno in the school hallways and was recruited into their crew of misfits. After school, I followed them to Keith’s basement bedroom, where they proceeded to shear my hair off, school me on punk rock music and skateboarding, and make me a mixtape—the first song on it was “Rise Above”. And later, when I saw the September 1984 “Street-Sequence” issue of skateboarding magazine Thrasher, my world went from sepia-tone to full-blown technicolor—I’d flown over the rainbow. I stepped out into the autumn of 1984 steadfast and battle-ready with a soundtrack and a maxim: Rise Above!
2003, Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, California.
Photo: Mark Waters
In the spring of 2003, my band, Mike V And The Rats, were booked to open twelve shows for the Greg Ginn band. We were excited to be playing with and supporting one of our heroes and the person whose music had the most direct influence on our sound. These shows led to us forming a friendship with Greg, and from there, he invited me to do a guest vocal set at the Black Flag Reunion shows in September 2003. For three nights in a row, I joined Black Flag on stage to perform the My War record from cover to cover, which had never been done before.
2003, SST Records, Long Beach, California. Photo: Jody Morris
When the 2003 reunion shows were over, I visited Greg at SST and had him sign my My War record for me; I shook his hand, thanked him, took this photo with him, and never expected to perform with him again. But on my way out the door, Greg said that if he ever decided to relaunch Black Flag, he’d love to have me do the vocals and that he’d be in touch.
If hearing “Rise Above” and reading Thrasher was the start of my transformation, then seeing Black Flag play live just a little bit over a month later, on October 19, 1984, at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey, was a thunderbolt that forever shattered the illusionary realities of my world. It was a life-affirming experience that remains with me to this very moment.
Black Flag attacked the stage with a ferocity and volume I have never experienced since. It was as if this small club in Trenton, New Jersey, had become the very center of the universe, and those of us in attendance were caught in its explosive expansion. Leaving the club that night, ears ringing and drenched in sweat; I could never have imagined that almost thirty years later, I would become the vocalist for this iconic band. That I would share a stage with Greg Ginn night after night and have the honor of performing the song that changed my life and celebrating its message and spirit with new audiences.
WE ARE BORN
WITH A CHANCE
I AM GONNA
HAVE MY CHANCE
Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open, and I skated through it. After seeing them play live, I decided that whatever I was going to do from that moment forward, like Black Flag, I would do it with intensity and purpose. My aggressive approach to skateboarding, my relentless touring, my resolute DIY ethos, my fierce self-reliance, as well as my poetry, lyric writing, and music, all find the spark of inspiration in Black Flag.
But, very much like Ginn’s original motivation for writing “Rise Above”, I, too, even at fourteen years old, began feeling boxed in by my friends and the skateboard and punk cultures. After the initial life-changing discovery, I quickly realized that, like everything else, the punk and skate worlds had barriers to entry, codes of conduct, and were filled with people chasing cool. All of that was uninteresting to me. I was and am grateful for my friends and the world that opened to me, but I wanted to listen to
2012, Taylor, Texas.
Photo: Rob Wallace
In 2012, Greg and I started working on songs we would later release as Good For You. We discussed initially releasing some of this material as Black Flag, but I pushed for us to start a new band. I’m proud of the material, but in retrospect, I see how we could have alternatively been more selective in what we put out and started working on Black Flag together at that time. Instead, it would take me a couple of years to warm up to being the vocalist for Black Flag. By then, Greg and I were good friends, and rather than becoming the singer of my favorite band from when I was a kid, I became the singer in my friend’s band.
2019, House Of Blues, San Diego, CA. Photo: Rob Wallace
In January 2014, Greg asked me to become Black Flag’s fifth vocalist. By this point, we’d been friends for eleven years and writing and performing music together for two years. We did an extensive North American tour that summer and toured again in 2019 and 2020 all over North America, South America, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. We are now preparing for tour dates across the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Indonesia for 2022-23 and beyond.
whatever music I wanted to listen to, dress however I wanted, and ride my skateboard uninhibited by rules. I wasn’t looking for anyone’s blessing or approval.
And so, my interest in the punk and skate scenes waned quickly after seeing Black Flag. Almost everything in that arena now seemed weak and contrived through my new eyes. Even the good and inspiring music and bands labeled or who labeled themselves as “punk” felt anchored and caged by a culture that wanted to suffocate anything ambitious or with meat on its bones. And I knew then, without question, that I’d rather be a target of the stranglers than to be one of them. Because of that, I chose to be an individualist, and though I existed and pursued my passions within these cultures, I refused to be pinned down by them.
When you step outside of “society’s arms of control” into a subculture, navigating school hallways, shopping malls, and family functions suddenly becomes difficult. Still, you have a uniform to wear, peers to lean on, magazines to read, and meetings to attend. Take one step further, outside of that subculture, and where do you find yourself? Entirely on your own. That’s where I decided to go. I wasn’t going to ask anyone for permission, and I wasn’t going to wait for the planets to align; I wasn’t going to seek asylum in the safety of the mainstream culture or the boundary waters of the skate-punk culture. I was determined to paddle out on my own and live my own authentic life. I chose to rise above it all. Whether riding my skateboard or playing in a band, I knew that all I had to do was give it 100%, and my efforts would be their own reward. Black Flag transmitted those blueprints to me through their recordings and their live performances.“Rise Above” endures. Every time I listen to it, it rings true; it cuts to the bone. Every time I perform it with Black Flag, I feel it, I live it, and it speaks to me as I sing the words into the microphone. I recorded my own solo version of “Rise Above” with Matthew Ryan in 2017 and, more recently, a full-band version with my band, The Complete Disaster. It is the one song that has made all the difference in my life, the one I keep going back to, the one that matters. It mattered when I was fourteen, and it matters now, maybe more than ever.
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
Mid-80s selfie. I was obsessed with skateboarding and punk rock music and believed in both as positive lifestyle choices. Even if no one else around me could see it, I was confident in my path and knew that all I had to do was walk it.
When Greg Ginn of seminal Southern California hardcore punk band, Black Flag, sat down to write the lyrics for “Rise Above”, sometime in 1979 or 1980, he was feeling boxed in musically. New songs he was writing that would become the Damaged album, like “Room 13”, and the piece of music he had written that would become the intro for “Rise Above” were not being embraced by his bandmates. It seemed to Greg like they wanted to stop time; they wanted more of the same: “Jealous Again”, “Nervous Breakdown”. Never one to stop striving creatively, Greg’s frustration with his bandmates’ desire for crystallization came out in lyrics that were at first autobiographical. But as Greg continued to explore the song, he felt that the idea of resistance to conformity of any kind served a greater purpose as an anthem for the band itself. “I didn’t want to piss and moan,” says Ginn, “I wanted the song to stand on its own, so it mutated into us, Black Flag, against the world, against the culture, and the original inspiration had nothing to do with the final presentation.”
WE ARE TIRED OF YOUR ABUSE
TRY TO STOP US;
IT'S NO USE!
October 19, 1984: the night that changed my life. Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open that I didn’t previously know was closed or even existed. After seeing Black Flag play, I was certain that whatever I did in my life, I would do it with 100% intensity and commitment.
The moment I heard the opening drum beat and distorted guitar chords of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” I knew I had picked up the trail to my own adventure. It was September 1984 and the first day of my freshman year of high school. I had left my home that morning wide-eyed, optimistic, and in search of transcendence. Later that day, I met Keith Hartel and Don Bruno in the school hallways and was recruited into their crew of misfits. After school, I followed them to Keith’s basement bedroom, where they proceeded to shear my hair off, school me on punk rock music and skateboarding, and make me a mixtape—the first song on it was “Rise Above”. And later, when I saw the September 1984 “Street-Sequence” issue of skateboarding magazine Thrasher, my world went from sepia-tone to full-blown technicolor—I’d flown over the rainbow. I stepped out into the autumn of 1984 steadfast and battle-ready with a soundtrack and a maxim: Rise Above!
2003, Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, CA.
Photo: Mark Waters
In the spring of 2003, my band, Mike V And The Rats, were booked to open twelve shows for the Greg Ginn band. We were excited to be playing with and supporting one of our heroes and the person whose music had the most direct influence on our sound. These shows led to us forming a friendship with Greg, and from there, he invited me to do a guest vocal set at the Black Flag Reunion shows in September 2003. For three nights in a row, I joined Black Flag on stage to perform the My War record from cover to cover, which had never been done before.
If hearing “Rise Above” and reading Thrasher was the start of my transformation, then seeing Black Flag play live just a little bit over a month later, on October 19, 1984, at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey, was a thunderbolt that forever shattered the illusionary realities of my world. It was a life-affirming experience that remains with me to this very moment.
Black Flag attacked the stage with a ferocity and volume I have never experienced since. It was as if this small club in Trenton, New Jersey, had become the very center of the universe, and those of us in attendance were caught in its explosive expansion. Leaving the club that night, ears ringing and drenched in sweat; I could never have imagined that almost thirty years later, I would become the vocalist for this iconic band. That I would share a stage with Greg Ginn night after night and have the honor of performing the song that changed my life and celebrating its message and spirit with new audiences.
WE ARE BORN
WITH A CHANCE
I AM GONNA
HAVE MY CHANCE
2003, SST Records, Long Beach, CA.
Photo: Jody Morris
When the 2003 reunion shows were over, I visited Greg at SST and had him sign my My War record for me; I shook his hand, thanked him, took this photo with him, and never expected to perform with him again. But on my way out the door, Greg said that if he ever decided to relaunch Black Flag, he’d love to have me do the vocals and that he’d be in touch.
Black Flag was my Kerouac. They kicked a door open, and I skated through it. After seeing them play live, I decided that whatever I was going to do from that moment forward, like Black Flag, I would do it with intensity and purpose. My aggressive approach to skateboarding, my relentless touring, my resolute DIY ethos, my fierce self-reliance, as well as my poetry, lyric writing, and music, all find the spark of inspiration in Black Flag.
But, very much like Ginn’s original motivation for writing “Rise Above”, I, too, even at fourteen years old, began feeling boxed in by my friends and the skateboard and punk cultures. After the initial life-changing discovery, I quickly realized that, like everything else, the punk and skate worlds had barriers to entry, codes of conduct, and were filled with people chasing cool. All of that was uninteresting to me. I was and am grateful for my friends and the world that opened to me, but I wanted to listen to
2012, Taylor, Texas.
Photo: Rob Wallace
In 2012, Greg and I started working on songs we would later release as Good For You. We discussed initially releasing some of this material as Black Flag, but I pushed for us to start a new band. I’m proud of the material, but in retrospect, I see how we could have alternatively been more selective in what we put out and started working on Black Flag together at that time. Instead, it would take me a couple of years to warm up to being the vocalist for Black Flag. By then, Greg and I were good friends, and rather than becoming the singer of my favorite band from when I was a kid, I became the singer in my friend’s band.
whatever music I wanted to listen to, dress however I wanted, and ride my skateboard uninhibited by rules. I wasn’t looking for anyone’s blessing or approval.
And so, my interest in the punk and skate scenes waned quickly after seeing Black Flag. Almost everything in that arena now seemed weak and contrived through my new eyes. Even the good and inspiring music and bands labeled or who labeled themselves as “punk” felt anchored and caged by a culture that wanted to suffocate anything ambitious or with meat on its bones. And I knew then, without question, that I’d rather be a target of the stranglers than to be one of them. Because of that, I chose to be an individualist, and though I existed and pursued my passions within these cultures, I refused to be pinned down by them.
2019, House Of Blues, San Diego, CA. Photo: Rob Wallace
In January 2014, Greg asked me to become Black Flag’s fifth vocalist. By this point, we’d been friends for eleven years and writing and performing music together for two years. We did an extensive North American tour that summer and toured again in 2019 and 2020 all over North America, South America, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. We started our current touring cycle in November of 2022 with plans to keep at it indefinitely.
When you step outside of “society’s arms of control” into a subculture, navigating school hallways, shopping malls, and family functions suddenly becomes difficult. Still, you have a uniform to wear, peers to lean on, magazines to read, and meetings to attend. Take one step further, outside of that subculture, and where do you find yourself? Entirely on your own. That’s where I decided to go. I wasn’t going to ask anyone for permission, and I wasn’t going to wait for the planets to align; I wasn’t going to seek asylum in the safety of the mainstream culture or the boundary waters of the skate-punk culture. I was determined to paddle out on my own and live my own authentic life. I chose to rise above it all. Whether riding my skateboard or playing in a band, I knew that all I had to do was give it 100%, and my efforts would be their own reward. Black Flag transmitted those blueprints to me through their recordings and their live performances.“Rise Above” endures. Every time I listen to it, it rings true; it cuts to the bone. Every time I perform it with Black Flag, I feel it, I live it, and it speaks to me as I sing the words into the microphone. I recorded my own solo version of “Rise Above” with Matthew Ryan in 2017 and, more recently, a full-band version with my band, The Complete Disaster. It is the one song that has made all the difference in my life, the one I keep going back to, the one that matters. It mattered when I was fourteen, and it matters now, maybe more than ever.
RISE ABOVE
WE'RE GONNA
RISE ABOVE
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