Bad Brains Unearth 1979 Studio Recording of “Pay to Cum,” Announce ARE YOU READY
September 23, 2026
D.C. hardcore legends Bad Brains have announced ARE YOU READY: THE FIRST STUDIO RECORDING (Inner Ear - March 1979), arriving November 6 via Trust Records, and shared the previously unreleased original studio recording of “Pay to Cum.”
The six-song collection captures the earliest known Bad Brains studio recordings, cut during a one-hour session at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia in March 1979. The recordings circulated unofficially among tape traders for decades and have now been newly mixed by Ian MacKaye and mastered by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic for their first official release.
This version of “Pay to Cum” was recorded more than a year before the song appeared as the band’s debut 7-inch, but the speed, precision and explosive intensity that would help define hardcore are already fully in place. It’s an essential snapshot of Bad Brains at the very beginning, with the lineup of H.R., Dr. Know, Darryl Jenifer and Earl Hudson already sounding locked in and ahead of their time.
The release also includes early recordings of “Don’t Bother Me,” “Black Dots,” “Migraine,” “Send No Flowers” and “Jamming at the Atlantis.”
Watch and listen to “Pay to Cum” below. ARE YOU READY: THE FIRST STUDIO RECORDING (Inner Ear - March 1979) arrives November 6 via Trust Records.