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+--- Thread: Bad Brains are back?!?? - another great 80's band return (/showthread.php?tid=7348)
- mabewa - 06-22-2007 08:01 AM
I wouldn't have expected to ever get another album out of these guys, let alone a good album, but looks like it's happened. This is like the full classic PF lineup reuniting and recording a belter.
http://myspace.com/badbrains
- Narrow Way - 06-22-2007 09:00 AM
Great band in their day.Saw 'em numerous times, sometimes good , sometimes very dissapointing. Word I hear is that HR is still a wackjob and still not stable enough to do shows. I saw 'em once and he played trumpet in place of the words on alot of songs. Adn HR can't play trumpet. Could be a decent album just on DR know, Darrel's abilities. Lets keep our fingers crossed for a successful tour.
- mabewa - 06-23-2007 07:29 AM
I dunno, from what I've heard, this album sounds like the real deal. Also, it's been getting some really excellent reviews--not that the critics are always right, but you didn't read too many good reviews of most of their post I Against I stuff. Whether they can actually complete a tour is another story, granted, but if this does turn out to be their best album since I Against I, I for one will be very stoked! Here's a good discussion, plus links to tracks:
http://mog.com/CrashPryor/blog_post/82467
- Narrow Way - 06-23-2007 06:50 PM
The new record is streaming on myspace right now..
http://www.myspace.com/badbrains
Smokin musically. HR's vocals are lacking any fire, really a weak point. Sounds like the band made a blazing instrumental and HR's vocals are an afterthought.
And I gotta say, I had high hopes for this one. It's still more interesting to me that 99% of the crap coming out now.
Unfortunately dude's a flake and destroyed one of the monumental punk bands of all time.
- mabewa - 06-23-2007 08:39 PM
Undoubtedly, HR, despite being a fantastic singer and one of the essential elements of the Bad Brains sound, has also been the main obstacle to the band retaining its original greatness, due to his incredibly flakiness.
However, so far my impression of the vocal lines on the new album is pretty positive--not the best stuff he's done, but considerably better than the stuff on Quickness or God of Love. It doesn't sound to me like, as you suggest, like the vocals are an afterthought.
Personally, my main problem with most of HR post-Rock For Light and especially post-I-Against-I vocal stuff is the lyrics. He always had the heavy rasta influence, but in the early 80's he somehow managed to make it sound like seriously radical stuff. However, especially starting with Quickness, his lyrics started sounding more and more like mystical mumbo-jumbo to me. But, hey, if they fit the music and sound good, I'm all ears.
I'll be able to give you a better assessment of the new record in a week or two. So far, it sounds better than I would have expected, especially, as you say, from a musical point of view. Part of this is probably due to lowered expectations, sure, but a smokin' Bad Brains record is still most welcome.
BTW, have you ever heard Todos Tus Muertos? To me, they like Bad Brains without the flakiness, albeit in Spanish and a bunch of other languages, and with even greater diversity. They've had some member changes recently, and I'm going to have to hear the new lineup before I decide that they are still great, but they've kind of become my substitute Bad Brains, after decades of frustration with the actual Bad Brains. Anyway, they are a great rasta-punk/metal/ska/Latin/everything-and-the-kitchen-sink mash-up.
- Superhuman - 07-04-2007 11:33 PM
I love I Against I
Edited By Superhuman on 1183620854
- artie_fufkin - 07-05-2007 06:08 AM
Superhuman Wrote:I love I Against ISounds vaguely familiar.
- mabewa - 07-06-2007 03:46 AM
I've got the new album, and have been listening to it for a while. Narrow Way, your assessment is pretty good: musically, it absolutely smokes--total primo Bad Brains. Vocally, though, it's hit and miss. Sounds like yet another album when HR pretty much improvised his stuff in the studio--for better or for worse, he didn't sit down and work out his vocal lines. At its best, his vocals are another instrument in the mix, and add to the already great musical tracks. At its worst, the vocals detract somewhat. The main thing is that you don't have much in the way of complex melodies or lyrics. Still, luckily, most of the time the vocals at least fit well with the awesome tracks, even when they don't add much. I'll have to listen to it for a few more weeks to decide, but at this point, sounds like it's easily their best since the 80's--fairly far from the quality of their best work, but quite a bit above their worst.