13. Bad BrainsBad Brains
Another one where I had the tape, the LP, the CD, you know, it will always go with me. And again, wherever I am, I can learn from it. I was in high school when I first heard it and was like, ‘Oh, this is amazing, the energy’. But then learning that those guys were also jazz players, they were, quote unquote, musicians… I think it was a tricky thing for me when I was 19 years old, punk influenced, like where do I fit in? Hearing this music, TEST and then artists like Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, where’s my place in all of this? I love it so much and I’m so drawn to it. I was drawn to some of these really great technical players like Jimmy Lyons or Pat Patrick or John Gilmore or ‘Trane, but then also the example that punk rock holds up, making fun of all the overly technical guitar; Joe Satriani and all that kind of stuff left me really cold and had no emotion for me, but Bad Brains had a ton of emotion. And these guys actually are very adept musicians, but they don’t let it get in the way of just making the most blistering record. In the end, there should be no difference. It shouldn’t matter, as long as the technique that you’ve chosen is the one that gets to the result. Again, it’s the thing of not wanting to cut myself off from something because ‘you’re not supposed to do it this way’. This record makes me feel like I just want to jump out of my skin. And just how condensed the songs are, like Minutemen, how you can say so much in a very short period of time and then just move on to the next thing and blast the next one. So many good songs.
