Made up of vocalist H.R. (Paul Hudson), guitarist Dr. Know (Gary Miller), bassist Darryl Jenifer, and drummer Earl Hudson, Bad Brains formed in Washington, D.C. in 1978. Much like any self-respecting punk did, Bad Brains began as a group of misfit kids that rejected the pursuit of musical norms in a quest to forge their own path. Their arrival signaled a sudden tsunami to underground music, flooding the scene with bands that either wanted to be them or wanted to sound like them, and created a wholly new musical approach that would come to be known as hardcore. And though the goal was simply to showcase their own take on the existing style of punk rock, the Bad Brains were far more visceral, blood-thirsty, unclassifiable, and timeless. Today, virtually any band with a distorted guitar and a flicker of punk in their DNA can speak at length on the influence of four guys from D.C. who were just trying to be different, and ultimately, themselves.

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