Bad Brains - Bad Brains

To say that Bad Brains were one of the fastest punk bands for their time would be stupid, they are probably the fastest punk band period. Punk music was never really about being a good musician, it was more about the power and the attitude, but Bad Brains took things a little further.

With a background rooted in Jazz and Reggae* they took all of the skills they had acquired to be able to play intricate, technical parts as fast as they fucking could. Every drummer worth a damn today has given some respect to Earl Hudson of Bad Brains, the machine behind it all. Dave Grohl, Questlove, Josh Freese, Chad Smith, Jimmy Chamberlain, hell I bet even Phil Collins listens to Bad Brains.

When you hear songs like Pay to Cum or Don't Need It for the first time, it can be hard to discern what the hell is going on, but if you listen to Earl's drumming, you'll notice that he is on top of everything. Every chord change, every melody, every scream has Earl behind it with a snare roll or a cymbal shot or a high hat smash or something. The end of Don't Need It is an insane tom/snare pattern, and it's probably the most raw, powerful drums I've ever heard.

I seem to remember a road trip from some time back where we only had two cassettes in the car and I'm pretty sure one was Springsteen and the other was Bad Brains live at CBGB's. I would say that for every time we heard Born to Run we heard the entire Bad Brains show three times.

Sorry Boss, but Weinberg ain't got shit on Earl Hudson.

* I am aware that part of this album is made up of Reggae music, but here's the thing. I don't like Reggae music. I also don't know how to write about it without sounding like a dick. I understand it's importance and it's impact, but I haven't been able to get over the fact that it spawned all this rich suburban white boy funk bullshit. I understand that Bad Brains had a whole lot of influence in that realm as well, but until someone apologizes for 311 I probably won't give it another chance.