Trust Records Sets Bad Brains Album for Nov. 6

Trust Records will release an album of Bad Brains’ first studio recordings on Nov. 6. The recordings were remixed by Ian MacKaye and will be issued on vinyl, cassette and digital formats. The first released track is a previously unreleased early studio version of Pay To Cum.

The six-song session also includes Don’t Bother Me, Black Dots, Migraine, Send No Flowers and Jamming at the Atlantis. The album package will include rarely seen archival images, and Pete Lyman handled mastering at Infrasonic.

Bad Brains formed in Washington, D.C., in 1978 around H.R., Dr. Know, Darryl Jenifer and Earl Hudson. The group initially performed progressive jazz under the name Mind Power before moving toward punk music. Bad Brains’ style became one of the foundational sounds of American hardcore, and the group became an important force in New York’s early hardcore scene, appearing at CBGB with the punk and hardcore community.

On Nov. 5, Jenifer and Ian MacKaye will discuss the session and Bad Brains’ early years at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. On Nov. 6, an archival Bad Brains exhibition will open at Lost Origins Gallery. Jenifer has said the riff for Pay To Cum began with punk rock influences from Ramones, Damned and Return to Forever.