Black Flag – Jealous Again

Black Flag Jealous Again vinyl is back in print, and if you’ve been waiting on a clean copy of this one, now’s the time to pay attention. Released on SST Records, the label Greg Ginn founded specifically to put out Black Flag’s own music when no one else would touch it, this 12″ sits at a genuinely interesting moment in the band’s history. It captures the group operating in that sharp, compressed space where punk was mutating into something harder, faster, and more confrontational, before hardcore had even fully named itself.

Why Black Flag Matters

Greg Ginn started Black Flag in Hermosa Beach in 1976, and the band spent the following decade building something that had no real template. The SST operation itself was part of the statement: press your own records, book your own tours, answer to nobody. Ginn’s guitar work was the engine of it, angular and abrasive in ways that sat outside both the British punk lineage and the American new wave lane. The records sound raw because that rawness was the point. What Black Flag built became the foundation that American hardcore and post-hardcore spent years responding to, arguing with, and building on.

About the Black Flag Jealous Again Vinyl

This is catalog number SST 3, one of the early entries in what became one of the more important American independent label catalogs. The 12″ format gives the release a bit more physical weight than a standard single, and as an SST pressing it carries the context of that whole self-determined, no-outside-interference approach to releasing music. The “back in print” status means this has had periods of being genuinely difficult to find, which tracks for early SST material. Collectors who have been piecing together the Black Flag discography in chronological order will recognize this one as a key piece of the early run.

Who Should Pick This Up

If you’re building a serious punk collection and want the actual records rather than just the reputation, early SST releases are the place to focus. Jealous Again sits before the lineup changes that defined later chapters of the band, which makes it a specific document rather than a general introduction. The 12″ format is practical for shelving alongside other SST titles, and having it on vinyl means you get the full analog treatment that this kind of recording responds well to. Cleaner pressings of early SST material don’t come around constantly, and the back-in-print window on something like this is worth noting.