Often considered the first full-length hardcore punk album,[2] it was released in the United States in October 1979[8] on Slash Records with catalog number SR 103.

The album's title is an acronym for "Germs Incognito", an alternate name the band used to obtain bookings when their early reputation kept them out of Los Angeles-area clubs.

[9][11][12] Recorded in about three weeks with audio engineer Pat Burnett,[9] the album's clarity redefined the Germs for California audiences, who had only seen the band thrash around onstage while an intoxicated Crash avoided singing into the mic as much as possible.

A lone outtake from the sessions, "Caught in My Eye", would later appear on the posthumous EP What We Do Is Secret and on the Warner Bros.-distributed cassette reissue of (GI), at the end of side 1.

[14] All tracks are written by Darby Crash and Pat Smear, except where notedOn the Warner Brothers 1988 cassette reissue, "Caught in My Eye" was appended to the end of side 1, after "We Must Bleed".