cian nugent:grass above my head/my war

Cian Nugent’s lovely follow-up to 2011’s much acclaimed Doubles album presents two short solo acoustic turns—one original, and one Black Flag cover. “Grass Above My Head” is a wistful, fingerpicked, South Dublin coastal lovesick blues. In contrast to the two ambitiously complex side-long tracks on Doubles, “Grass” is simple and elegant, full of just-so chord changes that make all the right references to the genre classics. In contrast, the truly unusual assault on Black Flag’s “My War” is a knot of edgy picking, starting with an abstracted take on Greg Ginn’s naggingly dissonant intro and rapidly moving into a hypnotic variant that suggests an entirely different kind of blues than the A-side. Truly one of the weirdest (and best) Flag covers of all time.