Reviews

Bad Brains

Bad Brains

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Review Date: 2005-07-07

Well I haven't done one of these in a while I know but I thought that I should considering that this is quite a good album that is epic in all kinds of ways. In fact a good way to look at this album may even be ground-breaking because it was done by four black guys playing punk/reggae music. And the even weirder part is they are heavily influenced by The Sex Pistols which makes it altogether the strangest thing that I have ever heard of. From listening to this stuff though I can see some bands that have drawn on them to influence their sound, the best example I have of that is Sublime. The album contains sixteen songs but only spans thirty-six minutes so you can gather that most songs on the album are quick and at a pretty decent pace. It is a welcome change I suppose to do a Retro Review, I had forgot that with older music you sometimes can get quality from some simplicity in the production element. Obviously this isn't over produced or anything and I think that the sound overall can be a Sex Pistols or Circle Jerks sound with a reggae influence. It makes for an interesting listen since if you put it in context to when it was released this was really unlike anything being produced at that time, oh yeah this came out in 1982. Anyways enough about history, that is boring, music isn't though especially by these guys, so without further ado lets look at the saga of Bad Brains.

Great way to start any album is with a bitching high pace track, so they went with "Sailin' On". It kicks right in with some guitar and drums blasting and then HR's vocals kick in. However I think the best thing to pay attention to is Dr. Know's guitar, he can fucking wail on that thing. Like if his guitar was a clitoris it would be so wet that they would have to mark the deep end so kids wouldn't fall in and drown. Now if that wasn't graphic I don't know what is, anyways the point is he is good and this track actually doesn't give him a solo in which that can be best presented to us, don't worry though, this is only the first song. HR's vocals are pretty good, I think they are a more strung out version of Joe Strummer back in the days of The Clash. I would imagine The Clash did factor into some of the sound that you get with Bad Brains.

Track two is a song that has a sweet guitar solo, its called "Don't Need It". This is one of my favourites for sure and I would say it is largely due to that solo, but as well they just start right off with the pedal to the metal again, its amazing. The song is only a minute in length so as you can imagine its a quickie, the solo is right at the end and its just wicked, it seems like he would have had to play each chord in that sequence rather independently and without fucking up. It just blows my mind, I haven't really heard a punk band like this in a while and I must say its always good to get back to basics. Actually to be honest I've had this album on my computer for a while and just never really got around to reviewing it for the site, however I decided that after I heard it the other day I needed to review it because its really good and people who don't know that will now know after reading this.

Lots of fans of the band with know the fifth track, "Banned in D.C." The way that HR does the chorus on this one is all timed out perfectly, its really neat because he pauses between each word. The drums and guitar never really have disappointed me thus far through the CD in fact its all pretty good up until this point I'm just trying to highlight the tracks that I favour. These guys are from D.C. so I imagine they feel at least the least bit political when they are able to declare being banned from their hometown, that sort of rush you get when you rebel against something I suppose. It doesn't really matter what the motives were though in this case because the song is good, in fact its one of the longest songs at just a touch over two minutes, this one is probably my favourite and I would say its because there is more to the song than some of the other ones, like I said, theres two minutes with means they had to fill it with something. Some of the reggae influence is heavier in the later tracks, like track fourteen, "I Luv I Jah". It's an ok song I'm just not really a reggae kinda person and in this song they basically put Dr. Know's guitar far in the background as not to distract from HR's vocals and the drums that are needed to give it that more reggae sound. There is a part where Dr. Know does this trippy little part and it last a good 30-40 seconds, I must say that it sounds like stardust or soemthing. But it gives a good effect to the song since it is supposed to sound very reggae. The drums are the best part of the track, because they echo HR's vocals too much and I'm not really down with that, its tracks like this though that I think really gave Sublime the idea to more or less take this genre to a new level.

So far the Bad Brains have been pretty good, they are definitely one of those bands that can attract a diverse crowd of listeners. I like track nine, "F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers)". It's a pretty bad ass track that starts off kinda slow, I think its to create some buildup before they kick in with the sicke guitar riff. The drums are very bass heavy in this song and I think it gives it a darker feeling, which could have to do with the song title I suppose. One thing that is for certain the song is short, it is over in just over a minute, just like most of the songs, so if you can't just listen to songs that end a minute after they start then you might want to skip this album. However I still think you'll be missing something groundbreaking as they definitely influenced loads of punk and hardcore bands that exist in the present.

Does Bad Brains "Self-titled" album live up the the hype?

Absolutely, once you hear this album you'd have heard most of the hardcore and punk lineups that have been produced and packaged for the last ten years, I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientists to figure that out. One thing to note though is they really only added the reggae to the mix, its the Pistols and Clash that likely helped curve the punk sound overall.

How influential is this album?

Bands like Sublime clearly took a page from their book, combining the punk and reggae element, other than that I can't really think of anyone else that would fit into the category necessarily.

Should you buy this album?

I know that I will buy it used for cheap, but I may consider buying it new too if its cheap, regardless its worth owning for anyone that likes punk, and if for some reason you like them both then this album was MADE for you.

- Brandon