Track Listing: 1. I 2. Rock for Light 3. Right Brigade 4. House of Suffering 5. Day Tripper/She's a Rainbow 6. Coptic Times 7. Sacred Love 8. Re-Ignition 9. Let Me Help 10. The Youth Are Getting Restless 11. Banned in D.C 12. Sailin' On 13. Fearless Vampire Killers 14. At the Movies 15. Revolution 16. Pay to Cum 17. Big Takeover
Damn, this record rules...I was introduced to the Bad Brains via "I Against I," but this is what made me a life-long fan...
I really can't imagine a better introduction to the band...The greatest hits album was good, but the varying fidelity of their recordings and their shift in genres made it seem a tad uneven...But "The Youth Are Getting Restless" was recorded on the "I Against I" tour, which was the perfect time to record a live album since they hadn't produced a single dud at this point... So you get a very balanced overview of their output which ranges from whiplash hardcore, funky thrash metal, and roots reggae, that turns out to be seamless when presented in a live setting. In fact, I actually prefer some of these versions ("Sacred Love," "Rock for Light") to the original studio takes due to their ferocity, melodicism and clarity...
Points of interest: A couple of covers, which include a dubby version of Dennis Brown's "Revolution" and a fairly pointless reggae take on the Beatles' "Daytripper" that's probably the album's only dead spot...On the other hand we get the title track which is an original that doesn't appear on any of their studio albums (as far as I know), which is easily my favorite Bad Brains reggae track...If you're a hater who automatically dismisses the reggae on the band's albums, this song might be a good entry point, since it has a slight intensity that a lot of their other reggae tracks are lacking...I don't know though, I always thought they were pretty adept at this style, although I readily acknowledge it's not as immediately gripping as their usual furious hardcore...
I absolutely recommend this to anybody who is interested in what all this Bad Brains shit is about...If you can't get into any of this, then the band's probably not for you...If the hardcore side intrigues you, check out the first album, if the metal stuff does it for you, move onto "I Against I."
Here's "The Youth Are Getting Restless"...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. I'm the Man (Censored Radio Version) 2. I'm the Man (Def Uncensored Version) 3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 4. I'm the Man (Live) 5. Caught in a Mosh (Live) 6. I Am the Law (Live)
Welcome to Metalhead theater...Today's episode is Anthrax...The "I'm the Man E.P"...
"Dude! Look what I scored!"
"Woahhh!"
"The 'I'm the Man' EP! Where did you get that?"
"I did a trade...I swapped some guy a Savatage CD for this and a King's X cassette..."
"You got ripped off dude...King's X sucks..."
"I like some of their stuff...They've actually got some pretty heavy shit in there..."
"They suck..."
"Yea, but Anthrax is cool...This one's hard to get..."
"Yea, but it's not even a full album...I maintain a strict two full-length cassettes-per-CD trade policy..."
"An EP and a full-length cassette for a CD makes a lot of economic sense, actually...Cos a CD costs $16.99 and each full-length tape is $9.99...EP's usually only cost about $6.99..."
"Still, that only equals $16.98...I would have at least made him toss in a penny, man..."
"I'm cool with it...Although the guy's starting to run low on EP's...They only made so many of them...After 'Maiden Japan' and 'Haunting the Chapel' what else have you got?"
"Metallica, 'Garage Days,' dude..."
"Yea, but Metallica sucks..."
"Yea, but they used to rule, dude..."
"They used to, but ever since Cliff died, they suck..."
"Nuh-uh...They were good until the Black Album...That's when they sucked...'...And Justice for All' fucken ripped, dude..."
"Naw, man...It had a power ballad on it...Can you imagine? Metallica doing a power ballad?"
"Yea, but it was about war and shit and some dude who got his arms blasted off in war...War is fucken badass, dude..."
"Yea, but it's still a power ballad..."
"Wasn't 'Fade to Black' a power ballad?"
"Yea, but that was different...That was about killing yourself, dude...Killing yourself is fucken badass...Can you imagine? Just taking a gun and...BOOM! You're just dead at that point...There's no turning back...That's badass!"
"Yea, dude! We should totally make a suicide pact and kill ourselves...That would be metal..."
"Totally fucken metal, dude..."
"Yea..."
"But first, let's check out this Anthrax EP..."
(Rewinds tape and pushes play)...
"THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP...NOT! THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP... NOT!" (wacky record scratching)
"What the fuck dude? This Anthrax tape is rap?"
"Yea, but not all rap is bad...The Beastie Boys are alright..."
♪ "WE'RE ANTHRAX AND WE TAKE NO SHIT..." ♪
"DUDE! TURN IT DOWN! I don't want my Mom to hear this..."
"Haha...You're afraid of your Mom...Not me...I'll say 'fuck you' and 'asshole' and 'poop butthole' in front of my Mom...I don't care...My Mom let's me play with Machetes..."
"My Mom's cool...She likes Metal and stuff...She just doesn't like swearing...But she'll listen to Metallica 'Fade to Black' and Steelheart and some of the slower stuff by Kick Tracee...
"Steelheart isn't metal, dude!"
"Some of it is!"
♪ "THE ONLY THING HARDER IS THE SMELL OF MY FEE-EET..." ♪
"That's fucken hilarious, dude...I'm gonna start saying that at school all the time..."
"See?!?! I told you some rap was good..."
"Woah! They're covering Sabbath now!"
"Joey sounds just like Ozzy!"
"I know...That's the only way I like covers...If they're exactly like the original...No difference...Otherwise, what's the point?"
"I totally agree, dude...I mean, you can make the guitar heavier, but that's it..That's the only difference I'll accept..."
"Woah! Did you hear him cough at the end and go into 'Sweet Leaf'? That's hilarious..."
"Yea, I bet we're the only people who'll get that..."
"Even though it's mostly just re-runs of the rap song and live versions, it's a pretty good tape..."
"See, I told you, dude...Now you have to suck my dick..."
"What?!"
"Yea, remember earlier when you said if it didn't suck, then you would agree to suck my dick? Well, you just admitted that it didn't suck, start, so..."
I hope you all enjoyed Metalhead Theater....Alright, a couple of thoughts on this record...Sometimes I'm amazed at the shit I'll listen to in the name of "Nostalgia" (also see M.O.D)...But I saw this on vinyl, took one look at the cover and was instantly transported to my Junior High days, holed up in my bedroom, playing this on cassette and laughing at the dumb jokes...It's hard to imagine anybody getting much out of it these days...It's essentially a Beastie Boys pastiche, and it's beyond dopey, still I can't help but feel a twinge of warmth towards it...Maybe it has some historical import due to it being arguably the first rap-metal song, although I can't imagine anybody being too quick to claim credit when your offspring looks like this:
So this is only strictly recommended to folks who were there and even they'll probably be vaguely irritated by it...New kids won't recognize it as either rap or metal, due to the lack of blast beats and bragging about bags of money...Although it would be great if there was still some dumb, dorky kid sitting on the monkey bars with a boombox repeatedly rewinding "I'm the Man" to show the other kids the swear words...
Anyway, here's the Def Uncensored version of "I'm the Man" by Anthrax...Enjoy...
