Soul Brains

By now, all good hardcore & punk fans are well aware of the stamp that HR, Dr. Know, Daryl Jennifer and Earl Hudson left on the history books. Back in the late 70's the band, then called Bad Brains, began to play a style of punk rock that coined the phrase "hardcore". They played rock n roll faster, louder and with more reckless abandon than anyone else before them. Mixing blazing punk rock and soothing reggae they went on to become legends in the underground scene.

Nowadays this band goes by the name of Soul Brains and this little tidbit offers up a live performance at the Marritime Hall in San Fran. WHile not as good as other live Bad brains releases like The Youth Are getting Restless and Bad Brains Live, this is still a decent outing and well worth a listen for any Bad Brains fan.

It opens with a nice cheery welcome from HR and then they explode into Attitude. The sound on this disc is OK, not great. The band seems a bit rusty but they still manage to get the job done. Next up is a great version of Coptic Times that has Dr Know actually try to sing on it. Pretty funny stuff. At the Movies blazes just beautifully and then they bust into the anthem Right Brigade. Pretty damn good way to start off a show I'd say...damn! But then the disc drops a bit with Day Tripper/She's A Rainbow, Soul Craft and Tongue Tee Tie. Soul Craft is a fucking great song but it sounds weak here. They come back with Re-Ignition right into Sailin On, which is an amazing version. They play all the classics on this one, Sacred Love, House of Suffering, Pay to Cum, I against I. The version of The Youth ARe getting Restless has some nice improv, dub-dancehall work by HR to kick it off which is sick. They even manage to play a newly written Soul Brains song which was to appear on their "new album" which was recorded years ago but nobody wants to sign them...the tune is called On Like Popcorn and it's hard, heavy and a bit poppy. All in all this CD is pretty darn good. You can tell these boys are getting old but any fan of Bad Brains will surely eat it up. I know I did! JAH RASTAFARI!