Circle Jerks discography
Encyclopedia
This is a comprehensive discography
of the Circle Jerks
, a California
-based punk rock
band. As of 2009, the band has released six studio albums, one live album, one compilation and one video album.
in 1979, and originally comprised Keith Morris
on vocals, Greg Hetson
on guitar, Roger Rogerson on bass and Lucky Lehrer
on drums. Their debut album, Group Sex
was released in 1980 on the Frontier Records
label; its 14 songs totaled out at 15 minutes. It featured some songs that Morris had written while in Black Flag
(Black Flag claimed the songs were "theirs") and one song Hetson wrote the music to. The song Hetson wrote, was a guitar riff and solo deemed Hetson's "Signature". That same year, the group was one of several California punk bands to be immortalized in the Penelope Spheeris
documentary The Decline of Western Civilization
; live versions of five songs from Group Sex appear on the movie's soundtrack.
In 1981, the group signed with IRS Records subsidiary Faulty Products and recorded their second release, Wild in the Streets
, the title track of which is a cover version of a Garland Jeffreys
tune. Faulty Products ceased operations several months after the release of the album, forcing Circle Jerks to find their third record deal in as many years. They signed a management deal with War
producer/manager Jerry Goldstein
's Far Out Productions, and recorded their third album, Golden Shower of Hits
, in 1983, the album was released on Goldstein's LAX label. One of the songs from the album, "Coup d'État", was used in the soundtrack of Alex Cox
's early film Repo Man, and the band makes an appearance playing an acoustic/lounge version of "When The Shit Hits The Fan". Not long after Repo Man had concluded its first-run release schedule, the Circle Jerks experienced its first lineup change, with Rogerson and Lehrer leaving the band. Rogerson and Lehrer were replaced by Earl Liberty and Chuck Biscuits
respectively.
In 1984, Libery and Biscuits had left the Circle Jerks and the band hired Zander Schloss
and Keith Clark as Liberty and Biscuits' respective replacements. The new lineup, consisting of Morris, Hetson, Schloss and Clark, recorded two more albums before the Circle Jerks split up for the first time in 1989, when Hetson left to tour and record albums with Bad Religion
.
A long period of inactivity ended in 1994, when the Circle Jerks reunited and signed a major label deal with Mercury Records
, a move that had a few business complications: Hetson was still with Bad Religion, who had signed a long-term contract with Atlantic Records
, while Schloss had been part of a band contracted to Interscope
. After ironing out these difficulties, the band recorded Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities
and released it in the summer of 1995, but later on, they broke up once again. Reasons for this breakup were essentially the same as they were in 1989.
The Circle Jerks reunited once again in 2001, with a new lineup of Morris on vocals, Hetson on guitar, Schloss on bass and Kevin Fitzgerald
on drums, and have been performing live off and on since. However, according to Hetson, the Circle Jerks may never release a new studio album in the near future, despite the fact that they released one new song "I'm Gonna Live" on their Myspace in 2007.
Discography
Discography is the study and listing of the details concerning sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified musical genres...
of the Circle Jerks
Circle Jerks
The Circle Jerks are an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. It was formed by Black Flag's original singer, Keith Morris, and future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. They were among the preeminent hardcore punk bands of the L.A. scene in the late 1970s.The band...
, a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band. As of 2009, the band has released six studio albums, one live album, one compilation and one video album.
Biography
The Circle Jerks were formed in Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
in 1979, and originally comprised Keith Morris
Keith Morris
Keith Morris is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Off! Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1978 debut EP...
on vocals, Greg Hetson
Greg Hetson
Greg Hetson is an American guitarist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 2 years old...
on guitar, Roger Rogerson on bass and Lucky Lehrer
Lucky Lehrer
Lucky Lehrer is a drummer from Los Angeles, California, voted the best punk drummer of all-time by fanzine, Flipside. He was originally trained in jazz but most famously played in LA punk rock bands, particularly the Circle Jerks, Redd Kross, Bad Religion, Darby Crash Band and LA's Wasted Youth,...
on drums. Their debut album, Group Sex
Group Sex
-Personnel:* Keith Morris - lead vocals* Greg Hetson - guitar* Roger Rogerson - bass* Lucky Lehrer - drumsProduction* Cary Markoff - producer* Cliff Zellman - engineer* Mackie Osborne - artwork* Diane Zincavage - cover design, cover art...
was released in 1980 on the Frontier Records
Frontier Records
Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways....
label; its 14 songs totaled out at 15 minutes. It featured some songs that Morris had written while in Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
(Black Flag claimed the songs were "theirs") and one song Hetson wrote the music to. The song Hetson wrote, was a guitar riff and solo deemed Hetson's "Signature". That same year, the group was one of several California punk bands to be immortalized in the Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...
documentary The Decline of Western Civilization
The Decline of Western Civilization
The soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the...
; live versions of five songs from Group Sex appear on the movie's soundtrack.
In 1981, the group signed with IRS Records subsidiary Faulty Products and recorded their second release, Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets (Circle Jerks album)
Wild in the Streets is the second album by the hardcore band Circle Jerks. The title track is a cover song of the Garland Jeffreys song of the same name...
, the title track of which is a cover version of a Garland Jeffreys
Garland Jeffreys
Garland Jeffreys is a part African-American, and Puerto Rican American, singer and songwriter, transversing the musical genres of rock and roll, reggae, blues and soul.-Career:...
tune. Faulty Products ceased operations several months after the release of the album, forcing Circle Jerks to find their third record deal in as many years. They signed a management deal with War
War (band)
War is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs "Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae...
producer/manager Jerry Goldstein
Jerry Goldstein (record producer, musician)
Jerry Goldstein is an American producer, singer songwriter and musician. He was one of the members of The Strangeloves, the co-writer of "My Boyfriend's Back" , the producer and dubiously credited songwriter of War, and the former manager of Sly and the Family Stone...
's Far Out Productions, and recorded their third album, Golden Shower of Hits
Golden Shower of Hits
Golden Shower of Hits is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band the Circle Jerks. It was released in 1983 through Allegiance Records and was the band's last album to feature Roger Rogerson on bass and Lucky Lehrer on drums...
, in 1983, the album was released on Goldstein's LAX label. One of the songs from the album, "Coup d'État", was used in the soundtrack of Alex Cox
Alex Cox
Alexander Cox is a British film director, screenwriter, nonfiction author and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach to scripts...
's early film Repo Man, and the band makes an appearance playing an acoustic/lounge version of "When The Shit Hits The Fan". Not long after Repo Man had concluded its first-run release schedule, the Circle Jerks experienced its first lineup change, with Rogerson and Lehrer leaving the band. Rogerson and Lehrer were replaced by Earl Liberty and Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits is a Canadian-born drummer, now a U.S. citizen, who is best known as an original member of the heavy metal/hard rock band Danzig. Most recently, he was a member of the punk rock band Social Distortion in the late 1990s...
respectively.
In 1984, Libery and Biscuits had left the Circle Jerks and the band hired Zander Schloss
Zander Schloss
Zander Schloss is a Los Angeles, California based musician, actor and composer. He is perhaps best known as bass player for The Circle Jerks and The Weirdos and for his contributions to a number of independent feature films. His first screen appearance was as "Kevin the Nerd" in Repo Man...
and Keith Clark as Liberty and Biscuits' respective replacements. The new lineup, consisting of Morris, Hetson, Schloss and Clark, recorded two more albums before the Circle Jerks split up for the first time in 1989, when Hetson left to tour and record albums with Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
.
A long period of inactivity ended in 1994, when the Circle Jerks reunited and signed a major label deal with Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, a move that had a few business complications: Hetson was still with Bad Religion, who had signed a long-term contract with Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, while Schloss had been part of a band contracted to Interscope
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. After ironing out these difficulties, the band recorded Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities
Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities
Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities is the sixth studio album by the Circle Jerks, which was released in 1995.Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities was the band's only full-length studio recording since their 1989 disbandment and 1994 reformation, and also their only release on a major label...
and released it in the summer of 1995, but later on, they broke up once again. Reasons for this breakup were essentially the same as they were in 1989.
The Circle Jerks reunited once again in 2001, with a new lineup of Morris on vocals, Hetson on guitar, Schloss on bass and Kevin Fitzgerald
Kevin Fitzgerald
Kevin Terrel Fitzgerald , a board certified veterinarian who works at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in his native Denver, Colorado is best known through his visibility on the Animal Planet reality show Emergency Vets and, more recently, E-Vet Interns. Fitzgerald also does stand-up comedy and a...
on drums, and have been performing live off and on since. However, according to Hetson, the Circle Jerks may never release a new studio album in the near future, despite the fact that they released one new song "I'm Gonna Live" on their Myspace in 2007.
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Other information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Group Sex Group Sex -Personnel:* Keith Morris - lead vocals* Greg Hetson - guitar* Roger Rogerson - bass* Lucky Lehrer - drumsProduction* Cary Markoff - producer* Cliff Zellman - engineer* Mackie Osborne - artwork* Diane Zincavage - cover design, cover art... |
Frontier Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.... |
LP/CD/CS | Debut album. |
| 1982 | Wild in the Streets Wild in the Streets (Circle Jerks album) Wild in the Streets is the second album by the hardcore band Circle Jerks. The title track is a cover song of the Garland Jeffreys song of the same name... |
Frontier Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.... |
LP/CD/CS | Produced by David Anderly and Gary Hirstius |
| 1983 | Golden Shower of Hits Golden Shower of Hits Golden Shower of Hits is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band the Circle Jerks. It was released in 1983 through Allegiance Records and was the band's last album to feature Roger Rogerson on bass and Lucky Lehrer on drums... |
Allegiance | LP/CD/CS | Produced by Jerry Goldstein for Avenue Records/ Far Out Productions |
| 1985 | Wonderful Wonderful (Circle Jerks album) Wonderful is the fourth studio album by the Circle Jerks, released in 1985.-Track listing:# "Wonderful"# "Firebaugh"# "Making the Bombs"# "Mrs... |
Combat Combat Records Combat Records was an independent record label from New York City. The label was home to predominantly metal and punk rock acts including Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Nuclear Assault, Death, Dead Brain Cells, Possessed, Crumbsuckers, Agnostic Front, Agent Steel, Dark Angel, Heathen, Zoetrope and... |
LP/CD/CS | |
| 1987 | VI VI (album) VI is the fifth album by the hardcore band Circle Jerks , which was released in 1987... |
Combat Combat Records Combat Records was an independent record label from New York City. The label was home to predominantly metal and punk rock acts including Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Nuclear Assault, Death, Dead Brain Cells, Possessed, Crumbsuckers, Agnostic Front, Agent Steel, Dark Angel, Heathen, Zoetrope and... |
LP/CD/CS | Final album before splitting up. |
| 1995 | Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities is the sixth studio album by the Circle Jerks, which was released in 1995.Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities was the band's only full-length studio recording since their 1989 disbandment and 1994 reformation, and also their only release on a major label... |
Mercury Mercury Records Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal... |
CD/CS |
|
| TBA | Untitled 7th Studio Album | Unknown | CD | Greg Hetson Greg Hetson is an American guitarist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 2 years old... admitted that the Circle Jerks may never release a new album in "the near future". |
Other releases
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Other information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Wild In The Streets | Frontier Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.... |
7" | Single. |
| 1982 | Rat Music for Rat People, Vol. 1 | CD Presents | CD | Compilation. |
| 1986 | Group Sex/Wild in the Streets Group Sex/Wild in the Streets Group Sex/Wild in the Streets is a compilation album by the hardcore band Circle Jerks. It is a CD re-release of the band's first two albums, Group Sex and Wild in the Streets, containing all of the tracks from both releases.-Track listing:... |
Frontier Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.... |
CD |
|
| 1992 | Gig | Combat Combat Records Combat Records was an independent record label from New York City. The label was home to predominantly metal and punk rock acts including Megadeth, Circle Jerks, Nuclear Assault, Death, Dead Brain Cells, Possessed, Crumbsuckers, Agnostic Front, Agent Steel, Dark Angel, Heathen, Zoetrope and... |
CD | Live album. |
| 2010 | Live at the Fillmore 1982 | CD Presents | Download | Live album. |
Video albums
| Year | Title | Label | Format | Other information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The Show Must Go Off! | Kung Fu | DVD | |