GF music review club

[Carvalho Diablo]

Righto, let's get this sumbitch rolling again...

 

Review: Bad Brains - Yellow

 

Heard of Bad Brains plenty but only ever heard bit and pieces by them over the years, but never to my knowledge Yellow Tape. So after a week of shenenigans with the site and our thread being on lockdown, here goes nothing...

 

[presses play]

 

Sailin' On - Boom, here we go, the sticks count us in in a raucous garage thrash up. Yellow sounds like it as recorded for pennies but the mix is still pretty good, bursting with energy. A good start.

 

Don't Need It - woah, crazy bass, a frenetic punky blur. All about attitude, not so sure it translates to comfortable, sanitised home listening. Wipeout drums for the win.

 

Attitude - More mosh pit mayhem, head down and elbows out. Punky hardcore low-fi energy.

 

The Regulator - The hardcore bass riff is the biz, there's a real confidence and swagger going on here, pick up your guitar young 'un and join in.

 

Banned In DC - Tear it up frenzy from the off, I can barely understand a word but it matters not. Loving the half time, hardcore breakdown and a nice solo too. Best song yet.

 

Jah Calling - Ooh, a bit of reggae ? A nice interlude allowing the listener to catch his or her breath. The Bad Brains are rastafarians right?

 

Supertouch / Shitfit - Scream and pedal down for a straight ahead mash up. Another pit shaker with big old mosh parts.

 

Leaving Babylon - More reggae flavours, a real interesting mix going on here, a clash of cultures and textures, energies and music, but not at all unpleasant. Quite the opposite in fact, strangely it all seems to work and sounds definitely authentic. Favourite song so far.

 

FVK - Plugged back in and kicks with a nice guitar riff. I can quite understand why this might just be noise to some of you lads in the club, and tbh I probably won't revisit this myself any time soon, but Yellow is packed with youthful energy and I can feel myself transported back in time and dropped into that whole CBGBs scene. Really good.

 

I - Cracking punky / metallic riffage, motherfucking scorcher. Loads of fun to play live I bet.

 

Big Take Over - Another straight up punky snorter, love the drums. Cracking song.

 

Pay To Cum - Even lower-fi! Drums sound sub-biscuit tin, 1 take and done on a cheap 4 track by the sounds of it. Kids kicking it, making noise and having fun.

 

Right Brigade - Immediately a bigger sound than Pay To Cum, raw and dirty and sweaty. A nice breakdown.

 

I Love I Jah - Delayed guitars and more reggae lines bring it all down and chilled again. Nice bass and rim shots. Best vocal on the record (or tape?!). I can hear Bad Brains' influence on Fishbone big style.

 

Intro - Er, okay...

 

Untitled bonus track - Another chilled reggae beat, love the dub bass and EHX Small Clone chorus on the guitar (no doubt Andy Summers and Kurt Cobain did too). A nice song but I can see why it was omitted from the final track listing, ending on a low-key note.

 

Okay then, Howie's AOW Bad Brains' Yellow Tape; raw, full of energy and youthful angst, a nice mix, and surprisingly good reggae flavours. There's a lot to like. These days however, this isn't really my bag but I can definitely hear several of the other bands I like here too (especiallyy Fishbone).

Fave track ? Possibly Big Take Over, maybe I Love I Jah, or the again perhaps I. It's all good here, cheers Howie, an original bon viveur OG.

[Pidge]

There is a magic live recording of them playing cbgbs at the time on YouTube.

[Lee909]

I fucking hate thrash and punk

 

Will try to listen again later

[ZonkoVille77]

Bad Brains - Yellow

 

I can see how this must have been a massively influential album. There are so many bands that this reminds me of that they all must have borrowed a piece from Bad Brains.

It's quite possibly the most schizophrenic album I've ever heard. When the first ska/reggae track came on I had to actually stop and check that I hadn't accidentally skipped onto something else...

 

There are elements I like and parts that are just absolute noise. The guitar and bass mix is a bit muddled at times and ruinous. However I can imagine hearing this live and it being an absolute blast. Ultimately it's not really my thing and I don't think I'd listen to it again.

 

Tracks I enjoyed:

Attitude

Leaving Babylon

Big take over

I luv I Jah

 

5.5/10 for me.

[Guest]

Not too much to offer here as CD's review has pretty much nailed it and Zonko also makes some really good mentions. There are some tracks that I really did enjoy, others that were a little weird but still good and then others that for me personally were a bit too far into proper fighting punk - which although at the time was probably well in vogue now sounds a little dated. It was at times listening to an album by The Specials, one by The Sex Pistols and one by The Beastie Boys and wondering which one was the best. The rock parts weren't that dated and neither were the reggae/ska parts.

 

The parts that sounded like The Beastie Boys and The Specials were the best for me personally. They get 8/10. The parts like The Sex Pistols get 6/10. 7/10 seems fair for the whole package.

[Lee909]

Right so giving this another go

 

Nothings changed in terms of if i like it, i can honestly say it'll never find a place on my playlists. 

Not really a surprise as i am not really a big fan or punk or thrash(or whatever other names the genre has these days.)

 

Was very surprised that it was made by a bunch of African American rasta's .

I can hear plenty of things in it that must have been massive influences to other bands that came later. 

Can hear little bits that would not sound out of place on the sunset strip in the days of Motley Crue,little bits that must have had a influence on the later grunge seen and obviously the likes of Metallica and the other thrash bands f the era. 

 

The Reggae stuff was all to brief but very interesting and i would give them a listen if they had more of that in the music but overall not really a thing for me so unfair to give it a score. 

[Skidfingers McGonical]

I’m chocka with a house refurb at the moment gents. Only finding time to get on here on the bus to and from work.

 

Once I’ve settled down I’ll get all my reviews up that I owe.

 

I did like the Gun Club though, Bad Brains not so much as of yet. However I’ve not give a focused listen yet.

 

Peace.

[Lee909]

Does Mr Wolf know he is due to put a album up in the next couple of days

[Carvalho Diablo]

Does Mr Wolf know he is due to put a album up in the next couple of days

Hope so. I dropped him a pm on Twitter and plenty of posts on here. Hope he does but I'll jump in and post mine on Wednesday if there's no sight of a new AOW.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I'll get my review of Bad Brains up this weekend. Scout's honour.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

AOW: Bad Brains - Bad Brains

 

One of those bands who've been on the periphery of what I've liked, namely early US hardcore, yet I've never really investigated at length. Sailin' On starts proceedings with what I might expect, snotty vocals spat out in an immature (not using that term as a pejorative) manner. Fast, three chord punk, but what's that I hear halfway through, a little guitar solo? Now I'm getting more interested.

 

If that was brisk, the second track, Don't Need It takes that as a challenge and shreds out the same attitude in a little over a minute, once again throwing in a mini guitar solo, only this time at the end, going out on a high note.

 

As soon as I see Attitude I'm thinking of Misfits, and Glenn Danzig's drawling quasi-Elvis impression. Nothing could be further from this. For the first time I'm noticing how tight the guitar and drums are, there's a professionalism underlying the punk ethos here. Then The Regulator takes us back to the fast paced bratty vocals of the one minute songs.
 
Banned In D.C. ooh, over two minutes!  Packs a lot in, with vocals even faster in places. I like the brief slowing to a melodic pace and the guitar riff at 1:30 is fantastic, once again highlighting the musical talent and experimentalism underlying the thrashing and wailing. As if to cement that idea, the next track Jah Calling goes into reggae mode as an interlude. 

 

The brief respite seems to have cleared my ears, as when Supertouch/Shitfit starts I feel like I'm starting to understand the vocal pattern and actually hear lyrics. I'm repeating myself here, but once again there's a great little guitar solo in there.
 
Leaving Babylon being the longest track thus far points to the reggae tracks being key to the band, tying in Rastafarianism by their titles, rather than just a musical theme like most punk bands of the time utilising Caribbean influences. 

 

F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers) goes by without me really noting it, but I feels like another genre departure, with metal coming to the fore. The holding of guitar note and little drum medleys go hand-in-glove with the lyrical patter; "I guess it's too bad, I guess it's too bad" puts me in mind of Judas Priest's Breaking The Law (particularly when sung by Beavis and Butthead).

 
At 2:57, Big Take Over seems to point to the tracks getting longer, and it's no coincidence that I'm liking the second half of the album far more. There are loads of ideas in there, like a band developing over an album. They're using different beats now, mixing up the pace of the guitar and drums, playing with their synchronisation in a far more rock/metal style, making the drummer a key member with a bit of flair instead of a human metronome.
 
Pay To Cum, by contrast, is early hardcore by-the-numbers, one and a half minutes of three chords, punctuating the end of the vocals with a shout. Right Brigade's melodic opening is a nice, and once again the formula of a brief slow-down and a guitar solo thrown into the mix make it another solid - if unspectacular - track.
 
I Luv I Jah closes things with the longest track of the album, a whopping 6:22 of wistful vibe and thoughtful lyrics, experimental and even a touch playful to my ears. I say closes things, as Intro and the hidden track are there, but they feel a little odd by their inclusion after this one, which was a  proper mood-setting outro.

 

Really glad this was picked as it forced me to give Bad Brains more than a cursory listen. There are loads of ideas and different musical influences in there, and the quality of the playing is far above what I expected. It makes me want to work my way through their back catalogue (oo-er) in chronological order so I can see the progression. Good stuff.

 

8/10 
 

 

[Babb'sBurstNad]

.

 

 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Excellent review there BBN, really captured how I feel about this record. Very enjoyable.

 

Still no word or sight of Winston Wolf ? Mr Wolf can post his new AOW any time over the next couple of days, however if there's still no sign by Wednesday I will jump in and post my own. The rotation goes : Winston, me, Zonko, Red Talisker.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Gentlemen we have a new AOW, Infotainment Scan by The Fall.

 

Thanks to KMD7 who managed to contact Winston Wolf via Facebook, apparently his computer has packed up and he's struggling to get online but Winston just contacted me with the afore mentioned record. Can't say I know a great deal about The Fall tbh, but I did notice that they've been going for decades and they have a shit ton of live albums on Spotify.

 

My turn to pick the next AOW (due around 17th Sept) and then Zonko and then Red Talisker.

 

Linkage :

 

 

GF Music Club Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmD81dOULR2dlVx03buDBQ/playlists?view_as=subscriber

[Carvalho Diablo]

GM Music Club Spotify link : https://open.spotify.com/user/carvalho666/playlist/3k64dON6XvCI1W9GFNH8Gr?si=GPPZ8-9zTwuBPGcWqzICug

 

 

[Carvalho Diablo]

The Fall - Infotainment Scan Spotify link : https://open.spotify.com/album/0KIumCvJClmAZupvMhGNFu?si=2NenTAj1Qdukhd85JlVIsg

 

 

[Lee909]

Halfway through

 

Two things come to mind

 

MONOTONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musically its pretty good but fuck me im struggling with the monotone delivery. Can barely understand a word, looked up the lyrics and still don't understand what the fucks he is on about. Lost in music is possibly the worst cover i have heard in my life

 

 

 

Overall 

I'm glad there isn't a rope and a tree nearby 

 

Depressive shite

 

 

The rest of the band are pretty good though. 

No wonder he had so many members over the years, Mark E SMith must have sucked the will to live out of everyone of them. 

Droning Manchester prick

 

 

[cloggypop]

Get in! The Fall are fucking boss!

[Carvalho Diablo]

Okay...

[ZonkoVille77]

This has taken a strange turn..

[cloggypop]

This has taken a strange turn..

Almost a bend sinister...

[KMD7]

The Fall - Infotainment Scan Spotify link : https://open.spotify.com/album/0KIumCvJClmAZupvMhGNFu?si=2NenTAj1Qdukhd85JlVIsg

 

 

 

 I like it

[Guest]

Almost a bend sinister...

Possibly an odd skid...

[Carvalho Diablo]

Have you lot been dropping acid?

[cloggypop]

Not today like.