Bad Brains‘ first studio record in over a decade drops next month with Build a Nation, produced by long time fan and Beastie Boys MC Adam Yauch. The album will come fresh on the heels of the band’s successful recent performance at this year’s Sasquatch Festival. Brooklyn Vegan recently documented a few reactions to the set including, “Bad Brains played an inspired set on the main stage, sailing from sultry dub reggae into raging hardcore as if the two were meant for each other.”
The album hits in similar fashion, bouncing about from hardcore to reggae in a single leap in expected Bad Brains style. A few samples were unveiled on the band’s MySpace page recently but it’s undeniably hard to get a feel for the album with a few scattered clips. Here, “Build a Nation” and “Roll On” present the album for what the band has always been - a contradiction of opposites uniquely presented as a whole. Speaking as someone who wasn’t of age when the band released its last album it’s nonetheless good to have Bad Brains back as a whole. Build a Nation drops June 26th.
Bad Brains “Build a Nation”
Bad Brains “Roll On”
Additional Bad Brains Audio Here
Bad Brains - Official Site
Bad Brains - MySpace Site
previously - Bad Brains: Live at CBGB 1982 Available Online
Yeah, “Build a Nation” is a solid track. Those Dr. Know guitars are unmistakable. Honestly, though, I was never much a fan of the band’s reggae tracks Sure, it’s interesting that they juxtapose these two genres, but I just never feel like their songwriting is very memorable when it comes to the reggae. Not like tracks like Pay to Cum, Sailin’ On, Re-Ignition - I mean, those are some memorable riffs.
FYI, The Harvey Girls do a terrific folk cover of Sailin’ On. It’s worth hunting down.
Phil
May 31st, 2007
Thanks for the heads up - I’ll try and find it
Chris DeLine
May 31st, 2007
Actually, it’s available for free on their site:
http://www.theharveygirls.com/
It’s from the album “Our History is Your Kitsch”
Phil
May 31st, 2007
Someting not righabout 4 minutes of sub par reggae and 1.44 minutes f pure hardcore fury. HR’s vocals aren’t even that bad.
Rinjo Njori
May 31st, 2007
Good call on the cover Phil - also, hard not to get behind an independent group that gives all its music away for free on its web site and donates the proceeds from any album sales to The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
Chris DeLine
May 31st, 2007
Is that song about building a nation? I didn’t catch that.
I’m going to go listen to ‘I Against I’ a bunch of times.
Eli!
June 1st, 2007
the old hr would have had more to say. i don’t think we’ll be hearing any hardcore vocal acrobatics like back in the deezy. the rest of the boys are in perfect form on ‘build’. hr still sounds good tho.
jesse custer
June 5th, 2007