Bad Brains

With Beastie Boy Adam Yauch mixing Build A Nation, you'd think that Bad Brains singer HR would've counted off at least one song "Four and three and two and one!" D.C.'s punk pioneers are back with their original lineup and rasta-tinged, poli-sci punk anthems, and they don't sound much older than they did on their insurgent, hardcore self-titled 1982 cassette. The musicianship, however, does sound noticeably tightened. The fierce title track could inspire a revolution, and "Roll On" could inspire the return of really wide skateboards. Now when are we going to get a Minor Threat reunion?

Bad Brains were black D.C.-area punks with Rasta leanings who energized Eighties
hardcore kids with a series of beautifully messy albums. This reunion disc, with fan Adam
Yauch producing, explodes and skanks like their classic records, setting pulverizing
near-metal like the fifty-six-second "Pure Love" alongside thoroughly stoned reggae like
"Natty Dreadlocks 'Pon the Mountain Top." It lacks the messiness that made them... More >