Big Audio Dynamite is not my favorite band, but they are my favorite band that I never thought I would get a chance to see live.

When BAD first broke onto the scene I was about five years old, so I didn’t catch them the first time around.  In fact,  I didn’t discover BAD until I got into buying records and 12″ singles a few years ago. I know it’s an odd ass-backwards way of doing things, but at three bucks, a used 12″ is a great low-risk entry point for discovering artists you may not know a lot about.

I bought a few singles from the group over the course of a couple of months, but the one that really caught my attention was the 12″ single to “C’mon Every Beatbox.” Something about the track resonated with me, and I became obsessed with it and all the remixes of it that I could get my hands on. From there I bought every other BAD 12” single I could find, as well as the CD singles and the albums proper. What amazed me most about the group was how ahead of the time they sounded! You could plop any track off their first three or four albums into a Gorillaz record and no one would be the wiser. Their sound is indefinable and timeless, something you can say about very few bands from the 80s.

It bummed me out that a band I had fallen in love with had broken up, with little hope of a reunion. So when that unlikely reunion was announced, I nearly shit. When I found out they were playing America, I almost had to change my shorts.

I knew I had to see them no matter what the cost (and trust me, the cost was pretty substantial, and I’m not talking about money…it’s a long story). But all the trials and tribulations I went through in order to see them paid off, when they blew my fucking mind with an amazing performance.

They played everything I wanted to hear (save for V. Thirteen, but I’ll survive) with gusto, energy and enthusiasm. Even the people in the crowd who weren’t there for BAD (The Shins were playing next) seemed to enjoy the set. Mick Jones and the crew may all be old dudes, but they all obviously still care about getting their fans off with a polished and well-rehearsed performance. Not only that, they seemed to be having fun too, which makes it all the better for the fans watching.  I may be a little biased, but their performance was without a doubt the best performance of the entire festival, and one of the best festival performances I have ever seen.

It was totally an experience I am never going to forget (I even caught a drumstick!). I thank BAD tremendously for playing in America and apparently still caring about their fans and their own music even after all these years. Come back to America guys, I’ll travel across the country for you anytime.

In the meantime, here’s a fuckload of out-of-print BAD remixes and b-sides.

Big Audio Dynamite
C’Mon Every Beatbox (Extended Version)
Beatbox’s At Dawn
Hollywood Boulevard (Club Mix)
Hollywood Boulevard (Dub Mix)
Sightsee M.C. (Radio Cut)
Sightsee M.C. (Remix)
Sightsee – West London
Another One Rides The Bus
V Thirteen (Extended Remix)
Just Play Music (Extended Mix)
Just Play Music (Remix)
B.A.D. Overture
Other 99 (Extended Remix)
Contact (12″ Remix)
Contact (7″ Remix)
Contact (Club Mix)
Who-Beats
In Full Effect
James Brown (Remix)
James Brown (Remix Edit)
If I Were John Carpenter
Free (Club Mix)
Free (Film Version)
The Bottom Line (Film & Club Version)
What’s missing from this list? Well, not much. The only tracks I did not include were This Is Big Audio Dynamite-era stuff that you can find on the recent re-issue of that album, which you should totally buy. And I know there aren’t any BAD II or Big Audio tracks here, but just wait, I’ll get to them.

A lot of these are reposts, but I re-recorded all of them except the stuff from the “Contact” single (I couldn’t find it!) with better audio equipment, so I suggest downloading them all even if you have before.

Enjoy! Like I said, more BAD later this week. You can also look forward to some more views from me on Outside Lands 2011, as well as some reviews of San Francisco record stores.

Guess what? I bought a lot of fucking records.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 1:24 am and is filed under Big Audio Dynamite. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.