The Circle Jerks were one of the first and most influential bands of Southern California's infamous hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s. Led by former Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris, the Circle Jerks played straight punk at land-speed-record pace (their first album doesn't have a single song even close to two minutes long) with lyrics that were by turns witty, angst-ridden, and laughably vulgar. The band broke up just before the dawn of the 1990s. The Circle Jerks' status as hardcore punk pioneers helped spawn several one-off reunions (and a new studio album) in the decades that followed.