With the Beastie Boys, I joked about the shock and horror of white boys doing hip-hop. Now we’ve got some black guys doing punk and metal. Shock and horror!
I’ve never heard of Bad Brains, but they’re pretty damn good. Underlying the music are a power trio of Dr Know (Gary Miller) on guitar, Darryl Jenifer on bass, and Earl Hudson on drums. Hudson’s brother Paul, performing as HR (standing for Human Rights) sings, with a great varied voice going from growl to nasal whine at the drop of a hat. Dr Know does some nice scrungy soloing, for example on the track Let Me Help, otherwise like a lot of punk-based music the tunes stem from riffs (often Jenifer driving things with a nice bassline).
Because the Hudsons have some Jamaican heritage, and the band are Rastafarians, there’s a touch of reggae in places – She's Calling You, for example, has a bit of a reggae-flavoured bassline. It’s not even as overt as the reggae elements played by, for example, The Police, but there’s just enough of a dash of it to give their music its own sound (like a dash of pepper sauce). Dr Know is even credited with coining the term "mosh pit", from a Jamaican accented description of a "mash pit".
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