Circle Jerks discography

Circle Jerks discography

Releases
↙Studio albums	6
↙Live albums	1
↙Compilation albums	1
↙Video albums	1

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.

Biography

The Circle Jerks were formed in Southern California 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,^[1] 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	Frontier	LP/CD/CS	Debut album.
1982	Wild in the Streets	Frontier	LP/CD/CS	Produced by David Anderly and Gary Hirstius
1983	Golden Shower of Hits	Allegiance	LP/CD/CS	Produced by Jerry Goldstein for Avenue Records/ Far Out Productions
1985	Wonderful	Combat	LP/CD/CS
1987	VI	Combat	LP/CD/CS	Final album before splitting up.
1995	Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities	Mercury	CD/CS	First (and only) reunion album. Major label debut album. To date, this is the most recent Circle Jerks studio album.
TBA	Untitled 7th Studio Album	Unknown	CD	There has been a rumored new Circle Jerks album since reuniting again in the early 2000s, but it has not yet been materialized. The band, on 2/27/07, released their first new song since 1995 on their myspace page ([1]) titled "I'm Gonna Live". Adding more fuel to the possibility of a new album emerging. In April 2008 interview, guitarist Greg Hetson admitted that the Circle Jerks may never release a new album in "the near future".[1]

Other releases

Year	Title	Label	Format	Other information
1980	Wild In The Streets	Frontier	7"	Single.
1982	Rat Music for Rat People, Vol. 1	CD Presents	CD	Compilation.
1986	Group Sex/Wild in the Streets	Frontier	CD	Re-release of the first two studio albums. Currently out of print.
1992	Gig	Combat	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

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Interview With Bad Religion". Europunk. Marnix. http://www.europunk.net/interviews.php?id=219. Retrieved February 15, 2009.