Hey let's stop talking abt the new Stooges and start anticipating the new BAD BRAINS

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who knows how this will turn out...but i'm curious.

also: didn't know megaforce was still a label!

Exclusive: Bad Brains Back To Rock The 'Nation' With Beastie

March 02, 2007, 10:30 AM ET

Jeff Vrabel, Bluffton, S.C.
As standard bearers of the East Coast hardcore scene in the early 1980s, Bad Brains were partly responsible for helping the Beastie Boys first get into the recording studio. As previously reported, one of the Boys is returning the favor, as a long-awaited Bad Brains record produced by the Beasties' Adam Yauch will see the light of day this summer.

"Build a Nation," recorded with the classic Bad Brains lineup of enigmatic singer H.R., guitarist Dr. Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer and drummer Earl Hudson, is slated for a late May/early June release on Megaforce Records, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

For Yauch, producing the record was a labor of love. Bad Brains were one of the groups, he says, that shaped the Beastie Boys' early hardcore years. "Those guys are really of a different caliber in terms of their songwriting and musicianship. We always used to throw songs together and play a little bit, but they were really intense musicians," he tells Billboard.

With that in mind, Yauch went into "Build a Nation" with a plan. "I kind of felt like I knew the way they should sound, because I grew up listening to them, going to see them when they first came up to New York from [Washington] D.C. and were playing CBGB and Max's [Kansas City]," he says. "My feeling was that the ROIR tape [Bad Brains' self-titled debut record, released on cassette only] really sounded right-a lot of the stuff after felt to me like people were trying to clean them up and make them sound more palatable for radio. So I guess I sat around thinking, 'Man, if I could just get in there.'"

Jenifer agreed, and when he and Dr. Know got together to lay down early riffs in his Woodstock, N.Y., studio, they aimed "to show fans who we are. Bad Brains has always experimented, forging ahead in terms of riffs and searching for unique ways to approach rock music, but we said this time we're going to take it back to the way we used to kick it," he says.

The two camps nearly worked together a decade ago. According to Yauch, Bad Brains were in negotiations to release a record on the Beastie Boys' now-defunct Grand Royal label, but Madonna's label Maverick Records stepped up "and offered them a whole bunch of money, and I understood they had to go that route." (That record, 1995's "God of Love," was more reggae-oriented than its predecessors.)

But in 2002, Yauch found himself talking again with Jenifer, who mentioned that the band had been mulling new material. Yauch offered use of his studio, and the reunion was born. "For some reason or another it kept circling above the airport [since then]," Yauch says. But with vocals and overdubs now complete, it's finally ready to go.

Beastie Boys and Bad Brains will appear at the Sasquatch Festival, to be held May 26-27 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash.

Bad Brains will play some live dates this summer too, but "we're not looking for 30-date tours," Jenifer says. "We're looking at dates in New York and San Francisco, to ease our way into doing this. There's no mystery in our dysfunction, but we're not a band. We're like troubadours out there to give peace and love, and we're very serious about wanting people to feel it."

Build a Nation is scheduled for release on May 7th, 2007. Also arriving in stores that day is Daryl Jenifer's debut solo album Soldier Styles '07.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

forging ahead in terms of riffs

― gbx, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:58 (eighteen years ago)

awesome

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:00 (eighteen years ago)

[/i]This'll probably be listenable, but really who cares.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:01 (eighteen years ago)

I like all their various stylistic variations up through Quickness and even parts of Rise, though they never should have gone the new-vocalist route. Never heard God Of Love. Will definitely listen to this, might even pay for a copy.

― unperson, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:01 (eighteen years ago)

I thought it was going to be on ROIR?

― Jordan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:09 (eighteen years ago)

Oughtta be. And cassette only.

― Pye Poudre, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:16 (eighteen years ago)

H.R. stage diving two decades ago during a Providence, RI stop on the "I Against I" tour is one of the more prodigious feats I've witnessed. Oh and the band could play, too.

― Jazzbo, Thursday, 8 March 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

If we get a European tour out of this, I'll be well pleased.

― Soukesian, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)

― edb, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

ah, the living room -- i saw bad brains there in the 80s as well, and it ranks as one of the best i've seen. STANDING BACK FLIPS. oh my.

― edb, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:39 (eighteen years ago)

Indeed. H.R. was very athletic, and VERY trusting of that crowd.

― Jazzbo, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:41 (eighteen years ago)

I have my doubts to the quality of whatever they come out with now but still listen to I Against I (as recently as this afternoon) and of course the ROIR Tape (now the ROIR CD).

― NYCNative, Friday, 9 March 2007 02:39 (eighteen years ago)

I remember thinking that I Against I was a sellout.

― libcrypt, Friday, 9 March 2007 03:55 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

I like it. The album cover is pretty nifty too.

― Mike Dixn, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 04:35 (eighteen years ago)

What does it say about me that I only really like the reggae songs?

― Jordan, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 15:10 (eighteen years ago)

mon!

― t**t, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 15:14 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

Now that my honeymoon period with this record is over, and now that I may look upon the release with perspective, I opine that this is a very, very good record, and that it rewards repeated listens.

― Usual Channels, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 10:37 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

Not sure what the best thread would be the best to post this, but I saw the Bad Brains last night in ATL and it kinda blew. HR was out of it, barely audible and obsessed with keeping this white towel on top of his head. Like he'd skip an entire verse to pick it up if it fell off. He was "playing" a guitar plugged in to an amp that was turned off. Not sure if I was just hearing the crowd singing along or pre-recorded backing tracks, but when I could actually hear singing it was obviously not coming out of HR. The rest of the band was tight, though not particularly fiery or inspired. Just another legacy act punching the clock. I left before the encore because they were bumming me out so bad. I've heard that HR has a history of mental health problems and general issues w/ flaking on tour, but last night was just so sad because it seems like a bunch of yes-men are telling these guys that they still "have it" and, based on the evidence I saw, they certainly do not. This is the kind of band that should be awe-inspiringly sharp after playing these songs for 30 years and making a good living constantly touring and blowing away people too young to have seen them in their heyday. I wasn't expecting 1982, but i was expecting something that lived and breathed. Use the proceeds from this tour to get HR some help instead of cheering on this shitshow. Kill yr idols?

Opening band was called Birdhand and they were the fusion of Radiohead and Buckcherry (while looking like Kings of Leon)that we've all been hoping for. I guess Daryl from Bad Brains produced their album. AVOID.

― International Waters, Sunday, 25 September 2011 19:28 (fourteen years ago)

International Waters - that is so very fucking sad.

However the likes of Dave Dictor and Biscuit Turner (R.I.P) may view it as comeuppance karma.

― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Sunday, 25 September 2011 21:07 (fourteen years ago)

I have heard the same re the mental health issues. So sad.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 25 September 2011 22:37 (fourteen years ago)

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