Bad Brains were a brilliant
80s band from
Washington, DC, also the home of contemporaries
Minor Threat. They fused together
high-speed punk (the group is, IMHO rightfully, credited with inventing
hardcore) and traditional
reggae sounds. The result is some truly brilliant, influential, and seminal music.
Formed in
1979 by guitarist
Dr. Know, Bad Brains also consisted of vocalist
HR, bassist
Darryl Aaron Jenifer and drummer
Earl Hudson. They released a
cassette-only self-titled demo which gained huge
underground popularity and gave them a large following. Supposedly, they had a huge influence on
Ian McKaye and
Minor Threat after the band saw them early on. Their
debut full-length album,
Rock For Light, was produced by
Ric Ocasek of
The Cars. It took them three-years to deliver the follow-up
I Against I. Their later releases were
conflicted, as the band was moving in different directions - simultaneously pursuing
heavy metal and
reggae sounds.
I highly recommend you pick up
Black Dots (the bands first
first recorded session), the
self-titled, The
Omega Sessions (as mentioned above), and
I Against I if you wanna hear some of the best
hardcore ever. I say start with
Black Dots.