Group Sex

Let's normalize 15 minute albums. There's an argument to be made that if you can't get your point across in 0:31 (the length of the album's two shortest songs), then you should just pack up and go home.

I was 9 years old when I attended my first circle jerk. It was a lowly lit room at the Chelsea training ground. I was dressed in a tutu and had my hair in plaits, as was the fashion at the time. My brother shoved me to the middle of the room and then the lights flicked on. I was surrounded by the entire Chelsea first team and backroom staff. They all tugged away at themselves, making strong eye contact with me throughout. I got so swept up by the attention that I didn't realise I was wanking myself. My first time. It was such a turn on. Glenn Hoddle came on my back. Later, we all went out for milkshakes. Somebody bumped into me and I spilt mine all down my front. It was hard to tell what was milkshake and what was jizz. I was completely drenched in both.

Classic hardcore punk. There's no pretension here. It's a great time and at 15 minutes, you feel inspired to just listen to it again, and then maybe a third time. Side note: I enjoy reading the negative reviews for this. Call it schadenfreude I suppose. I guess it's juvenile of me to feel that way, but I can't help it.

Excellent hardcore punk record. Stupid, bratty, loud. What more do you want?

It felt like a load of 14-year-old edgelords wrote this because they thought it sounded cool. Punk just for the sake of it. The lyrics were juvenile with no real substance - hey, let's write a song about an orgy to piss off our parents, regardless of the fact that we're all virgins! Where's the rage against the machine, Kevin? Go to a protest or something.

I imagine this type of music is made for desperate teenagers, to fit in with an obnoxious anti-establishment crowd, pretending to enjoy a disgusting screamishly loud esthetic and inflect misery upon themselves. Luckily for my average score, I have not yet been graced with the opportunity to review heavy metal... The only redeeming quality about this record is that the tracks are very short, but there is no excuse for the abhorrent sound "Group Sex" contains. I am contemplating not giving this record a score, because I feel sad about it averaging out a perfect 5/5 to two 3/5's. However, to be fair to the 1001 albums project, this piece of garbage gets an absolute 1/5 from me.

As crisp and snappy as an electrified mouse trap baited with Doritos. This is so tight it’s breathless. Fantastically pithy, filthy and fun.

When you have someone coming over and you have to clean the entire house in 15 minutes, this is the album you put on.

I LOATHE this The only thing that will justify one star is that the longest song is only 1:35 and the entire album is around 15 mins long.

In, punk, out. Love Keith Morris and Off! especially. Favorite tracks: "Group Sex", "Deny Everything", "Paid Vacation"

I have a soft spot for hardcore punk. Had this one on cassette back in the day and they had the album 2xs back to back on side 1, and side 2 was just blank and you were encouraged to record what you wanted on it.

Classic punk album with a million songs packed into 30 minutes. Love it.

What a nightmare.

Terrible. Just noise.

Oh man this took me BACK. I hope I get to rate Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death because boy do I have a story. That album opened up the whole genre of late 70s/80s punk to me that, it seems, I still very much love. This is a great album. Took me back to The DPC (Downtown Performance Center) in Tucson and high school (and beyond) and angst and lyrics and band flyers and everything. Operation really hits differently today than it did in high school lol.

Fitting 14 songs into 16 adrenaline fueled minutes Keith Morris and the boys make a punk classic still being emulated to this day. If you’ve never heard the origins of punk and hardcore the Jerks are a great introduction…as much as Morris’ former band is.

There’s longer tool songs than this album. Great little spike of angst.

Waffled between loving and hating this basically on a minute to minute basis throughout the album. The lyrics are so dumb but the concise punch-you-in-the-face punk sound is very appealing.

I make no apologies for liking this. I'm a punk kid and always have been. Circle Jerks isn't even a guilty pleasure for me. It's just a pleasure. Hardcore punk is its own thing distinct from mainstream punk and has its own job to do. Circle Jerks understands the assignment and delivers with "Group Sex". It takes the joyful abandon of punk and adds in a hard, ragged edge of anger and, as a kid, that really spoke to me. I mean, damn... as an adult in today's sociopolitical hellscape, that STILL speaks to me. Bands like Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Minor Threat feel even more relevant now than they did then. I mean, how can you NOT identify with a song like "World Up My Ass"? That's actual life succinctly summed up in just over a minute. Yeah, no apologies. This is hella great.

Loud, fast, fun. More 15 minute albums please.

You know what. If you're only ever going to record one worthwhile album, 14 Gonzo party punk classics in 15 minutes is as good an idea as any. Go in, get out, leave everyone without eyebrows. Yes.

Fuck, my ADHD brain loves a short goddamn album. My Tony Hawk heart is also enjoying the hell out of this. Good on you Circle Jerks.

One of the best punk albums EVER! 15 mins is all it needed!

I was going to wax lyrical on this then I realised the band is called "Circle Jerks" and the album is called "Group Sex" so anything I write is going to pale into insignificance in comparison to whatever Nigel Spackman writes.

This was dumb and fun...not to be taken too seriously, but perfect in its way

Nice early HC, loud and brash but full of actual melody, with a pretty damn good drummer. And at 15min it knows exactly what it is. 4/5.

Definitely not my favorite punk album but it’s a lot of fun.

All yelling, no substance. Awful lyrics, awful musicality. The band title and album name are a little try-hard, too. We get it, you're edgelords. Thanks, I hate it.

Easy 5 for me, Keith Morris is one of my all time favourite musical people. The word blistering is used often but has never been more accurate. 16 minutes of insanity. LFDY is still one of my favourite songs of all time. Gets unfairly compared to Black Flag at times but up there for me.

Never heard of these but it turns out the lead singer was in Black Flag who I vaguely know of and are a hugely influential hardcore punk band. 14 songs, 15 minutes, bosh. To start with I thought 'yep, way ahead of its time, not sure it's great in its own right', then by the end I was putting it on again. Loved it, ludicrous that it came out over 40 years ago.

Yes! Heard of the circle jerks but don't think I've actually listened to them before. This was great and I'm sure it inspired lots of bands I liked growing up. Nofx and pennywise spring to mind but must be many more. Short and energetic. Proper punk. After the album finished Spotify played some great tracks too, bonus. We've had a great ska album and a great punk album this week, they make up my first musical love, ska punk! I have to give this a 5

14 songs in 15 minutes. This is punk rock. They weren’t the first ones to do it but they may be the best.

Fun and straight to the point. I love it.

Group Sex is the debut studio album by American hardcore punk band Circle Jerks. It was released on October 1, 1980, by Frontier Records. The album consists of 14 songs in 15 minutes and is considered to be a landmark album in hardcore punk. Four songs on the album – "Wasted", "Don't Care", "Behind the Door" and "Red Tape" – were originally co-written and performed by vocalist Keith Morris with his previous band Black Flag. I liked the mood of this album, extreme and fast songs & lyrics. Also I like to read & listen how people not into the underground music rate this album & music in this genre. (17/02/2023).

banger

Great album. They get in and out of songs at a record speed but still manage to pack a punch.

So short! I didn't even make it to work before it ended

Great energy, and for once I can actually hear the lyrics in a punk album

One of my favorite records of all time. And one of my favorite bands to see live. Anger, wit, social commentary - all at breakneck speed.

5/5. Kickass early hardcore man 😎🤙

I remember this band from old Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. I'm a fan of punk rock so this was a great album.

All speed. All energy. A great way to start the day.

Cram 14 songs into 15-16 minutes of pure energy. This is a great punk album and doesn't need to be longer!

What can I say, I'm a sucker for classic punk.

I can see how this band influenced modern punk/hardcore bands. Pretty solid!

I was very surprised at how much I liked this.

punkhaiku

Enjoyed this more than I expected to. Like Sabrina Carpenter, the Circle Jerks are short 'n sweet!

Fun fact: I had to look up how this thing was formatted on a vinyl. Apparently it's split across two sides like normal? It would be cool if it all fit on one side and the other side was some design. Album #10. The tracks all sound the same. The refrains bounce off the walls. The vocalist clearly wants you to feel something. The subject matter resembles graffiti. The drums never stop. The cover art is sneering at you. The longest song is 1:35. The needle lifts by the time you've thought to think about it. It's timeless. No notes.

It's over in about 15 minutes so stop moaning. Best Tracks: Deny Everything!; Operation; Behind The Door

Forget lean, this is a single short-twitch muscle fibre. As an aesthetic and/or statement of purpose, 'shorter and faster than everyone else' won't distinguish them all that much, but their brio and animus might. As will their jkz, which are obvious and the better for it. Henry Rollins should have paid attention.

Mäh

1. deny everything - 0 2. zome zkank - 0 3. beverly hillz - 0 4. operation - 0 5. back againzt the uuall - 0 6. uuazted - 0 7. behind the door - 0 8. uuorld up my azz - 0 9. paid vacation - 0 10. dont care - 0 11. live fazt die young - 1 12. uuhatz your problem - 0 13. group zez - 0 14. red tape - 0

5 stars for being so damn short that i have no idea if i loved or hated it. World up my ass was a fun one

This is such a fun and classic album. It’s definitely one of the foundational records of early hardcore punk. The low budget production gives it a raw, stripped down sound that adds to the DIY vibe. It’s energetic, fast paced, and straight to the point, with the entire album only being 15 minutes long.

Classic hardcore punk, 15 mins di pura energia

I've been looking forward to this one. Short sharp shock! Amazing youthful energy!

Eh, fuck it. I’m at a 5. The WarioWare of albums, if you will, given the rapidfire pace – it’s the shortest one in the entire list at just 15 minutes, yet it somehow manages to pack in everything it wants to say as concisely as possible throughout its 14 tracks. It’s not like these are poorly written tracks either; save for one use of the F-slur on track 2 (it was 1980, so I get it, but still), these are all competent tracks that generally have something to say, and get their points across well enough. Special shoutout to the prescience of “Paid Vacation”, by the way. Of course, it’d be stupid to focus on this one solely for the lyrics or vocals, because while they’re there, they’re just a way for the instrumentation to come in red hot as a motherfucker & do some bullshit that absolutely nobody else was doing in 1980. Sure, the Sex Pistols did their whole thing in 1977, but that at least stayed within a semblance of the rock/metal music of its time. For 1980, this is taking Johnny Rotten’s core philosophy and putting it on a treadmill going about 2.5 times as fast. Even with the Dead Kennedys album we got, which went at a breakneck pace, this is even faster. It feels way, way closer to the sort of insanity that would go more “mainstream” circa the early 2000s, or at the very least, the sort of thing my brain associates with manic Newgrounds animations or early YouTube AMVs. It’s not an all-time great album or anything, but it’s a kickass 15 minutes that pulls no punches and does exactly what it sets out to do. It’s dumb goofy fun hardcore punk that spits on any form of musicality that came before it, in the best way possible. I’m very glad it’s on the list, because it does feel like it’s influential to some degree. Realistically, it’s probably actually just a 4, at the very most, but from the fucking vibes alone and how easy it to just rock out to this shit, I’d be selling myself short to not give this a 5. Anyone who gave this a 1 is lame as hell.

This is a short, but energetic album. A lot of crazy stuff goes on here!

I was worried seeing a low rating, and for the first 10 seconds of the first track I really wasn’t sure what I thought. Another 10 seconds I was into it. And I absolutely loved it before the end of the playtime, and gladly let it run through again. Gritty, heavy, humorous, great musicianship hiding behind the yelling, and the playtime was perfect - enough to get to the point and not waste any more time. I’ve had plenty of bloated albums by now, and this album shows that more doesn’t mean better and in fact can mean worse. I would normally rate this 4-4.25/5 but I’m rating up as the current global 2.7 is too low. Not my typical musical genre but this was fucking great

This is more my style. I love California punk rock. These are great punk rock songs under 2 minutes

I wasn't even in the mood for this and it hit. 4.5/5.

Fantastic, no notes.

Hardcore the way I like it! Rad!!!

it was really good, i can hear how it influenced everything after it

And in tribute to this album's runtime, starting with the next paragraph I will spend only 15 minutes and 25 seconds writing my review of this record. Alright, here we go... ---{*}--- Look, there's not even really much I wanna say about this album, people. I mean, come on: this is hardcore punk! The playing's loud, the vocals are shouty, the lyrics are probably about being an angry, disaffected youth who wants to have sex, and it's all done real damn fast. That's all you could ever really ask for. And, goodness me, this thing is only 15 minutes long! The longest song isn't even a minute and a half! That's barely any of your time spent! Even the Ramones had a longer album! And honestly, that's pretty great. I tell yah, I'm a champion of simple albums, and, well, you can hardly get any more simple this. What would you hafta lose giving it a chance? Like, sure, of course, there's better punk out in the world. Albums with more thought put into how those three chords are getting played, or have lyrics with a bit more meaning beyond being angry and wanting sex, or have a bit more meat to chew on, or even have a bit more musical variety from song to song... But I think as long as you're not coming in expecting the world and then some from this thing, you'll probably get a kick out of it. I know I did! It's a fun, quick blast of punk energy, and it is what it is. I mean, come on, this isn't The Clash here, people. This is Circle Jerks. Y'think they wanted people to take them seriously with a name like that? Honestly. ---{*}--- Honestly, I'm not even sure if writing a review in 15 minutes is even that impressive. I think I do that on a regular basis anyway... But, that's basically the sum of it. And really, I just think it's a nice treat to get an album so short before my group's middle point: our 500th album! I mean, getting this at any time woulda been neat, but as #499... Yeah, it's a little extra nice. (No Whammies for the big 5-0-0, I hope!)

Seminal punk band. Well worth a listen for one of the architects of American Punk.

These guys are so punk that they made their album only 15 minutes long. Take that, music industry! Favorite songs: the one about skanks, the one about vasectomies, the one about being wasted, and the one about having the world up your ass. And of course, the title track.

Can't believe I've never heard this before. I mainly knew these guys from their iconic performance as a lounge band in "Repo Man" when they do a mellow version of their 80's defining "(We all gotta duck) When the shit hits the fan." Short and sweet powerhouse rocker. I like the version of Wasted on here better than Black Flag's. I never fully understood the evolution from 70s punk to 80s hardcore, and I feel like this is a bit of the missing link.

Short and sharp. Occasionally felt that the brevity was covering up for some flaws, but great fun, and much rather this than 2 hours of prog.

Circle Jerks: Group Sex. What's not to like?

Missing song on Spotify can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW6ykueIhX8 44- Circle Jerks - 21:01 - Deny Everything

At first I hated it. The lyrics were so juvenile. Then I realized that it was 15 minutes long and the songs were a minute and a half max. For some reason that changed my entire opinion: now it was just fun. It was so 80s in the way that the dialogue in a John Hughes movie is 80s. I also love punk songs where I can hear the drummer kind of struggling. I think that punk has its place and that place is a 15-minute chunk of my day when I'm walking through Safeway. Would have been fun to get thrown around at one of their shows back in the day. 3.5 Gonna show this to my mom

Hardcore's a punch on the nose: simple messages understood immediately, so why come back? But I listened to Group Sex five times today - over an hour! - and I am listening to it now as I write this, which surprises me, as I suppose this means I like it. The cartoon nihilism is slapped on thick: “I don’t want to live to 34/I don’t to die in a nuclear war!” “Where’s the gun?/Here’s my head!” I'm just about old enough to have a faint memory of how glum a vibe was 1980 - nuclear dread, economic depression, terrorism and war on the news, fascism home and abroad. Like now, but at least we have iPhones - I just drafted some hardcore song content! Which is to say, the on-the-nose sardonicism, the aggressive drums-bass-guitar, and the swift passage from one bad topic to another feel appropriate. Where's the 2023 hardcore revival? Musically, it manages to vary stuff up, playing a sharp intro-then-leap game, and the track listing offers a triumphant retort to my own pre-assumption that I'd find the album repetitive. It's certainly catchy, both the instrument sounds and the vocal rhythm and content: during a work call just now, I was distracted by imaginary buzzsaw guitars and had the urge, fortunately resisted, to sing "I just want to/eat my own shit"; inspirational. Circle Jerks join Minor Threat and Void on my tiny list of hardcore bands I like. Void are my favourite, as they managed to be simultaneously fast, heavy and have a guitar sound like an out of control dragon.

I used to listen to Black Flag back in my younger days, which was Morris's first band, loved The Dead Kennedys as well, but never came across this lot. Right at the beginnings of what became known as US Hardcore, a genre which got wilder and more experimental with every passing year. However it has to start somewhere, so speed punk it is. Very well structured, tight playing and what I'd expect from California in the early 1980s. Very enjoyable and will listen again. A middle 3.

Started off sounding like every kid's cartoon cliched older brother bad punk garage band. However, this ersatz Löded Diper rapidly evolved into something more like The Damned (indeed, I was humming "Love Song" to most of the tracks), and was quite enjoyable by the end. Can't give it more than a 2, but that's kind-of a compliment. Lasts about as long as it should. Highlights: "Live Fast Die Young" and, of course, "World Up My Ass"

Wow. Not quite sure what happened there! Whilst I do enjoy a lot of punk influenced music, this was way too hardcore and extreme for me. It makes the Sex Pistols sound like a complete commercial sell out (which I guess it probably is considered to be by those that really love punk music). I understand it and can appreciate it as a piece of art, but it’s just not something I’d ever buy. Glad I listened but can’t rate too highly.

REAL ramones problem with this one, unfortunately. even fifteen minutes felt samey

That's gonna boil some piss innit...

Hardcore punk in its ideal form.

So I was familiar with the track “Wild in the Streets” but I had not heard of anything else from Circle Jerks. That ring said I’m definitely more of a fan now. This album is super super short, insanely short. Literally 14 songs in 15minutes! Even for punk music that’s a real accomplishment. But this album has that energy and angst of like an all time punk album. It’s so creative too. Punk music has a tendency to lean on simple riffs but this album has a lot of cool ideas and it’s got a surprising amount of variety for a punk album. Honestly this album the more I think about the more I love it. GO BUY IT!!!

1980 California. Hardcore punk. !!!!!

Disaffection incarnate. Masterful.

Huereguet!

Great album. Forgot about the activist angles on these songs. So fun to scream along with. Beverly Hills is still right on with its lyrics. Even more so now that people get so much plastic surgery that they look like clones.

Hardcore punk kicks ass and anyone who says otherwise is a coward. Solid 5 Stars.

Seminal hardcore record.

Perfect hardcore album

This record rules. A succinct less than 16 minutes. These songs have energy, hooks, blend together well. It's like a fever dream. Been a really long time since I had listened to this, great stuff.

What a fun short killer punk record. Were it longer I’d have found lots of fault in this but its short snappy and balanced length ended up getting me to listen to it three times in a row and enjoy it thoroughly. Even in its simplicity it’s funny, smart and clever while being anarchic. Loved it.

Frenetic, humorous, FAST. Drummer rides in the bell at a furious pace :)

really fun punk album. fast, aggressive, the purest example of raucous. it ends just as soon as it starts, which i love. hard to say a lot about an album with so little, but it is really great and a nice little hit of punk aggression. would ride this ride again.

punk classic

hmmm idk it's pretty good but it might be a little on the long side

get in>upend the place>get out. 15 mins well spent

Group Sex" is the debut album by American hardcore punk band Circle Jerks. The album delivers 14 songs in 15 minutes and is considered a landmark album in hardcore punk. It expresses an overall theme of adolescent frustration. The bandmembers include former Black Flag singer Keith Morris (lead vocals), former Redd Kross guitarist Greg Hetson (guitar), Roger Rogerson (bass) and Lucky Lehrer (drums). The opener "Deny Everything" comes out hard and fast. Morris screaming "Deny Everything." They slow it down a bit (only a bit) in "Back Against the Wall." A searing guitar solo by Hetson. Oh, and broken glass sounds of course. Morris took over a few songs from Black Flag and "Wasted" is one of them. Skateboarding and getting wasted. The guitar and drum have a rockabilly vibe at the start of "Paid Vacation." They get back to business as usual and speed it up as your paid vacation is a trip to the Middle East to go to war for oil. The tom-tom drums are featured on "Live Fast Die Young." He doesn't want to live to 34 or in a nuclear war. The album ends with the ridiculously fast "Red Tape." The drummer Lehrer shows his jazz background with some great drumming. Wham bam thank you ma'am. Fast, short, angry and lyrically to the point. In 15 minutes, they address sex, drinking, drugs, making fun of rich people, society, oil companies, nuclear war, taxes and politics. These guys can also play their instruments: pace changes, searing guitar solos and relentless drumming. I can't think of a more direct hardcore punk album and they're mostly all direct. A punk classic.

This album was way more fun than the first impression I got from the album title and group name. This is real punk. The album is fast and angry. You can really feel the angst from these guys as each song blazes by in both tempo and length. But it does so in a way that's pretty funny and just flat out entertaining. I think my favorite was Back Against the Wall, especially the double time at the end. I Want Some Skank, Beveryly Hills, Behind the Door, and World Up My Ass are also pretty great.

The shortest album in the list, but still incredibly dense. Multiple songs stand out and I think it's because the drumming is so goddamn cool. Very interesting riffs and drum beats

Perfect record.

Really fun, fast paced, upbeat, toe-tapping, headbanging old west coast punk. It’s like The Dead Milkmen, but angry and more organized.5/5