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Forming is the debut single by the Germs and it is generally regarded the first Los Angeles punk record ever released (July 1977).
The Germs’ frontman and singer-songwriter, Bobby Pyn (who would be later known as Darby Crash) said that Forming was «about breaking down the government and forming our own».
Claude Bessy, founder and editor of the local punk scene's leading fanzine, Slash, described the single as “beyond music…mind-boggling…inexplicably brilliant in bringing monotony to new heights”, while Piero Scaruffi defined it as “the single which initiated Californian punk-rock, it was the anthem of marginalized people as no other song was able to be. Its sound was pressurized like a TNT bomb in the exact moment of the explosion”. Jon Savage wrote that Forming articulated both its specific subcultural context and the broader punk notion that artists do not have to master their craft before seeking an audience: “As the riff churns repeatedly at the end, Pyn delivers a critique of the band's performance: «The drums are too slow, the bass is too fast, the chords are all wrong, they're making the ending too long—Aaah I quit!»”.
Lo-fi live versions of both Forming and its B-side Sex Boy appeared on the 1981 release Germicide, which documented one of the band's early concerts.
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