Banned in DC

Bad Brains were a beautiful mess of a band, a crew of black D.C.-area hardcore fanatics with Rastafarian leanings and an astounding gift for taut, aggressive, snarling blasts of punk. Banned in D.C. spans their Eighties work: Early tracks such as "Pay to Cum," "I" and "Banned in D.C." display a band in unrestrained fury -- quick, sinister guitar lines, unhinged drumming, lyrics just this side of comprehensible. Even when the group veered toward metal, on later songs such as "Re-Ignition," it never gave in to indulgence, never once aimed to be pretty.