Recorded in April 1984 at Pacifica Studio in Culver City. Most of it was recorded in one night (6-8 hours). Tim Gallegos played bass and both Gregs and Pete filled out the band. It was the first album Brett ever engineered.
The original release was one-sided and although it says 1984 on the record, it came out in 1985. Distributed by Suite Beat - a California company - and pressed in the UK, like the first How Could Hell Be Any Worse albums.
An ad from Flipside magazine #45:
The back cover has a pic of the US capitol building, pretty much like the cover of the 7" bootleg.
The idea for the title came from Greg Hetson, who proposed to call it "Back From The Unknown".[1]
All of the tracks appear on side B, side A is blank. This was done on purpose to not having to flip it over after only two or three songs.[2]
Maximum Rocknroll Issue #22 (February 1985):
"After releasing that ridiculous "Into the Unknown" LP last year, most bands would have broken up and hid their faces forever. But these brave fellows buckle under and come back with this five-song EP that has them on the road to recovery. While nowhere as good as their debut, it's a promising restart. (New band has Greg Hetson of Circle Jerks.) (Dog)"
Flipside Issue #45 (Spring 1985):
"Their last record was called "Into the Unknown" and it was great. In fact I can't think of a B.R. record that was bad. Their new record is called "Back to the Known" (how perfect) and it's kinda back to the faster stuff. They do a new version of "Bad Religion", it's great. Two new members on this one-sided record (yes there's only one side that plays), Greg Hetson from the Circle Jerks and Tim Gallegos, Wasted Youth. "New Leaf" is the best song I think but all are great... (-O)"
The songs from Back to the Known can be found on 80-85 and the 2004 digital remaster compilation, How Could Hell Be Any Worse? It can be found as tracks 21-25 on either release.
Back To The Known was originally planned to be included in the 2010 30th Anniversary box set. It, however, did not end up in the box as it was an EP, not an LP.
Because no one at Epitaph owned a copy they ask a fan (Keehvren / Robert Cheeseman) to send in his copy. They needed to cut it up and professionally scan to get all the artwork files for repressing it.[3]
01/26 | added 80-85 and HCHBAW info - By Stinger66 |
04/15 | Added 30th Anniversary box set paragraph - By Marty |
05/31 | Corrected the year of recording (was 1985) - By Marty |
05/31 | Enabled the table of content - By Marty |