FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl has joined forces with ANTHRAX‘s Scott Ian and Charlie Benante to record a cover of the BAD BRAINS‘ 1982 classic “The Regulator”. The resultant recording, which was laid down late last year at Grohl‘s Studio 606 in just two live takes, has been made available under G.B.I. (Grohl, Benante, Ian) banner for Record Store Day on April 20. The seven-inch single, limited to 6,000 copies, comes complete with cover art by Benante.
Proceeds from G.B.I.‘s rendition of “The Regulator” will benefit BAD BRAINS singer Paul “H.R.” Hudson, who has been suffering from an excruciating type of rare head affliction known as SUNCT headaches for the past decade.
The official music video for G.B.I.‘s “The Regulator”, which contains footage of the actual recording of the song, can be seen below.
Regarding how the project came together, Ian said: “ANTHRAX were recording our new album at 606 and the FOOs were there rehearsing at the same time. Dave had popped into the studio to hang and listen to what we were doing and we’d gone over to hear the FOOs rehearse. I texted Dave the next morning and said: ‘Hey! Good to see ya the other day. Are you rehearsing today? I’ll be there doing guitars. Wanna record a MINOR THREAT song? BAD BRAINS?’ He replied immediately with the Spotify link for ‘The Regulator’. I said I’d be there at 12:30 p.m. and he said, ‘See you at 1.’ It was that simple.
“We recorded at 606. Charlie and I asked Dave if he’d play drums and sing as well, he was in. Charlie plays bass and I’m on guitar. GBI.
“The spark to do this was to raise money for HR‘s healthcare. All the proceeds will be donated to him for that. And what better day to do it than Record Store Day? It helps Indie stores as well, win/win.
“We ripped ‘Regulator’ live in two takes, the way it should be! It was so much fun to get to play with Dave on drums and to hear his voice with my guitar! We’re all such huge BAD BRAINS fans and have asked WWBBD? (What would BAD BRAINS do?) many times.”
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica.
A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a brick-and-mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on full-time, standalone physical store locations, with a major commitment to music retail, and whose company is independently owned, and not publicly traded. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores — not online retailers or corporate behemoths).
Photo credit: Greg Caputo