Like you, I nearly had a stroke attack when I threw this disc on the Shit Machine and good noises comed out. The guitars are unbelievably loud - definitely louder than on any other Bad Company album - and the keyboards (if there actually ARE any on here) are kept to an absolute minimum. Even Mr. Dramatic Voiced Man seems to fit right on in such killer pumping AC/DC-style hard rock tunes as "Dirty Boy," the title track and the massive hit single "No Smoke Without A Fire" ... read more

(Six years later)
I can't BELIEVE I held off for so long! This new Paul Rodgers-less Bad Company KICKS ASS! Listen to that tough-as-nails bar band-style riff in "Burning Up"! It's almost like Mick Ralphs JUST picked up the guitar for the first time and started WAILIN' on it! Back to basics indeed! Like the most primal heartbeat of molten lava twisted and melded with the finest in slick production technology - sweetened and topped with the emotional wail of Brian Howe, a performer with ... read more

A yucky stinky record that stinks. No hits. All crap. "Downhill Ryder" and "Untie The Knot" are hilariously wretched country/western disco, and both "Racetrack" and "Electricland" sort of come within about six or seven miles of actual decent melodicism, but the other six songs are impossible to enjoy, even if you're a real real dumb guy. I'm still curious as to how, out of four band members, not a single one suddenly blurted out, "you know, these ... read more

I know how far it's gonna go. NOWHERE!!! After a three-year hiatus, Bad Co return to the fore with a big bag of rednecky rock and countryish acousticals. It starts strong with the stupid disco rocker "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy," gorgeous acoustic "Crazy Circles," and X-style "Gone Gone Gone" (compare its riff to that of "The Unheard Music"!), but after that the shitkickin' cliches kick in and the rest is much, much spottier. Ever heard "Oh Atlanta"? ... read more

Before you can even digest or vomit back up Run With The Pack (or "Run With The Night", as lameass North Carolina DJ "Cosmo" so eloquently called it that time I heard him play "Young Blood" - right before he declared it to be a "great song" off of a "great album." Lameass.), the "talentless boys of rock 'n' roll" are back to shove more poorly-written dreck down your listening ear.
I'll give 'em this though: even though all these ... read more

Ehhhh..... You know something's wrong when the riff of the lead track consists of one chord repeated over and over again for three and a half minutes. And you know something's terribly wrong when aforementioned lead track turns out to be one of the best songs on the record. The title track, "Silver, Blue, And Gold," and "Simple Man" are wonderful, emotionally-charged mature rock anthems. The rest of this crap is uninspired, crazily generic AOR garbage. Tryin' for hits when ... read more

Same style, same number of songs, but not quite as satisfying because (a) they've already done it once, and (b) the two songs written by the drummer are positively wretched. Howe'er, the throat-curdling Paul Rodgers screams of "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" successfully mask the fact that the melody is pretty much lifted straight from Yes's "Yours Is No Disgrace," the acoustic anthem "Shooting Star" is just beautiful, "Deal With The Preacher" and "Wild Fire ... read more

Any man who lacks the testicles to award a perfect ten to the first Bad Company album might as well start wearing a little nametag that says "pansy." This is essential redneck rock; take it from me - I grew up in Georgia. Yeeeeee-hooooo! These songs - simple, mindless, macho statements of sexual longing and rebellion for the hell of it - will continue to flood classic rock stations until the end of the 27th century because they were made for classic rock radio. No frills. No ... read more

A wise man once said, "Oh no, we don't want to burn (mumble mumble). Yeah, we just gotta produce some (mumble mumble)." And that man was none other than H.R., venerated lead vocalist of long-time marijuana burnouts Bad Brains. So imagine my surprise and tentative excitement upon learning that these reggae/bad metal specialists were finally planning a return to their early '80s hardcore roots! With the Beastie Boys' Adam "MCA" Yauch behind the production knob, they were ... read more

I usually don't like to review second-generation copies of albums, but according to the title this CD is only available as a tape dub, so I'll make an exception.

Say, that reminds me of something interesting about Soul Brains: A Bad Brains Reunion Live In San Francisco. You know how people get older when they age? Well, that unique phenomenon seems to have finally happened to Mr. HR. No longer the sprightly, hyperactive hardcore child who squealed and screamed "HOW LOW -- CAN A PUNK GET? ... read more

Hi, I'm Brad Bains and I'd like to thank Mark Prindle, founder of online sporting goods retailer www.markprindle.com, for giving me the opportunity to set a few things straight about my 1995 album God Of Love.

First of all, I don't know who the black people are in the CD booklet. I would never have signed off on such misleading artwork, but I was out of town at the time and my fax machine got a paper jam.

Secondly, I am still to this day absolutely furious about the typo on the cover. I spent ... read more

Haven't heard this one.

It's great that we all came out here today to talk about the Bad Brains' Quickness
precursor, Spirit Electricity Live.

But first, a joke I just made up:

Q: How many O's does it take to change "POPCORN" to "POOPCORN"?

A: TWO! Your mouth and your ass!!

Yes, jokes are a good time but we're only here for one reason, so let's talk about the Bad Brains' Rise album.

Don't buy Rise. It's not the Bad Brains. It's Dr. Know and Nurse Darryl trying to cash in on the grunge ... read more

Sorry folks, this blows. The moose out front should have told you.

"Wait a second!" you're wondering together at me. "Is Mark Prindle seriously going against all conventional wisdom and calling this legendary masterwork 'mediocre'!?"

You bet I am! Cuz I'm a gonzo take-no-prisoners wordslinger alongalineza legendary skeeze-sleaze-CUM-platter-overpricer Byron Coley! So clean out yr trou (natch) cuzz I'm abowda write some wrongs, right some dongs, and KILL YR IDOLS, Spunky. ... read more

17 songs of awesome hardcore, killer punk, furious metal, kickass hard rock and slightly-less-than-vomitous reggae, Rock For Light is the definitive Bad Brains recording. If you want to hear classic high-speed hardcore punk performed with a surprising level of technical proficiency (including some superfast metallic guitar lines and more exciting breaks, shifts and rhythmic patterns than pretty much any other 'old school' hardcore act), Rock For Light is a "Lock For Right! (album to ... read more

Conjugate my verb! Now baby,
Conjugate my verb!
Walk around town and upside down
and Conjugate my verb!

Yes, sometimes in life we all must use a bit of sexual innuendo that doesn't make any sense, but you know women. Can't live with 'em -- after they throw you out for fuckin' their sister! But the important thing in all this is that the Bad Brains are Rastafarians. What does this mean to you, the consumer? Well, you're in luck because not one hour ago I happened upon a Lester Bangs paragraph ... read more

I was hoping this album would stink balls so I could use all these great new plays-on-words I made up like "More like the B-50-SNOOZE, if you ask me!" and "More like the B-SHITTY-2's, if you ask me!" and "More like the PEE-52's if you ask me!" but in a devastating blow for the entire human race, it's actually pretty good.
And by "pretty good," I of course mean, "I gave it the same grade as both Cosmic Thing, which I said 'could have been recorded by ... read more

This CD is lacking Cindy Wilson. Down to three '2s. It's more pop-oriented than the last one, but sadly the melodies aren't up to par. Several of them try to do a dreamy meditation hypnosis type vibe, but they're mostly just booooooorrrrrring! It's got a couple winners ("Revolution Earth" is beautiful), but the schtick has gotten old. Nobody cares anymore. Maybe they should have called it a day when Ricky passed away. He was the one with the cool guitar style; the guitarwork on this ... read more

The "comeback." Only commercially, though. This is no less uneven than the last one, packed full of cheesy keyboards and predictable vocals. It's not all bad, though. These songs seem to be split evenly between "empty dance tunes" and "pop songs with really solid melodies". "Love Shack" would be the former, "Roam" the latter, "Geraldine's Bronze Poophole" a funny song title I just made up. Personally, I could use a few more "solid ... read more

This was around the time that Ricky passed away. I'm not sure whether he played on this record or not, but I know he co-wrote some of the songs. Either way, there ain't guitar for shick, a delightful brand of shaving razor available at your local grocery! That which is here does NOTHING, and way too many of the songs sound like anypopband, USA - Cyndi Lauper, Madonna - that kinda padiddly. Totally keyboard. Totally faceless pop. Its only saving grace is that a lot of melodies will still get ... read more