Audio Bad Brains
Build A Nation

Commercial success has largely eluded them, but you simply won't find a band that is cited as an influence more often than Bad Brains.

Through the course of their 30-year career, the DC-based hardcore pioneers paved the way for both black rock bands and any group willing to break outside the mold. They have also had one of the more, well, eventful runs in recent memory.

Frequent breakups, solo projects, and internal turmoil have been the norm, but so has some of the most raw, ground-breaking music in rock and roll.

In support of Build A Nation, their first proper studio album in a decade, Bad Brains have been playing a handful of live dates throughout the year, including a West Coast run last month.

Frontman H.R., the most eccentric of the group, sat down with MP3.com by the pool of the Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco to talk about the live dates, his increasingly mellow onstage disposition, and his band's influence on countless predecessors.