bad brains

  • Thread starter simon silverdollar
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simon silverdollar

Guest
i'm currently in the process of alphabetizing my record collection (something i don't know whether to be happy or despairing about...), and sorting through the B's has thrown up an old copy of 'Rock for Light', something i haven't listened to in years.

but OH MY GOD! i'd totally forgotten how incredible this record, and this band, is/was. listening to it makes 99% of the stuff around at the moment pale in comparison. i like the way there's something genuinely weird about them- the oddness doesn't sound at all contrived. but, at the heart of it, are these amazing pop songs with great melodies. and all so fucking fast...

anyway, anyone got any recommendations on similar stuff, bad brains related or otherwise? i've got 'black dots', which is great, and a mate's got a later bad brains album which apparently is gash...
 
matt b

matt b

Indexing all opinion
ROIR tapes (available on cd / vinyl). one of the greatest records of the 20th century.

similar:
to be honest bad brains were so far ahead of everything else there simply aren't any 'similar' bands, but-

any of the early dc h/c bands- minor threat etc

black flag

early cro-mags, agnostic front, nausea

early boston h/c- ssd, negative approach
 
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BSquires

Well-known member
I suggest you try their next LP, 'I Against I' - it's less of a hardcore/reggee record more a punk/funk/reggae mashup... some incredible riffs though and fantastic HR screaming/shouting/singing. After that things get progressively worse, although to be honest I haven't listened to much past 'Quickness'... Their last LP was purely reggae I believe...

As for things that sound similar - it's a difficult one because they are amongst the greatest 'rock' bands ever - somehow that 'weirdness' you mention gets lost when other bands try their approach. Do you like Minor Threat? Not that they are more than superfically similar but the also write great, fast hardcore tunes - and you can get everything on one cheap CD. Marvellous...

I guess if its a more funky/punky mode you are interested in then perhaps The Big Boys and Tar Babies would hit the spot? Not that I know that much about those bands...
 
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simon silverdollar

Guest
yeah i'm a big fan of minor threat, but for very different reasons than why i like bad brains- i like the brutal minimalism of minor threat, and the crazy vividness of bad brains.

will check out 'i against i' and 'roir tapes', thanks...
 
B

borderpolice

Well-known member
simon silverdollar said:
anyway, anyone got any recommendations on similar stuff, bad brains related or otherwise? i've got 'black dots', which is great, and a mate's got a later bad brains album which apparently is gash...
Click to expand...

check out early "jingo de lunch". their (JDL) later stuff is a bit dull in my opinion. before the
called themselves "jingo de lunch" the recorded under a different name, and were a bit
more punky, and maybe even better, but i can't recall that other name at the mo.

i was desperately in love with yvonne, the JDL singer

martin

CORRECTION: their first incarnation was as "manson youth". but MY records are a bit
hard to get hold of. i only have audio tapes.
 
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matt b

matt b

Indexing all opinion
simon, 'rock for light' is essentially a re-recorded 'roir tapes' (sounds 'nicer').

'wierd' hardcore band: minutemen?
 
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BSquires

Well-known member
I was lucky enough to see Bad Brains in the late eighties on their 'Quickness' tour - apparently they weren't at their best, but HR hanging off the ceiling lights at Manchester International and singing while the rest of the band sort of barely moved and yet played at 100mph is something you don't forget in a hurry...

Hope you enjoy the other LPs...
 
rewch

rewch

Well-known member
BSquires said:
I suggest you try their next LP, 'I Against I' - it's less of a hardcore/reggee record more a punk/funk/reggae mashup... some incredible riffs though and fantastic HR screaming/shouting/singing. After that things get progressively worse, although to be honest I haven't listened to much past 'Quickness'... Their last LP was purely reggae I believe...
Click to expand...

i against i has the superb sacred love... apparently hr throat had to record the vocals over the phone coz he was in the slammer... not sure why, but it gives the vocals an amazing muted texture... superlative... friend of mine used to have one of his hoodies that he chucked into the crowd at a gig... he had to havee a tug of war with a skinhead over it... think the skinhead got the hood
 
L

labrat

hot on the heels of love
matt b said:
'wierd' hardcore band: minutemen?
Click to expand...
Double Nickle on the Dime is a great reccid (for weird read like Captain Beefheart- but don't let that put you off)
 
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BSquires

Well-known member
As you won't be surprised to learn I seem to remember HR was in the slammer because he had been busted for drugs... 'Sacred Love' is of course fantastic...

I once played 'I Against I' to a Rage Against the Machine fan on the 'this is where it all starts from' tip - he didn't get it at all - which probably says more about me than him...

Minutemen - also superb... anyone seen the documentary yet?
 
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simon silverdollar

Guest
matt b said:
simon, 'rock for light' is essentially a re-recorded 'roir tapes' (sounds 'nicer').

'wierd' hardcore band: minutemen?
Click to expand...

i've got an old tape of minutemen somewhere, title has something to do with fires, i think. will check it...

so are the roir tapes the same as the 'black dots', which contains loads of songs which turned up on rock for light?

black dots also features a demo of a beautiful song called 'the man won't annoy you': did this appear on any of their albums?
 
B

BSquires

Well-known member
I think, although I can't vouch for it, that 'Black Dots' covers some demos made in DC before they moved to NY and recorded the ROIR tape - some same songs then, but different versions... as you say some of the ROIR tape songs then turn up on 'Rock for Light'. The songs you mention isn't on any of the LPs I'm aware of...
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
a fond memory: seeing the bad brains at cbgb, feeling intense excitement for having managed to push our way up thru the packed crowd to within about 10 feet of the stage after the first band got finished...then the brains takes the stage, dr. know hits a chord and lets it feedback/sustain for about 30 seconds, HR come bonding onto the stage and proceeds to dive headlong into the crowd at the exact second that the band EXPLODES into their first maelstrom of hyper-charged speedcore. crowd went absolutely insane, a full bottle of beer i had been holding suddenly turned into an empty bottle from the thrashing, and before I knew it I was halfway back in the club, battered and pushed aside by the riotous masses (tough for skinny punks like me to hold our own in the NYHC moshpits of yesteryear).

one amazing thing is they pulled off the really fast stuff perfectly in a live setting (perhaps even better, considering the volume and live energy.) in 2003, caroline released "banned in dc: bad brains greatest riffs," a decent compilation that includes the original/best version of "pay to cum," taken directly from the 7" vinyl.
 
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labrat

hot on the heels of love
Leo said:
the original/best version of "pay to cum," taken directly from the 7" vinyl.
Click to expand...
definitely, a seminal (scusethepun) piece of Hardcore


Oh and Simon Silverdollar the tape you have is "What makes a man start fires?" dust it off and give it a whirl, it's pretty good!
 
F

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
Psychofunk

I had a conversation with someone recently about music such as this, and he used the term "Psychofunk" to describe it.

The bands we were discussing: Infectious Grooves, Mr Bungle, Fishbone, and even some Red Hot Chili Peppers. He then told me to check out Weapon of Choice, although i havent found anything.

Has anyone heard this term before? Would you consider Bad Brains psychofunk? Any other bands to recommend?

I define it as metal-ish with funky overtones. Terrible definition. But, obviously something different than just punk-ska.

Also, any successful forays of this genre into electronic music? I have recently been trying to find a way to recreate pychofunk electronically, via remixes or something else.
 
B

boosted

Active member
simon silverdollar said:
i've got an old tape of minutemen somewhere, title has something to do with fires, i think. will check it...
Click to expand...

"What makes a man start fires?" Wicked MinuteMen album. Also, "Buzz or howl under the influence of heat". So funky! D Boon was the man...

On that same DC hardcore mid-eighties vibe, definitely check out Dag Nasty. Not the same reggae influences as Bad Brains, but the lightning fast licks (like all hardcore of that era) excellent vocals and 20-years-ahead-of-their-time pop sensibilities make the early albums classics. "Can I say" is the best of all releases, but "Wig out" is almost as good. Bought both of these on CD re-issue a few years ago and still put them in the deck every few months to get a jolt of teen angst running through the system. :D

http://www.dischord.com/bands/dagnasty.shtml
 
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ripley

Well-known member
borderpolice said:
check out early "jingo de lunch". their (JDL) later stuff is a bit dull in my opinion. before the
called themselves "jingo de lunch" the recorded under a different name, and were a bit
more punky, and maybe even better, but i can't recall that other name at the mo.

i was desperately in love with yvonne, the JDL singer
Click to expand...

Wow, when I was messing around in Berlin in the mid-90s I interviewed her.. we hung out a bit. great band, Jingo de Lunch!

And Bad Brains (while HR was the singer) were amazing. I always regretted missing seeing them, I against I and the self-titled album were constant soundtracks to high school.

How great was the Hive tune that sampled "Re-Ignition"? when that came out, it was the marriage of the musics I loved the most! Are there any other tunes (especially jungle) that sampled Bad Brains? I could see some Grime/Dubstep tunes sampling it as well...

back to harcore (guitar kind) Fugazi had some parallels, musically (Ian from Minor Threat's next band), although not vocally. FEAR also had some parallels, although also had the most evilly sexist and offensive lyrics. but check out FEAR -the record.
 
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