The Bad Brains- The Youth Are Getting Restless LP (1990)
Due to punk’s collector mentality, this widely-distributed live album from 1990 (but recorded in 1987) will never have the reputation of the ultra-rare Pay to Cum single; or, for that matter, the perennial tag of being “underrated” that I Against I profits from. Rather, like the Omega Sessions 10”, The Youth are Getting Restless is an actually underrated, nearly unknown record—by the world’s greatest hardcore band.
Of course, this live outing dates from the I Against I era, and many listeners will regret that “Re-ignition” or “Sacred Love” are on the setlist here instead of “Destroy Babylon,” “Supertouch,” or “Attitude.” And this review will not discuss the reggae songs here, whose inclusion surely led directly to the invention of the CD player and the skip button.
Now, I like I Against I, but like all things that album has to be put in perspective. (In fact, this live record doesn’t integrate that album as well as it might have done.) There is a history of overrating the later Black Flag albums which carries over quite naturally to I Against I. In fact, I Against I is superior to Slip it In, In My Head, Loose Nut, etc., but it is not a “weirder” record than what came before (as My War certainly is, relative to Damaged). In some ways, much less weird: the striking reggae/hardcore dichotomy disappears, and it is a decidedly “professional” album. Still, there are a few songs on I Against I that I don’t much care to hear, and although it will always have a following—much like Cro Mags’ Best Wishes LP—it will also baffle many a teenager seeking a follow-up to Rock for Light.
The “sound” here—the guitar tone, the huge drums—are the same as on I Against I. As a result, the old songs sound monumental, while, e.g. “Sacred Love” sounds about the same (thus being doubly redundant). H.R. is in top form here, really the best hardcore frontman ever—frenzied, melodic, spazzing out but never losing the thread, hitting all the “best parts” exactly as you might wish (and isn’t that always THE problem with live records?).
Why are the Bad Brains the best hardcore band? As heard on this live record, their intensity and stunning musicianship are unparalleled. But this is all secondary to what really makes the band unique: their Coltrane-esque infusion of shocking, noisy, and complex music with an undeniable, palpable spiritual energy. Of course, the Bad Brains are a punk band: they would never name an album “Meditations.” Rather, their religio-spiritual ideology shows up here as self-righteousness (“Right Brigade,” “Big Takeover”), endurance (“House of Suffering”), and even violence (“Fearless Vampire Killers”). But this is all broadcast with a white-hot, unapologetic conviction that is also part of the band’s mystique and clearly explains why—what is testified to in every “oral history” of hardcore—they were indisputably “a cut above,” set apart from other bands.
To be clear: The Bad Brains are not disseminating their (whack, homophobic) ideology, the way that Limp Wrist or Crass treat their songs as vessels for their politics. The Bad Brains are “complete in themselves,” as it were. They are conquering through music. Their superiority speaks for itself. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The Bad Brains were already “adults” when hardcore started—and black, and Rastafarian, and exceptionally gifted musicians, and everything else that early hardcore is *not*. But as far as I can tell, they just walked in and TOOK OVER.
Where other hardcore was composed of frustration and anxiety, the Bad Brains were unapologetic (“Banned in D.C.”), illiberal (“Destroy Babylon”), and one of the few hardcore bands to convincingly write love songs (“Sailin’ On”). The Bad Brains are a lesson hardcore has still not absorbed. They did not come to make friends or to idiotically “rage” (after all, their sets contained heavy doses of un-raging, chill, middling reggae).
It’s not a great song, and it’s not on this album, but “Attitude”—along with “Pay to Cum,” “Don’t Need It,” and “Rock For Light”—gives the key to the Bad Brains. Almost all other hardcore is based on ressentiment (Nietzsche’s term for wallowing in resentment, inferiority, petty anxiety, and defining oneself by the oppressing thing). The Bad Brains don’t need it. They’ve got that P.M.A., but it is not the simple-minded enthusiasm of khaki-wearing straight edge kids. Of all hardcore bands, they were the only ones to *really* rise above.
“I’ve come to let you see
That you also can be free.” — “Supertouch”
“All there is to perceive is what I want, and I know how to get it.” — “Right Brigade”
[Recommended]
