Dispatches from Powerviolence: Bad Brains Named Artist of the Week on MTV

What the fuck just happened?

Seriously... What the fuck.

I feel like I was sucker-punched in neck with a Master lock... Or started eating what I thought was cotton candy and turned out to really be pink wall insulation... Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I'll leave that up to you nasty Bellions to decide... We just deliver the news here in the Dispatches. BUT I will go ahead and say I'm pleased with this tidbit of insanity, and really think we are heading towards imminent destruction. Bad Brains, without a fuckin doubt, started out as one of the sickest purveyors of the American Hardcore movement, and then as time went on, divided fans with the increasing introduction of reggae into their blitzkrieg arsenal. Which, in my opinion, is also why I am still personally divided on the new album they put out this past year... Basically cuz i consider myself an early-80's hardcore purist of sorts. I want the intensity, the fervor, the viciousness, the bark and the bite, the nihilism, the anger, the speed... I want it all. But I really found their new cuts lacking in that department (and no, I am not going to discuss the always present ranting on what HR's spiritual and mental positions are and how they effected the sound), but I just am still on the fence with it...

Anyway, about that imminent demise on the horizon... Bad Brains featured on MTV? DEP on Charlie Rose? ETID on Kimmel? Lamb of God on Conan? I feel like someone is teasing me... But regardless, more power to the Brains. Hopefully this brings in a whole new crop of attention and fans to what most of us already knew was fuckin brutally beautiful... I've got that fuckin P.M.A. indeed.

Here's what MTV had to say about the matter: "Bad Brains are, in short, legendary. Epic, even. They’re incontestably, verifiably, indisputably and irrefutably one of the most iconic American hardcore bands of all time. Formed in the early 1980s, they blew apart the Washington, D.C., scene with a unique fusion of punk aggression and reggae grooves. Oh yeah, and they’re old. (How old? Their first album was issued in 1982 on the cassette-only indie label ROIR). They came up at a time when speed was king, bands raging about politics was de rigeur, and the underground music scene of which they were a part created the aggressive sounds that would influence mainstream music for the next decade and beyond. In short, they were at the forefront of a genuine musical movement... Maybe you’ll like them. Maybe you won’t. Either way, you’ve got to respect who they are, where they came from and why they’re important — then and now." ....... Cute, I guess... I'm down.

Bad Brains - "Pay to Cum" (live @ CBGB's, 1982)

Dispatches from Powerviolence: Against Me! Named Artist of the Week on MTV

Let's clear the air for a second... I am an Against Me! fan. I support them. I support their choices. I find them to be wonderful gentlemen. Their live shows are a religious experience/force to be reckoned with. I will fuckstart your head with a powerdrill if you want to try and dissuade me from feeling this way. Alrighty, with that being said, it has been brought to my attention that the MTV Artist of the Week, esta semana, is our favorite lil' black-clad boys from Gainesville... And even though I don't know how I feel about it just yet, and since I love this band more than pelicans love mustaches, I bring you junkscabs this dispatch from the powerviolence under[above?]ground.

But one more interesting note, I actually got a chuckle out of the send up of the holier-than-thou-Against-Me!-purists-that-seriously-need-to-take-a-dirtnap-and-dine-on-a-bullet-or-two cuz the same ol' "dude they were only good back when blah blah" is getting lamer by the fortnight, written by the Buzzworthy Blog on MTV's site... Here's a snippet of that:

"We know, we know: You’ve been listening to them since practically before they were a band. You have We’re Here to Ruin Your Fun on tape, and Tom’s First Demo is amongst your most prized possessions. You were actually AT the Laundromat shows. You could spend hours arguing Against Me!’s place within the anarchistic punk canon. You’d grab As the Eternal Cowboy and Reinventing Axl Rose if you were headed to a deserted island and could only bring along two albums. (And Crime as Forgiven By if you were allowed to bring an EP).

You swore you’d never love again when they left Fat Wreck for Sire (once home to The Ramones, The Replacements, The Smiths, The Cure and Dinosaur Jr.), but you pretended to be sick the day New Wave came out so you could stay home and spend some special “getting-to-know-you” time with the album, which reflected the band’s misgivings and anxieties about signing to a major and “keeping it real” in the face of the punk police.

And above all else, you still know, deep down in your heart, that Against Me! shows are some of the most intense live shows you’ll ever experience. And you’re past the point of crying “sell out” when a band’s outgrown an indie, right? Do we still hate it when our friends become successful? Anyway, we’re just gonna borrow Against Me! for a week, okay? Just a week. Then you get them back."

That was cute... This is aggression:

Against Me! - We Laugh at Danger... (live)