Bl'ast! - Boner Sessions

Label: Bootleg

Year: 1988(?)

Here in Atlanta, the local free weekly paper just did a cover story on William DuVall, tracing his musical evolution from hardcore band Neon Christ, to joining Bl'ast!, then forming The Final Offering with Mike Dean of Corrosion Of Conformity, then jazz-punk band No Walls, followed by the cock-rock of Comes With The Fall, and finally, his new job as front man of Alice In Chains. It's an interesting read, but more importantly, the online version of the article has video clips of Neon Christ, Bl'ast!, and The Final Offering, which served as a reminder of just how fucking rad a guitar player DuVall was (is, I suppose). Much like Bl'ast! guitarist Mike Neider, he aped the Greg Ginn school of atonal soloing over choppy hardcore riffs, and, again like Mike Neider, he is a convincing understudy, even playing the Ampeg Dan Armstrong, and at one point playing through Ginn's old guitar rig.

You can accuse Bl'ast! of being a Black Flag clone, and you'd be pretty much right, but the question I would ask you in response is; who the fuck cares? Let's just say this, Black Flag is the greatest band to ever walk the face of the Earth. And with that established, it would then stand to reason that a band who sounds 90% like Black Flag are going to be....uh oh....math.....ummmm....the 9th best band in the world? Did I do that right? Did I carry the decimal?

My arithmetic aside, the point is Bl'ast! fucking slayed, and when Black Flag started getting a little bit up their own ass, Bl'ast! stepped in to carry the torch, and for that you should thank them.

This particular bootleg is a demo recorded for Boner Records for an aborted album. Not long after this, the band turned a bit funky before imploding and splintering into Blackout, which was later L'ab, and Spaceboy, and later Gargantua, Gusto, and Dusted Angel. I don't know the full story behind The Boner Sessions, but they're real fun to listen to. Also, I should point out, Lo-Res Viscera posted this awhile ago (of course he did), but it's been a minute, and I'm on a Bl'ast! rampage so I figured it was fair game to get back onto the interwebs.

* Here's a link to the article referenced in the post, by request. It's a long read, but worth it for the The Final Offering footage. Article. Videos.

DL