Early demos of mid-80s punk rock outfit Dain Bramage have surfaced online.
Great, who are they and why should you care? Well, because the pounding of their young drummer may sound familiar – it’s none other than Dave Grohl.
Way back in 1985 when the Foos frontman was just an aspiring teen, he joined then-drummer David Smith as a guitarist in Dain Bramage. A short-lived lineup shuffle later saw Grohl wind up on drums while Smith played bass and Reuben Radding entered as guitar-playing frontman.
The trio only lasted two years and released one full-length album, I Scream Not Coming Down, before disbanding when Grohl quit the group to join Virginia hardcore band Scream and begin walking the path that led him to Nirvana and the rest, as they say, is history.
While Dain Bramage’s few recordings makes them rare, Antiquiet has unearthed and shared some real Grohl-based lost treasure: a set of early demos from the Washington DC trio’s early days.
Entitled Laundry Room Demos: 1986, the eight rough recordings actually comprises a mix of cassette-recorded tapes, featuring new takes on an earlier Grohl-associated act, Mission Impossible, along with a particular highlight – a punked-up cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re An American Band.’
The original Dain Bramage trio had a reunion of sots last September, with a tweet from the Foo Fighters’ account showing Grohl alongside his teenage bandmates (that’s them in the header).
Though the band attempted to carry on with a replacement, Radding has been quotes as remarking: “after you’ve spent a couple years with Dave Grohl as your drummer it’s easy to feel like no other drummer exists,” Radding was previously quoted.
Meanwhile the present day Foo Fighters frontman (who turned 45 last week) is getting on with the business of releasing the band’s eight studio album.
The latest word from the band on the follow-up to 2011’s Wasting Light is that “It’s Fucking ON”, according to the caption of an Instagram photo showing off the (potentially complete) master tapes for the new record, as SPIN points out.
Grohl has previously teased that the band planned to record their new album “in a way that no one’s ever done before, and we’re pretty excited about it.”
According to Nevermind producer Butch Vig, who’s continued his role behind the desk after working on Wasting Light, says Foo Fighters have a set of “KILLER new songs” for their as-yet untitled release, expected to drop sometime later this year.
In the meantime, Dave Grohl and his fellow Foos have been back on the road, treating fans with a secret warm-up gig at a pizza restaurant last December before playing comeback shows in Mexico City.
They’re also booked to play this year’s Super Bowl concert and headlining the Firefly Music Festival in June (which features a contingent of Aussie artists),
