Black Flag: Henry Rollins (vocals); Greg Ginn (guitar); Kira (bass); Bill Stevenson (drums).
Recorded at Total Access Studios, Redondo Beach, California.
I CAN SEE YOU is a surprising 1989 release of four songs recorded four or five years earlier, sometime before Black Flag's somewhat acrimonious breakup in 1986. There're no annotations, but the songs and production suggest that the tracks are outtakes from the band's final studio recording, 1985's IN MY HEAD. The EP's highlight, the uncommonly good-natured shuffle "Kickin' and Stickin'," had previously appeared on the soundtrack CD--also released on SST--of Dave Markey's 1987 underground feature LOVEDOLLS SUPERSTAR. The other three songs aren't groundbreaking additions to the Black Flag canon, but they're at least as good as most of what appeared on the band's last few albums, particularly the blues-based thud of "You Let Me Down." An unexpected but welcome coda to this prolific band's output.
