Comments on: Bad Brains, the documentary

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m excited about this. I saw the trailer a while ago, but I echo your comments that Bad Brains are life-changing. It’s just the most raw, intense thing imaginable. Consider that greats like Black Flag and Minor Threat kneeled down before these guys in reverence.

And WOW at that video you posted. That is the best Bad Brains vid I’ve ever seen.

By: ill lich

ill lich — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hardcore began here.

By: mokey

mokey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

very jealous of seeing BB. love em love em love em. saw soul brains, or whatever they’re called, and they SUCKED. don’t recommend seeing them. i heard they’re not wingnut homophobes anymore, though, which is always nice.

By: mamarox

mamarox — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m very excited about this! I saw Henry Rollins spoken word performance last month, and he told a couple of Bad Brains stories; both happy and sad.

I saw BB about a million years ago at the Mabuhay (anyone old enough to remember the Fab Mab?) in S.F. (false ID and all).

Their influence (along with other punk bands, both old school and post-punk) colored a lot of my life choices … good and bad.

By: lalligood

lalligood — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There isn’t a time that goes by while listening to Bad Brains that I don’t kick myself for not skipping school to see them perform in Daytona Beach for Spring Break in ’88.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow! Boing Boing finally talks about ‘Hardcore’, am I dreaming ?

No more punk snobbery?

Thanks anyway for that cool topic.

By: dculberson

dculberson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There’s still stuff. Just listen for something that rubs you completely wrong and you’ll know that’s the new stuff. Think about what your parents probably thought when they heard Bad Brains.

By: adamnvillani

adamnvillani — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

OK, serious question here… I’ve heard many people say that watching a band or listening to an album changed their lives. I have listened to many albums in my day and have loved many of them but can’t point to any that changed my life in anything more than an incremental way. So, my question: when you say that a band changed your life, what exactly do you mean by that?

By: The Thompson Five

The Thompson Five — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This proves conclusively that no matter how cool the show was, there was always a big meathead in front hogging the pit.

By: adamnvillani

adamnvillani — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks.

By: Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow. Some amazing comments here, guys. Amazing because I am realizing that their music affected others around my same age exactly the same way at exactly the same time. thank you.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How about them changing and SAVING your life.
Finding Bad Brains music gave me the hope that art and expression and passion had new and powerful forms yet to be discovered. It refreshed in me something that was hardening into a jaded and cynical world view WAY to early.
Sure they had messed up politics and said stuff I knew even then was stupid and homophobic, but the form and the energy were just so intense and genuine and new…
nowadays what is there? damn i sound old.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I saw Henry Rollins spoken word performance last month, and he told a couple of Bad Brains stories; both happy and sad.

Do go on, please.

By: sievetronix

sievetronix — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My first hardcore show at the revival in Philly. It was one of the last times the entire original line up was together. It wwas everything someones first hardcore show should be, epic, terrifying, exhilarating, intense and fun. I don’t remember much other than I ended up with a cut somehow but who cares.

And Rock for light is still one of the most ferocious albums ever made.

OK off to listen to At the Movies

By: dculberson

dculberson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How’s this .. I was a 15 year old kid, son of a preacher, moved around a lot so I didn’t have enough time in any one place to really feel anchored. Went to Christian schools and was, really, kind of sheltered. Someone gave me a dubbed copy of The Youth Are Getting Restless, and my brains were liquefied and reformed into something completely different. The next year I managed to buy a CD player (ooh!) and the CD Blood Sugar Sex Majick (back before parents realized how naughty some music was …) and my life was irrevocably changed for the better.

How was it changed? Well, I realized that not everyone was stuck in the straight laced repression that I felt shoved into. I realized that in some circles, oddness can be a good thing, something to be treasured and not mocked.

It really wasn’t the music alone that did it, but it was a touchstone moment, something I can think back to mixed in with a thousand different things. It was also a helpful push in a direction I was already headed. Like having a friend behind you say, go ahead, I’m right here.