CRO-MAGS' HARLEY FLANAGAN Explains Why He Re-Recorded Entire 'The Age Of Quarrel' Album

During a December 13, 2025 question-and-answer session at Generation Records in New York City, CRO-MAGS founder Harley Flanaganspoke about the decision to re-record some of the band's music for inclusion in the feature documentary "Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos", which charts his tumultuous life and survival. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's why you'll see in a lot of films, you'll hear re-recordings of songs. And you'll be, like, 'Why did they do that shit?' … And more often than not, it's because it was too fucking complicated to get the rights or too expensive. So we wound up in a situation. Obviously most people here don't know and don't care, so I'm not gonna bore you with the history of the CRO-MAGS madness and legal drama over the first two albums, which we've never still gotten paid for. But the one thing I will say is this: we did have the opportunity to get the shit back, and it just would've required me and some of the other bandmembers coming to the table and saying, 'Yo, guys, let's get this shit back and just do something with it and all get paid.' And the other guys were just too — I don't know, man. They wouldn't come to the table and have that conversation. So, more or less because of that, I was left with no choice but re-recording some of the songs."

Although Harley's initial plan was to re-record a few of the songs from CRO-MAGS' debut album, 1986's "The Age Of Quarrel", as instrumental covers, the sessions with producer Arthur Rizk progressed to the point where he ended up re-recording the whole thing.

"I wound up going in, and 'cause I was having such a good time and the session was going so well, I said, 'Fuck it.' The 40-year anniversary of the album's coming out next year, so I tracked the whole fucking album," Harley said. "So y'all be able to hear that next year. And I gotta say it sounds kind of like 'Age Of Quarrel' meets [CRO-MAGS' second album, 1989's] 'Best Wishes' in the sense that it's played like 'Age Of Quarrel', but it's got me on vocals, so it just has a deeper voice, let's just say."

"Wired For Chaos" arrived in theaters this past June. A trailer for the film can be seen below.

Flanagan burst on to the punk music scene at the age of 11 in the late 1970s as drummer for his aunt's New York-based band THE STIMULATORS, later founding the seminal hardcore act CRO-MAGS. Flanagan tells his inconceivable story through gritty footage of NYC's downtown 1970s and '80s music scene as the backdrop, alongside stories from friends and peers like Flea, Ice-T, Henry Rollins, Michael Imperioli, members of BAD BRAINS, BEASTIE BOYS, CIRCLE JERKS, ANTHRAX and many others.

While Harley's journey as a musician is certainly explored, "Wired For Chaos" centers on the lasting effects of trauma and its integration into his present-day life. Harley Flanagan was a child prodigy musician, who raised himself in the very adult world of rock 'n' roll. He was born to a Warhol Factory "it" girl, enmeshed in the Lower East Side artist sub-culture of the late '70s and '80s, surrounded by copious amount of sex, drugs and violence (as victim and later perpetrator),simultaneously achieving punk rock legend status.

In addition to touring with his band CRO-MAGS all over the world, today Harley Flanagan is also a jiu-jitsu professor (under the tutelage of Master Renzo Gracie),devoted husband (having married a Park Avenue attorney),the father of two sons and a deeply introspective human. He confronts his past, hoping that it can bring him some peace, and pass what he's learned forward to others struggling. Though he has moved on from the violence of his youth, it is never far away as he works through his very pronounced PTSD. His primal instincts to survive remain sharp. The film is built around a vast archive of material, scenes with Harley and his friends, several intimate interviews with Harley and his wife, and abstract imagery and animation.

Harley's childhood with iconic artists (Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Joe Strummer, Alan Ginsburg) looks enviable on the surface, but ultimately his DNA is riddled with the trauma of abuse and sexual violence, laying the groundwork for an unstable adolescence and rocky young adulthood.

The career of filmmaker Rex Miller, who directed "Wired For Chaos", spans more than 25 years and has yielded two Peabody Awards, several Emmys and two Oscar shortlists. He recently directed (with Sam Pollard) the film "Citizen Ashe" (CNN Films),which won "Best Documentary" at both the 2022 Critics Choice and Grierson Awards and was nominated for a Sports Emmy for "Best Feature Documentary".