Customer Reviews

Banned in Dc: Bad Brains Greatest Riffs

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For those new to Bad Brains, which is a band I've only very recently discovered, and only knew about them after having listened to their furious "Pay To Cum" single, which completely captured my attention. This, a collection of their most popular songs mixed with some of their hardest most fiercely intense riffs Encapsulates everything that was so brilliant and massively influential about the band .

There's something about their fusion of Reggae with volatile Hardcore punk, that makes their music all the more accessible, and this retrospective seems to pick songs from their two greatest albums, the self-titled "Bad Brains" & "I against I", as well as cherry picking the best from subsequent albums "Rock for Light", "Quickness". It must be said that for all the fiery guitar workouts, and rapidly delivered lyrics that defined their greatest work, there is are strange elements of melodic & Dynamic stylistic change here....the backing chorus of Saillin' On bring surprising harmonies to the song and impress immensely, and the dramatic rhythmic changes through most songs (sometimes dramatically changing several times in a song), neatly sidestep and criticisms of repetition, that is not only unexpected, but enthusiastically encouraged by the listener.

But this wouldn't be Bad Brains without the reggae side of things taking centre stage, and ¾ quarters of the way into the 23 track album the band excel themselves with some well chosen & expertly played Dub/reggae that introduces itself into the track listing perfectly before the constant riffs becomes all a bit too much to digest in one sitting. And the surprising thing is how staggeringly accomplished the reggae tracks sound, making this no mere token effort with "I and I Survive", "I Luv I Jah", "The Prophets Eye" & a previously unreleased "Riot Squad" pure to be exceptional icing on the cake. For a person new to the Bad Brains, I strongly recommend you do what I did, which was to purchase this album, and then if it completely hooks you in the way it did me, seek out their studio albums, but I can't recommend a more excellent starting point than this career overview.

This collection is exactly what it promises on the front sticker: a "Definitive" collection.

It shows you every side of the Brains, from their blistering hardcore awesomeness to their forays into grotesque sounding metal (not that the metal songs are of low quality, but man is that some ugly, evil riffing on "Voyage To Infinity" and "Soul Craft"), and, of course, some Reggae songs at the end.

Thats what makes this disc so great, you see every side of the Bad Brains.

If you've never heard the Bad Brains before, they're one of the best, if not THE best, hardcore band of all time. Nobody sounded like these rastafarian dudes. Dr. Know was an amazing guitarist (he started out playing jazz fusion), playing tight, furious riffs and ripping out solos like no ones business, HR had a very unique voice with unbelieveable range, at times he sounds very operatic and soulful and then one second later can be screaming like some crazy evil dwarf baby. Earl Hudson (HR's brother) plays drums at light speed, all the while refusing to play those simple "boom-chick, boom-chick" kind of drumlines like most other hardcore drummers. Finally, Darryl Jenifer played bass very well (check out the solo he performs on the live cut of "Big Takeover" on this disc!) and, along with Hudson, kept the band locked in tight at whatever speed they played at.

And they could turn it on and off at the drop of a hat, too. They had lots of tempo shifts and stops in their songs, something that keeps the hardcore numbers from getting too repetitious (something plenty of other hardcore bands suffer from).

So with this disc, you get over an hour's worth of their best songs, every track lovingly re-mastered to sound as good as possible. I'm also very happy that they did vinyl transfers for the "Rock For Light" tracks too, as the CD issue of that album was artificially sped up for some mysterious reason. So you get to hear songs like "Sailin' On" and "At The Movies" at the speeds they were meant to be heard at, something fans who don't own the vinyl edition of that album(i.e. me) will be glad to have.

The bottom line is: The Bad Brains were a truly original force in music, and this disc is an excellent representation of who they were and what they did. It's easily the best single disc purchase of these guys, though after hearing their stuff, you'll probably want to buy more.

This collection spans the best of the career of these DC/NYC reggae/hardcore musicans. Later stuff is OK....but Bad Brains aren't the same without HR's "throat".

If you have never heard the band before this makes a good primer, to get you into them (and they are counted as influences by lots of bands: Beastie Boys to Living Colour & No Doubt (the last two have covered Bad Brains songs both live and in the studio). So if you like what you hear on this disc....make the purchases to get yourself the rest of their library (especially the early stuff) !

My only complaint with this compilation would be that I prefer the SST label recordings versions of the "I Against I" era material. I am sure not having them on here is more a result of label infighting, so at least recordings from that era are still here for inclusion.

Other than that.....great, great stuff !!!

You know it's going to be good without listening to it. Even better when played. The Brains conjure up their best material, and who is to disagree. A few fans would have questioned if material from "Rise"(without H.R.) or "God of Love" were on here, but thankfully it's pure raw Bad Brains. Compiling everything from the original "Bad Brains" 7" to the album "Quickness" and the live albums. The surprise lies in the few reggae tracks, not a bad thing, the Bad Brains know you want the hardcore and they bring it. The cd is also enhanced with a live video of "I Against I" from Providence, Rhode Island in 1987. "Greatest Riffs" is a must have for the old school Bad Brains fan and a great starting point for the one who may have just discovered them recently touring as Soul Brains. (this originally appears in on my webpage www.facedownfall.com)

Man, see, I'm 27, and bad brains are one of those groups I listened to in my younger years, but all I ever owned was "Quickness," and everything else I heard was in friends' cars or on comps. But lately, I've been listening to a little bit of punk and hardcore from my heyday again, and so, when I saw that Bad Brains had a new greatest hits comp at the record store, I thought, "I like to spend money, and I've been needing a non-rap cd lately," so I bought it. Man, I just wasn't ready for how much I'd be into it. I been jumping around my apartment naked like a damn fool for the past two nights listening to this cd. I never realized that Bad Brains was this good. Not only is it musically interesting, but the songs make have a sort of serenity to them no matter how wild they are. Even though I haven't been smoking pot, it makes me want to, and the Rastafarian talk doesn't sound the least bit funny to me--that's how it is! For such a "simple" form of music, there is a lot going on.

I am not one who is very fond of greatest hits collections, but this one definitely has satsisfied me. You see most greatest hit albums leave out essential tracks. Banned in D.C has some of my upmost favorite hardcore songs along with a good mix of the jah childreb type reggage of the brains. some of the highlights are "how low can a punk get, "Big takeover" (My favorite brains song, about the nazi regime) and of course "banned in D.C. Needless to say buying this album will porbably not fufiill your Brains craving especially if your way into them. I would also recomend " banned in d.C", "Black dots", and the underated "rock for light."

The often-delayed Brains 'greatest hits' is out and it's worth the wait. Much of this cd was painstakingly sourced from vinyl and the mastering is fantastic. The selections are interesting, opting for less-definitive versions of some of the cuts (their first release on ROIR records gets short shrift and "I Against I" is not the version from the amazing album of the same name), but the included versions are undeniably powerful and new listeners will have the pleasure of seeking out the more definitive versions of the these great cuts as they appear on other releases...

what more could be said about this band that everyone dont know already ?so you have a greatest hits riff package from one of the best hardcore bands of all time .if you have all there albums not really much to get but this is probably the best present you could buy for your soon to be hardcore/punk friends.it is filled with the best songs all the lyrics some history of the band and a instrumental version of the "riot squad" which is pretty good to hear maybe you could sing karaoke style or something for kicks.but the one great thing about the cd it starts with all the rocking songs and ends with all the reggae ones so after ya slam dance for a straight 50 minutes you can take a break.how good is that!!

The Bad Brains were an unbelievable band. Great musicians, real vision for the time... obviously inspired Living Colour and most of the speed metal bands of the late 80's/early 90's.
I like the track list, its all great and classic stuff. I only wish some of it had been remastered as the quality isn't consistent.
There is a good mix of the classic speed hardcore sound and some great reggae tracks. But this music shouldn't be pigeon-holed as you can hear influences of all kinds here.

Groundbreaking classic. If you like hardcore music this will blow you away.

This is a great and lengthy collection of the hardest and fastest, reggae flavored punk you'll ever hear. These guys have influenced everyone from other early hardcore bands, to newer ones like "Beastie Boys", "Chili Pepper's", and "Jane's Addiction". I can't imagine not having them in my cd collection. The players in the band can play as good and fast as singer HR can scream. Classics like "Banned in DC", "I against I", and "With the Quickness" make this essential. Too bad it's missing "Return to Heaven" and "The Youth are getting restless" though. If you wonder how good they can sound live, get "The Youth Are Getting Restless".