4. Bl’ast!It’s In My Blood
I never seem to outgrow this. Not only is Clifford [Dinsmore] one of my all-time favourite singers, he also had one of the filthiest bathtubs I have ever seen. We stayed at his house in Santa Cruz in the early ’90s. I’m not sure if that’s something I should mention, but seriously, it had a coal black ring around it two feet deep.
Clifford is an insane frontman with really personalised lyrics, out-there psychedelic kind of lyrics, he smokes a lot of weed, he’s super surf – I mean Santa Cruz is right on the ocean. Besides that, this is quite obviously influenced by Black Flag but it almost ‘out Flags’ Black Flag. Some would say that’s sacrilege, but those in the know would wholeheartedly agree.
It’s strange that I like this record. I generally go with an original form of music more than the copycat bands, if that makes sense. I’ll generally hate some new band that sounds like they’re aping something else. Some people don’t care about that, but it rubs me the wrong way. But basically Bl’ast! is taking the essence of Black Flag and shaking it up and redoing it in a weird way. Almost redoing it in such an intense incredible way that they almost trump Black Flag at their own game.
