Bad Brains

Like many extreme bands or musical genres, Bad Brains come from an industrial environment. The band formed in 1979 in District Heights (Maryland), a working-class suburb of Washington DC, around guitarist Gary Miller, former bassist in various funk bands, who became Dr. Know. He'll teach Darryl Jennifer the bass before taking the guitar. The other two members of the group were the Earl brothers (battery) and Paul D. Hudson (sing), nicknamed H.R. Initially, the band played a kind of funk fusion hybrid, under the name Mind Power. Then the band discovers punk: badaboum, it's revelation. Later, the four young men met Bob Marley before one of his concerts in Washington and decided to marry the Rastafari cause. History can begin: the sound of the Bad Brains has found its inspiration in the punk rage of the Sex Pistols and the political reggae of Bob Marley. Quickly the Bad Brains become one of the most popular hardcore combos on the East Coast (especially in Washington, DC), although suffering from the irregularity of their tours and from an unfavourable distribution. Bad Brains' first productions are confidential. Their first single, Pay To Cum , was released with a very limited number of copies, and the first album, Bad Brains (1982), was released only on tape by the ROIR label. Similarly, the other EPs registered in 1982 ( I And I Survive and Destroy Babylon ) were, at the time, poorly distributed and difficult to find. It is therefore on stage that the Bad Brains forge a reputation with their detonating mixture of reggae and overly rock, at the edge of punk and metal. Intense, unbridled shows that will be worth it to them will be banned in the capital — hence the song "Banned In DC " , from the album Rock For Light and recaptured as the title of Charlotte Records' 2003 compilation of their indie career.