News
24 September 2026 – Bad Brains Open the 1979 Vault for Their Mythical First Studio Session
By Editorial Team - September 24, 2026
Summary
Trust Records to release Bad Brains' legendary March 1979 one-hour Inner Ear recording session, remastered by Ian MacKaye and led by early 'Pay to Cum'.
Key Facts
- Trust Records announced Are You Ready: The First Studio Recording (Inner Ear – March 1979) for November 6 release.
- Features six foundational tracks recorded in a single 60-minute session, newly remastered by Dischord founder Ian MacKaye.
- Led by the earliest recorded studio take of hardcore landmark 'Pay to Cum' alongside archival CBGB footage.
- Entities: Bad Brains, Darryl Jenifer, Ian MacKaye, Inner Ear Studios, Trust Records, CBGB, Arlington, Virginia
- Tags: bad-brains, inner-ear-studios, ian-mackaye, trust-records, hardcore-punk, punk, cbgb
Bad Brains are taking listeners back to the moment before hardcore fully understood what was about to hit it. Are You Ready: The First Studio Recording (Inner Ear – March 1979) arrives November 6 through Trust Records, collecting six early recordings from a one-hour session at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia.
The material has long occupied near-mythical territory among fans and has now been newly remastered by Ian MacKaye. An early studio version of "Pay to Cum" leads the project, accompanied by late-1970s CBGB performance footage. What makes the recording fascinating is not simply rarity: hearing Bad Brains this early captures a band still visibly connected to punk, rock and fusion influences while developing the velocity and precision that would help redraw hardcore's boundaries.
Bassist Darryl Jenifer has cited influences including the Ramones, The Damned and Return to Forever around the creation of "Pay to Cum," an unlikely combination until you remember that Bad Brains themselves have always made more sense as musicians than as genre taxonomy. The collection will be issued digitally, on vinyl and cassette, giving archival punk enthusiasts the historically appropriate option of buying something that can physically tangle itself inside a tape deck. Forty-seven years later, one hurried studio hour is finally becoming an official record.