Circle Jerks' 'Group Sex' rages on 40 years later with Trust Records reissue

 

By Andy 

"NUTS!" is one way Keith Morris emotes his feelings about how the Circle Jerks' "Group Sex" album has withstood the test of time.

"I personally am in awe over the attention our album gets this far out from its original release back in 1980," the band's animated singer told us in an email this week.

While the pandemic put a hit on the CJs' 40th anniversary reunion plans this year, Trust Records has helped keep the band's legacy alive with a reissue of that classic punk platter. Our original copy my brother purchased in 1980 is scratched to hell, but still delivers the angst and rage 1,000-fold.

The new edition has been given the remaster treatment and will include five bonus tracks from the band's initial rehearsal in 1980, a deluxe 20-page booklet jam packed with rare photos, flyers and testimonials, and a reprint of a 24-page CJs fanzine from 1980 with pre-orders. Visit https://kingsroadmerch.com/circle-jerks/view/?id=18192&cid=3419

At the age of 14, I first encountered the CJs at the Starwood in Los Angeles at my first punk gig. It was a night I'll never forget.

When Morris and the CJs hit the stage, I was amazed at how the band raged while playing so tight. Guitarist Greg Hetson and bassist Roger Rogerson jumped up and down and drummer Lucky Lehrer shredded away with a wild look on his face. Morris had his usual beer in hand and was as manic as I thought he would be on stage -- turns out my grade-school buddy Tony Ford (who often collected the donations at church sporting engineer boots and a leather jacket) was right.

To top off the CJs' set, brother Ed hopped up on stage, ran across it and dove into the crowd during "Paid Vacation."

Morris fills us in on the raucous band's beginnings.

"When we first started, our situation had us skipping out on the learning to crawl and walking bits and going directly to a swift paced run. Everything was moving fast and we didn't have time to dwell upon the events that were happening to us. The CJs were just going for it!," he said. 

And then they began wearing out their shoes and boots at a blistering pace on the punk scene.

"Writing songs and booking gigs equated to spinning heads, and the recording process for 'Group Sex' went by so quickly that we had no idea as to what we were doing," he added. "Roger, Greg, Lucky and I had absolutely no thoughts towards us helping to create a blueprint for a genre of music."

Our original copy from 1980.