Late 70’s Washington, D.C. to NYC punks/dreads ….collects what looks like their “pre” Bad Brains band “Mind Power” – demo from (1978) & two unknown studio demos from (1979) …. Very rare tracks allowing you to hear the band in their early & rawest from.
The foursome jammed in their friend Alvarez’s basement – on Tuesday and Thursday nights, when his mother played bingo – but in 1977, the musical landscape was quickly changing, and their varied musical interests led to a lot of experimenting. They briefly had another singer, Sid McCray, who early on had turned them on to punk rock after watching a documentary about the Sex Pistols, and he also played them albums by new bands like Wire and the Dead Boys. Sid didn’t stay with…
…the band too long, but he managed to have an influence on them nonetheless.
Before Mind Power, Dr. Know and Darryl were also jaming with funk and funk-rock musicians, and it’s quite likely that they could have ended up playing go-go music, but what made this band unique was that they didn’t want to be like anyone else, they wanted to play everything.
They also liked playing it fast, with breakneck beats, raw power chords and spidery bass lines, and at some point, Mind Power, still in an embryonic state, began transmogrifying into a band that wanted to define themselves by playing a kind of original music that wouldn’t go stale in a few years.
The music continued to change, taking on a heavier punk-influenced rock formaton, becoming a complex sound that was like visceral gut-punch of heaviosity, a part punk/metal/jazz-rock fusion, with complex chording and start/stop arrangements.
It required stamina and speed, particularly for drummer Earl Hudson, who attacked his drum kit with sped-up machine-gun firing punk paradiddles that would become part of the band’s signature sound.
As the band transformed, they decided a new name was needed, deciding to call themselves Bad Brains after a song by the Ramones (“Bad Brain“), although H.R. has said that he liked the idea that “bad” was also slang for “good” or “tough.”
Probably their earliest recording,called “Mind Power” demo, named because it was recorded when the band was still called Mind Power.
2 more demos done at unknown studios a little bit before their early stuff that are appearing on pay to cum 1979-1981 record. [sorrystaterecords]
The Alvarez’s Basement 1978:
I Don’t Need It
At the Atlantis
Pay to Cum
Supertouch / Shitfit
The Regulator
Unknown Studio 1979:
Jamming at the Atlantis
pay to Cum
Don’t bother me
Black Dots
You’re a migraine
Send me no flowers
Unknown Studio 2 1979:
At the Atlantis
Pay to Cum
The Regulator
You’re a Migraine