he's a badass drummer with so many skills. he didn't join the 40th anniversary tour, that kinda bummed me out.. not that it's his fault or anything.. perhaps he wasn't asked or he just gracefully declined the invitation.
I was 17 during this time and listening to hard rock bands of the day and a huge AC/DC fan. I remember seeing ads for Circle Jerks shows in the LA Times and I always loved the name, but I had zero knowledge of the punk scene so I never ventured into it. In 1986, a friend I worked with gave me a cassette tape that had this set from the movie on it and I absolutely loved it! This was when hair metal was making me want to gouge my ears out and I was growing a bit bored with hard rock. The tape he gave me introduced me to Dead Kennedys, Fear, Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies and Angry Samoans as well. It was 90 minutes of life changing music for me. I wished I went to the shows back then, but to this day, I still love listening to it. So, Rob the Loadie, thanks again for turning me onto this awesome era of music.
Me too, man. I never cut off my long hair and didn't start going to see bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Religion til 1990, but by then the fashion police were not there telling me to go home. I attended lots of hardcore punk and speed metal gigs at the Outhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, which is pretty well known by bands. They avoided Kansas City. Too much crime. Too many weirdos.
Damn I remember hating punk back then. We were all about Priest, Accept, Dio, UFO, and starting fights with whomever wearing a Black Flag t-shirt. Unless we outnumbered.
We just saw two Black Flag songs from this film and as of today this is the only upload of the entire Circle Jerks segment from The Decline of Western Civilization. If you want to skip to the music it's shown from 1:03--6:57. Here was my previous comment from awhile back. Continuing on with our coverage of The Decline of Western Civilization. So far we've shared the Fear and Germs segments and now come to Circle Jerks. One of the very greatest American hardcore bands captured in their prime with excellent sound. A punk's dream come true. And we have Penelope Spheeris, the director of this film, to thank for including some of the top L.A. bands in 1980. Anyone wanting to see two of the best punk bands should watch the Germs and X parts. Anyone wanting to see three of the best hardcore bands should see Fear, Black Flag and Circle Jerks. Every punk who loves the music knows Circle Jerks debut album, Group Sex (1980) an album that can hardly be topped in any way. Keith Morris voc Greg Hetson gtr Roger Rogerson b and Lucky Lehrer dr. really laid down one for the ages with Group Sex. Fourteen songs in sixteen minutes--that's the whole album. These short songs threw me for a loop when I first heard them, but of course I've since grown to love this trailblazing style that soon would become a staple in hardcore for many years. Black Flag, Angry Samoans, The Crowd, Red Cross and Circle Jerks were the few bands playing short songs and short sets in those days. Keith Morris had left Black Flag and was now singing with Circle Jerks. Here is what he had to say about singing with his former band. "I was basically a monkey in a cage; they'd open the cage, I'd go out, act like a complete freak. And they loved that to a certain extent, but when it started to go past that line it started to get ridiculous, it started to get ugly." What to say about Keith's singing here? Some of the most intense, manic singing I've ever heard. Just listen to Beverly Hills. All the hatred and disdain directed towards the phony L.A. crowd come spewing out in this extremely bitter song, and you can tell Keith means every word 100%. The musicianship in this group is beyond reproach and if I were to show someone who has never heard hardcore what it's all about, I would be proud to choose this clip as a prime example.
@willie "Group Sex" is good but "Wild In The Streets" is even better. It's going to that desert island with me. Certainly, CJs were one of the very best of that era. Nice post btw peace.
@@JohnSmith-mx8wp This might be controversial but I think Wonderful is one of their best albums. It’s kinda metal crossover but it highlights their actual musical ability. Firebaugh and Makin the Bombs are super heavy. Check it out if you haven’t in a while
@@Marco_Paolo he still does it too haha ive never seen a recording of a CJ show where keith doesnt stop the show to tell them to either stop spitting or hitting eachother
Group sex. Legendary album start to finish. Loved the days when the jerks and Kennedys would leave B-side of tapes blank so you could put whatever you wanted on it
Thanks for including the interview clips. If Shout Factory is smart, they'll have left this video up because it's the best ad for the rerelease they have. Kind of hard to believe that Penelope Spheeris also directed the Beverley Hillbillies movie.
@@onutube6392 Oh, he wasn’t in the crowd...he was living in the St Louis area at the time until a few years ago when he died and they had arranged to have him come play with them beforehand. He gave regular shows every few weeks at a local place called the Duck Room all the way up until he was into his 80s.
Eric Blair has posted an interview with Keith where he tells the Chuck Berry story. I saw one of the last Chuck Berry shows in St Louis, he loved playing onstage.
Man this brings back memories of some of the dumbass shit I used to do while I was drunk. I got my nose clocked so good slamdancing once... It knocked some sense INTO my fucking head. :-) :-) Wonder how many of these kids ended up old men drooling on their own dorks from multiple concussions?
I'm looking at my ring and pinkie fingers on my left get hand that were broken when I was dancing in a black flag pit and slipped on something wet. I felt someone pick me up while someone else stepped on my hand. The fingers never set right and are at weird angles
@@vividfiber6668 Before it got mass produced by the same exact system that punk tried to destroy. Punk is dead, if you want change then challenge gender and digital binaries instead of succumbing to them.
I feel that X-head is the most honest of em all. I suppose Eugene too. It's uncanny how much my teenage self resembles the latter...I mean we look a lot a like!! Too bad I can't show my high school ID on here.
Just saw them live in Indy at the hi-fi. I kept warning my brother that the pit was gonna be like nothing else then we’ve ever been in. He didn’t listen and came out with some battle scars.
Great band, this is fully one of the best doc film segments ever made of the scene. Funny too how even though it's pretty hard, the Cali kids all look super photogenic, especially the girls
@@skinhead5 you're absolutely right, and I'm glad that he did and went on to have a good life. It's just that years ago, someone on one of these comment streams told me he died young and violently. I have to conclude that they made that up. Thanks again for the info.
never heard Circle Jerks before but I enjoyed this a lot. I like the New York no-wave stuff, like Swans--similar California accent, "like, I hate cops, y'know?" Ha ha
Seeing Pat Smear talking in this is surreal. Knowing just 15 years later he would be playing in the biggest punk/grunge band in the world, and backing the X generation's "John Lennon".
Keith Morris told me this movie was scripted and not real documentary interviews. He said he didn't say anything he might not say anyway but it was scripted to get their little snippets that captured in a few seconds what might be spread out over an hour of what he might say.
for me the perfect decline of western civilization type movie would feature black flag, circle jerks, circle one, germs and suicidal tendencies and interviews with each band
You can tell a poser apart by the way they point out pat from the foo fighters. You can tell the actual punks by the way they respond with "he was in the germs."
almost true. Not everyone knows the history, cuz we're dealing wtih multiple generations of punks, and it's weird, but some of them will know a lot of the original music, and still not be able to point out the Germs. They weren't there, so they'd only know through social exposure or whatever.
It's so not-music that it's like somebody started at poetry... tore through music... and is coming at poetry again from the other side while still shaking off the music just freshly raged through.
Never knew what these guys looked like. I was more of a Minor Threat, Dag Nasty and 7 Seconds guy. Those were the days. Nothing beat an all ages show out in some warehouse.
This time frame in my life was epic.81 thru 89. All the great music . punk. Metal.rock. it all blew up and grew with the ages
Yes.
respect
Truth
the real punk rock old timers will tell you, from about 1974 to 1980 it all blew up too.
Real hardcore was 80s all day. My teens. Fuck yes.
Lucky Lehrer is so badass. Highlight of the Circle Jerks for me
he's a badass drummer with so many skills. he didn't join the 40th anniversary tour, that kinda bummed me out.. not that it's his fault or anything.. perhaps he wasn't asked or he just gracefully declined the invitation.
Circle Jerks rule!
RIP Roger Rogerson (1955-1996)
I was 17 during this time and listening to hard rock bands of the day and a huge AC/DC fan. I remember seeing ads for Circle Jerks shows in the LA Times and I always loved the name, but I had zero knowledge of the punk scene so I never ventured into it. In 1986, a friend I worked with gave me a cassette tape that had this set from the movie on it and I absolutely loved it! This was when hair metal was making me want to gouge my ears out and I was growing a bit bored with hard rock. The tape he gave me introduced me to Dead Kennedys, Fear, Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies and Angry Samoans as well. It was 90 minutes of life changing music for me. I wished I went to the shows back then, but to this day, I still love listening to it. So, Rob the Loadie, thanks again for turning me onto this awesome era of music.
Me too, man. I never cut off my long hair and didn't start going to see bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Religion til 1990, but by then the fashion police were not there telling me to go home. I attended lots of hardcore punk and speed metal gigs at the Outhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, which is pretty well known by bands. They avoided Kansas City. Too much crime. Too many weirdos.
You probably knew more about the punk scene than you realized as this was in full swing by the early 80s.
Damn I remember hating punk back then. We were all about Priest, Accept, Dio, UFO, and starting fights with whomever wearing a Black Flag t-shirt. Unless we outnumbered.
the L.A punk scene in the late 1970's, early 1980's was legendary. so many iconic bands
And those of us that know what real punk is are embarrassed by bands like Blink 182 and their fans that call themselves "punk".
@@duanehaldeman8571oh it's an abomination
8:48 RIP Lorna Doom.What an awesome woman and total beauty.
You got that right
We just saw two Black Flag songs from this film and as of today this is the only upload of the entire Circle Jerks segment from The Decline of Western Civilization. If you want to skip to the music it's shown from 1:03--6:57. Here was my previous comment from awhile back.
Continuing on with our coverage of The Decline of Western Civilization. So far we've shared the Fear and Germs segments and now come to Circle Jerks. One of the very greatest American hardcore bands captured in their prime with excellent sound. A punk's dream come true. And we have Penelope Spheeris, the director of this film, to thank for including some of the top L.A. bands in 1980. Anyone wanting to see two of the best punk bands should watch the Germs and X parts. Anyone wanting to see three of the best hardcore bands should see Fear, Black Flag and Circle Jerks.
Every punk who loves the music knows Circle Jerks debut album, Group Sex (1980) an album that can hardly be topped in any way. Keith Morris voc Greg Hetson gtr Roger Rogerson b and Lucky Lehrer dr. really laid down one for the ages with Group Sex. Fourteen songs in sixteen minutes--that's the whole album. These short songs threw me for a loop when I first heard them, but of course I've since grown to love this trailblazing style that soon would become a staple in hardcore for many years. Black Flag, Angry Samoans, The Crowd, Red Cross and Circle Jerks were the few bands playing short songs and short sets in those days.
Keith Morris had left Black Flag and was now singing with Circle Jerks. Here is what he had to say about singing with his former band. "I was basically a monkey in a cage; they'd open the cage, I'd go out, act like a complete freak. And they loved that to a certain extent, but when it started to go past that line it started to get ridiculous, it started to get ugly." What to say about Keith's singing here? Some of the most intense, manic singing I've ever heard. Just listen to Beverly Hills. All the hatred and disdain directed towards the phony L.A. crowd come spewing out in this extremely bitter song, and you can tell Keith means every word 100%. The musicianship in this group is beyond reproach and if I were to show someone who has never heard hardcore what it's all about, I would be proud to choose this clip as a prime example.
@willie "Group Sex" is good but "Wild In The Streets" is even better. It's going to that desert island with me. Certainly, CJs were one of the very best of that era. Nice post btw peace.
Fuckin ay
@@JohnSmith-mx8wp This might be controversial but I think Wonderful is one of their best albums. It’s kinda metal crossover but it highlights their actual musical ability. Firebaugh and Makin the Bombs are super heavy. Check it out if you haven’t in a while
...love Pat Smear's appearance in the closing interview segment!!!
I thought that was Pat Smear.
That’s crazy!!
I've always wondered what this Pat Smear would say if he were told someday he'd be on stage with Paul McCartney. By choice.
...or that he'd live to see fellow members of three different bands die young/prematurely.
The part where the super fast section of I Just Want Some Skank begins and the guitarist runs and kicks the kid off of the stage is just so damn cool
He was trying to kick the security dude.
@@michaelgraham9774 oh. That makes more sense actually.
@@michaelgraham9774 The lead singer shouted to someone off stage about beating up people smaller than them.
@@Marco_Paolo he still does it too haha ive never seen a recording of a CJ show where keith doesnt stop the show to tell them to either stop spitting or hitting eachother
...looses his strap and still rips it. That's poise.
Group sex. Legendary album start to finish. Loved the days when the jerks and Kennedys would leave B-side of tapes blank so you could put whatever you wanted on it
Thanks for including the interview clips. If Shout Factory is smart, they'll have left this video up because it's the best ad for the rerelease they have. Kind of hard to believe that Penelope Spheeris also directed the Beverley Hillbillies movie.
I got to see them in St. Louis in ‘93. They brought Chuck Berry up on stage and jammed with him. It was fucking insane and beautiful.
really? why the fuck was chuck berry of all people in the crowd?
@@onutube6392 Oh, he wasn’t in the crowd...he was living in the St Louis area at the time until a few years ago when he died and they had arranged to have him come play with them beforehand. He gave regular shows every few weeks at a local place called the Duck Room all the way up until he was into his 80s.
@@eaglebauersrecordcollection damn
@@onutube6392 Makes sense to me. Both Chuck and the Circle Jerks are pure rock and roll.
Eric Blair has posted an interview with Keith where he tells the Chuck Berry story. I saw one of the last Chuck Berry shows in St Louis, he loved playing onstage.
Interesting how the system would without a question consider these types of concerts the "decline", not what those concerts stand against
Post Punk, Hardcore, Thrash metal and Grunge all exploded in one decade, fortunately for me I was 15 in 1980 and got to see it all
What amazing footage, and what an incredible band....in addition to Keith Morris, you've got Greg Hetson AND Lucky Lehrer. Zod bless Circle Jerks!
Wow……I can still remember the first time I heard them- maybe 10? Blew my mind and I never looked back
Keith! The man the legend.
Man this brings back memories of some of the
dumbass shit I used to do while I was drunk.
I got my nose clocked so good slamdancing once...
It knocked some sense INTO my fucking head. :-) :-)
Wonder how many of these kids ended up old men
drooling on their own dorks from multiple concussions?
Got to see agnostic front circle jerks Murphy's law, sick of it all and mad ball in the 2000's lots of bloody noses
I'm looking at my ring and pinkie fingers on my left get hand that were broken when I was dancing in a black flag pit and slipped on something wet. I felt someone pick me up while someone else stepped on my hand. The fingers never set right and are at weird angles
Lucky is a fucking mad man on those skins !
Before punk rock became something you get at WalMart
What do you even mean by this?
A school shooter?
@@vividfiber6668 Before it got mass produced by the same exact system that punk tried to destroy. Punk is dead, if you want change then challenge gender and digital binaries instead of succumbing to them.
Last I checked, you couldn't get a Circle Jerks record at Walmart, but that may just be my area 🤷
everything is commodemised these days, there's always real punk out there. it's called being yourfuckingself.
At 9:16 that is a young Dinah Cancer (Mary Sims) from death horror rock band "45 Grave". ⚰️💀🔥
Morris is the best HC singer of all time
Lee Ving!!!
He's certainly one of them!
@@davedecker1725 I absolutely love Lee. I'd add HR, Dave Smalley, and John Doe
Lee ving
"Group Sex" is one of several albums that helped get me through high school.
Just saw the CJs in Chicago. Holy F, Keith can still scream like this! Xander on bass! What a great show!
They did all of these songs!
Was supposed to see em in Boston tonight. Postponed.
Oh shit
this is punk, the attitude, the speed, great.
Is Morris ever gonna open that beer?
some say he still has it unopened
It's actually empty
0:23 QUOTE FROM THE MICK JAGGER MOVIE "PERFORMANCE"
Sweet!
Oh wow, that's right!
Los Angeles, baby.
I feel that X-head is the most honest of em all. I suppose Eugene too. It's uncanny how much my teenage self resembles the latter...I mean we look a lot a like!! Too bad I can't show my high school ID on here.
I saw these guys missed part of their set and yelled play red tape they said they already did but played it again cos i was outside keith is mad cool
Just saw them live in Indy at the hi-fi. I kept warning my brother that the pit was gonna be like nothing else then we’ve ever been in. He didn’t listen and came out with some battle scars.
Thank you for the upload!They're reporting all the clips from the film it's so sad.
+Jose Luna
My other videos from this film have been taken down so I expect this one will be too eventually.
diablovista two years later and it's still here, thank you
5 YEARS STRONG!
kick ass music, these kids come from messed up homes. plenty of bottled up aggression there.
Great band, this is fully one of the best doc film segments ever made of the scene. Funny too how even though it's pretty hard, the Cali kids all look super photogenic, especially the girls
It would be cool to track down the people who are in this clip to see what they look like today, how they turned out, what their viewpoints are today!
It would be fascinating. I'd really love to hear what happened to 'Michael,' the X-head.
@@fuzzballzz36He really was into classical music. Went on to teach it.
@@skinhead5 seriously? I didn't expect that.
@fuzzballzz36 Hey unless we die young, we grow up and mature.
@@skinhead5 you're absolutely right, and I'm glad that he did and went on to have a good life. It's just that years ago, someone on one of these comment streams told me he died young and violently. I have to conclude that they made that up. Thanks again for the info.
Never thought about the Darby Crash influence on Keith until now
never heard Circle Jerks before but I enjoyed this a lot. I like the New York no-wave stuff, like Swans--similar California accent, "like, I hate cops, y'know?" Ha ha
Don't miss early Black Flag and Keith Morris' more recent band OFF!
Seeing Pat Smear talking in this is surreal. Knowing just 15 years later he would be playing in the biggest punk/grunge band in the world, and backing the X generation's "John Lennon".
Oh my, so "surreal". He was a tard that joined the most over rated shit band of all time.
@@franksmith4277 gtfo
@@pressureflipin1992 NO🖕
Lmao
@@franksmith4277 kid, leaving a "middle finger" emoji is the most punk thing you've ever done...
So dang good
You need protection, I need protection, you need protection, I need protection, too!!
I was at the Premier of Decline. Penelope walked in w the film reels, w two cops as protection.
Keith Morris told me this movie was scripted and not real documentary interviews. He said he didn't say anything he might not say anyway but it was scripted to get their little snippets that captured in a few seconds what might be spread out over an hour of what he might say.
Seeing a young Pat Smear at the end was icing on the cake here. Damn.
Haha where are these people now.
THAT is how to start a ser.
for me the perfect decline of western civilization type movie would feature black flag, circle jerks, circle one, germs and suicidal tendencies and interviews with each band
Circle jerks. Fang boom& the legion of doom and a little L.S.D. never hurt no one...the 80s is where I'll be when I finally kick the bucket
Did anyone one ever do a video "Where are they now?" of the people that were interviewed?
That kid Eugene with a shaved head is now a math professor at a community college in Southern Ca. 😆
80's punk ruled. .... soo funn!
Fresh air for today
8:53 - ugghhhh, that guy John really bugs me! He sorta loox like Wayne from that TV show "The Wonder Years".
Society stinks. I hear yah bro.
“At the bottom it says “thank you.” And you can tell 'em to f**k off.”
You can tell a poser apart by the way they point out pat from the foo fighters. You can tell the actual punks by the way they respond with "he was in the germs."
almost true. Not everyone knows the history, cuz we're dealing wtih multiple generations of punks, and it's weird, but some of them will know a lot of the original music, and still not be able to point out the Germs. They weren't there, so they'd only know through social exposure or whatever.
How about if someone focuses on Lucky Lehrer being one hell of a drummer?
Calling people "posers" is weak minded, middle school mentality
@@TotinosOtherBoy spoken like a true poser
Damn these kids are like in their mid mid 50s early 60s now
Yes, we are!
yeah and original punks are 60+
you´re very observant
* oh and goths
Yes. You better believe it. I'm 57.
Holy shit hetson with hair, and lucky is a lawyer now
And rich from real estate...rich as fuck
Circle jerks is by far the best LA band of that era. Oh, and there is no black flag that is worth after Keith Morris
100% about the black flag comment!!!
I wonder where Eugene is these days.
Read an article, he's working on cars or something, x-head I think is a teacher or has kids.
Alive and well... I still keep in touch with him.
Hopefully he's alot less of a piece of shit. 👍
@@idontevenlikemoney He seemed alright to me. why's he a piece of shit?
Frank Smith he’s a nazi skinhead are you dense?
SOUTH BAY!!!!
The Fleetwood in Redondo Beach.
Keith Morris is the mayyyan!
Millionaire Foo Fighter Pat Smear at 9:09!
i was going to comment on here wondering if that was pat
Kids today don't even know.
We Remember Punk.
YEAH!
Good job Keith gave up the booze!
Nah, he just started to not open them
9.43 PAT SMEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
Anarchy, baby.
4:20 beautiful mayhem
@3:27 Metal Mike! From Angry Samoans, legend has it he coined the term "heavy metal." Believe what you like, ffs don't believe me
Utter. Effin. Chaos.
Punkeroo !
Holy Crap!! Is that Pat Smear at 9:09????
Had to look it up. Yup, sure is.
What a god
It's so not-music that it's like somebody started at poetry... tore through music... and is coming at poetry again from the other side while still shaking off the music just freshly raged through.
Sucks they spent so much time on the germs, I wanted to see more of Fear but whatever. I thought the germs part was extremely boring.
Kaith Morris Then - already and obviously short sighted - but punk enough to bear it
Whatever happened to John?
4:22
Most people I know that that grew up in the punk scene had either divorced parents or abusive parents. It’s weird.
Is that John Sullivan?
Foo Fighters guitarist Pat is in the interview
Oi! Boy Oi! Toy Label He was the guitarist for the Germs, the legendary L.A. punk band.
To think, Eugene is probably 56 years old now.
He's still around. I think he's a artist and a bluegrass musician. Michael died young.
Annnnnd founding member of flag!
Where is Eugene today?
What is Eugene's accent? It sounds like a total Cali accent.
Yep - california surfer accent
@@Francis-rs7zu Thanks a lot, I was wondering what that accent was.
Why the hell not?
I don't envy those bouncers...
Terrible job
Never knew what these guys looked like. I was more of a Minor Threat, Dag Nasty and 7 Seconds guy. Those were the days. Nothing beat an all ages show out in some warehouse.
@9:12 is that Pat Smear from The Germs, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters?
No it's a different pat smear
Pat Smer 9:09
the Circle Jerks should be inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame
nope, that would be the most UN-punk thing ever. the RRHOF is useless garbage.
Eugene was dropping science!
W
Someone send this to Ariana Grande and Bieber.
Probably wouldn't help lol then again ya never know
Corny
Punk is so dead rip
Fastest drums..
its funny how people shit talk push pits now but thats what was going on at the genesis of hardcore
Pat smear..how weird
Lucky is such an awkward looking drummer yet tight as sht...
I just understand that it’s too loud for some people and I can respect that