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Bad Brains

Roir

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Sailin' On
Don't Need It
Attitude
The Regulator
Banned in D.C.
Jah Calling
Supertouch
Shitfit
Leaving Babylon
Fearless Vampire Killers
I
Big Take Over
Pay To Cum
Right Brigade
I Luv I Jah
Intro
Bonus Track

Average customer rating: 5 stars

Myopic Utopia

"Bad Brains" is a strange beast. One minute, I'm falling asleep, dreaming of African Jesus on a pillow of green smoke. The next, my heart is palpitating; I feel like I'm in the middle of a beer-soaked cement "pit," flailing around like a catfish caught in a Taser beam. Never was there a more head-scratching mix of styles as mind-numbing hardcore and laid-back, I'll-go-protest-your-war-when-I-find-my-other-shoe-what-was-I-just-doing? reggae interludes.

A decade later, our firmly rotting consumer culture seeping into the sewer pipes of Consciousness, "Bad Brains" yin-yang divide would be bested by Fear Factory's "Soul of a New Machine," a sickening blend of death metal and Til Tuesday outtakes. This mess of a living abortion, obviously overseen by some coked-up producer who had to be wheeled in on a gurney and wore earplugs the entire time, inexplicably would launch a thousand carbon dioxide copies, mouth-breathers who would have been just as happy excreting the soundtrack to "Zelda" as headlining the Watermelon Festival in Fresno, tongues slack and day-glo from too many cheese curls, eyes gone ping-pong from jackhammer-sized cackles coming off Desolation Row.

Eventually, this travesty would be eclipsed by the 2001 Super Bowl halftime show, when the almighty Rock was split down the middle on "Walk This Way," tweener glandular disorders 'N Sync and Britney meeting Aerosmith in Madame Tussauds, the combined electric monstrosity creating a vortex from which, to paraphrase Hunter "Sellout" Thompson, "... with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the ring around the toilet -- that place where the plumbing finally broke and overflowed."

But forgiving Bad Brains' deep hatred for Eritreans and future forays as a gay-bashing Metallica cover band, "Bad Brains" remains a timeless snapshot of hardcore punk's unspoiled promise before the hawks descended and the likes of Henry Rollins and Gelatin Biafra sauntered in to set up shop, and proceeded to chew through the chalk-filled exterior like goliath termites. It wouldn't be until 1986's ironically titled "Break Down the Walls" by unlikely PETA-huggers Youth of Today that the torch could be passed, but then, as before -- like Rastafarians parading their resurrected dead through the streets -- punk turned karaoke, Greg Graffin and Milo Aukerman had a child named Billie Joke Armstrong, and we all held our breath waiting for Mariah Carey to cover "God Save the Queen," which He did, but everybody else was left stranded.

THE SEMINAL HARDCORE

I bought this back when it was originally released on ROIR, Reach Out International Records. I also bought their Flipper, Einsturzende Neubauten and a few other releases. The unusual thing about ROIR was they only released on cassette. This is obvious from the cover art. Its a cassette sleeve! While this may be from 82 or thereabouts, Bad Brains are pretty much the undisputed founders of Hardcore Punk having been playing around for a few years already. Pay to cum was released in 80. So that puts them a year ahead of Minor Threat.
Go read some Ian McKaye, Cromags, or Rollins interviews. They all saw Bad Brains back when they were from DC, before they moved to NY. The influence is obvious, the Brains just had superior musicianship so they could play fast all the time, or slow it down to a crawl. Minor Threat, et al were just doing the best that a few teenagers could at following their lead.

one of the most powerful punk/HC albums ever bar none.

exellent

Exellent hard punk rock, by far alot better than todays punk,
very original, very good hard sound and good songwriting.

Bad Brains

Bad Brains *****

For fans of hardcore punk it doesn't get much better then Bad Brains self-titled debut album. It's loud, fast, in your face, unapologetic, angry and yet positive all at the same time. Bad Brains was really THE hardcore band, they were the ones that all other punk bands were looking up to at the time, the ones that classic bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag, TSOL, and Agnostic Front admired and aimed to achieve. The band was so revolutionary that the Beastie Boys even got their name from Bad Brains (BB), and started out as a hardcore band before they began to rap.

Featuring such hardcore classics as furious opener `Sailin' On' `Attitude' the phenomenal `Banned In D.C.' Leaving Babylon' my personal favorite `Big Take Over' and `Pay To Cum.' Those songs really set the standard for all hardcore to come. But Bad Brains also had their roots, and their roots were firmly planted in Ska and Reggae. `Jah Calling' `I' and `I Luv I Jah' are all praise to Jah because front man H.R. is a Rastafarian and was in the process of trying to convert the rest of the band to his beliefs, which with in a few short years they would. This is also the path the band would take in the 1990's leaving their hardcore past behind them for a while and only playing reggae.

I also feel it is important to mention the musicianship. Bad Brains is a punk band unlike any other punk band. They can play their instruments better then any other punk band in history or after for that matter. H.R. is not only an amazing lyricist but also a great front man. Dr. Know is the greatest guitarist in the history of punk, and really one of the greatest in all of rock n' roll for that matter.

For those who are interested in hardcore this is the way to be introduced. It is a fantastic album, one of the greatest punk albums of all time, and in my opinion one of the 150 greatest albums of all time.

The Pioneers of Hardcore

They say punk has no memory. That styles and influences are forgotten only to be brought back by the next generation as something brand new. The Bad Brains break that trend with the immortal "Bad Brains" album. Every track is a blueprint for the hardcore sound. Sure there will always be arguments about other bands that came before or since but the Bad Brains not only laid it down in the studio but continue to tour today. Definitely a must buy for both musicians interested in the sound and fans interested in the music.