I Against I was for Bad Brains what London Calling was for the Clash -- the band's first fully mature work, one which successfully brought together all of its diverse influences while at the same time showcasing a singular vision. Also like London Calling, it was to be the band's masterpiece, in the original sense of that term -- a creative pinnacle which they would not reach again. The album opens with the title track, a blistering and musically exhilarating deploration of violence, and then   [ read more ]

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Surfacing out of nowhere in 1996, Black Dots turned out to be an archival release of the best kind, something truly rare and unheard that also captured a band at its best. The liner notes explain the origins of the release: In 1979, fellow DC locals the Slickee Boys heard an even earlier rehearsal tape from the Brains and suggested hooking up with now-legendary DC producer Don Zientara, who had recently opened his Inner Ear Studios in his house. The group duly booked time, set up in the fledging venu   [ read more ]

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All material on this CD was recorded at 171-A Studios, NYC, during August, September, and October 1981, except "Pay To Cum," "I Luv I Jah" and "Jah Calling Dub," which were recorded live at 171-A on May 16, 1981. Since this album's original release (on cassette format!), the Bad Brains have achieved a certain immortality among punk and hardcore rockers.

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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 t   [ read more ]

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After the tinny sound quality of the band's debut, the second Bad Brains album came as a real blast of sonic fresh air. Producer Ric Ocasek is largely responsible, but the increased tightness and focus are also a function of maturation. This band was a weird bundle of contradictions from day one: black Rastafarian instrumental virtuosos playing hardcore punk, formerly the exclusive domain of white, aggressively atheist musical amateurs. That last contradiction would come to full musical flower on {   [ read more ]

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This is an interesting, if not entirely successful detour into funk-metal for the band that pioneered Rastafarian hard-core punk. Everything is slowed down here, and the sonic textures have thickened considerably. Drummer Earl Hudson delivers both ponderous, stomping metal rhythms and funked-up grooves, while Dr. Know gets to show off his chops a bit more than he has in the past. The religious messages have, if anything, gotten more mystical and less coherent -- song titles like "Soul Craft," {&"Vo   [ read more ]

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Youth Are Getting Restless repeats some of the same material from Live, albeit in different versions. The album was culled from the same tour as Live, but it captures a blistering concert from Amsterdam instead of compiling various performances. Consequently, it's a tighter and more exciting album, their best live record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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Compiled from a series of 1987 concerts, Live captures Bad Brains at the height of their onstage prowess. It is necessary listening for hardcore fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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Now that the Bad Brains' earliest demos, circa 1979, have been dutifully documented on the Black Dots collection, this EP bridges that rougher, rawer, still-developing period with the furious, ungodly might, thrust, attack, and onslaught of their 1980-1983 period, the hottest hardcore ever. What's found here is the pioneering band's first excursion into a proper 24-track studio. The sound quality is much clearer than the real document of the truly "bad" -- as in super-rad -- Bad Brains, the foll   [ read more ]

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It's common knowledge among punk and hardcore fans that the mighty Bad Brains were one of the greatest live acts of all time. But unless you were lucky enough to have witnessed the original lineup during the '80s, you were in danger of having missed the legend. Bad Brains performances after the late '80s were hit-or-miss affairs (due in large part to their unpredictable singer, H.R.). Now, there is finally proof that backs up the aforementioned claim -- the fantastic 2006 DVD {=Live: CBGB 198   [ read more ]

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Considering that the Beastie Boys were a fledgling punk group before they were rappers and MCA (Adam Yauch) was often seen slam-dancing front and center at Bad Brains' legendary early performances, he would seem the perfect candidate to produce and resurrect the newly reunited group. In truth, he does a fantastic job capturing Bad Brains on Build a Nation, and they rock nearly as hard as they did in their glory days before they switched to funk metal -- Yauch explained that his go   [ read more ]

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