Featured Artist #37 - Bad Religion

[Permanent Solution]

This is arguably the most influential Punk/Pop-Punk band of the last few decades. to be honest they deserve a lot more, but I didn't have the time to give to it I should have. They have an insane history and are definitely worth reading about. To say nothing of their great and long-lasting music.

Lineup:

Greg Graffin (vocals)
Mr. Brett (guitars, 1979-95, 2001-present)
Brian Baker (guitars, 1995-present)
Greg Hetson (guitars, 1984-present)
Jay Bentley (bass, 1981-82, 1984-present)
Brooks Wackerman (drums, 2001-present)
Bobby Schayer (drums, 1991-2001)
Pete Finestone (drums, 1980-82, 1984-91)
Jay Ziskrout (drums, 1980)
Davy Goldman (drums, 1983)
Lucky Leher (drums, 1986)
Paul Dedona (bass, 1983)
Tim Gallegos (bass, 1984)

[b]Discography:

1981 Bad Religion EP
1. Bad Religion
2. Politics
3. Sensory Overload
4. Slaves
5. Drastic Actions
6. World War III

1982 How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
1. We're Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance
2. Latch Key Kids
3. Part III
4. Faith In God
5. **** Armageddon... This Is Hell!
6. Pity
7. In The Night
8. Damned To Be Free
9. White Trash (2nd Generation)
10. American Dream
11. Eat Your Dog
12. Voice Of God Is Government
13. Oligarchy
14. Doin' Time

1983 Into the Unknown
1. It's Only Over When...
2. Chasing The Wild Goose
3. Billy Gnosis
4. Time And Disregard
5. The Dichotomy
6. Million Days
7. Losing Generation
8. ...You Give Up

1984 Back to the Known EP
1. Yesterday
2. Frogger
3. Bad Religion (Theme Song)
4. Along The Way
5. New Leaf

1987 Suffer (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1221)
1. You Are (The Government)
2. 1000 More Fools
3. How Much Is Enough?
4. When?
5. Give You Nothing
6. Land of Competition
7. Forbidden Beat
8. Best for You
9. Suffer
10. Delirium of Disorder
11. Part II (The Numbers Game)
12. What Can You Do?
13. Do What You Want
14. Part IV (The Index Fossil)
15. Pessimistic Lines

1989 No Control (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1759)
1. Change Of Ideas
2. Big Bang
3. No Control
4. Sometimes I Fell Like
5. Automatic Man
6. I Want To Conquer The World
7. Sanity
8. Henchman
9. It Must Look Pretty Appealing
10. You
11. Progress
12. I Want Something More
13. Anxiety
14. Billy
15. The World Wont Stop

1990 Against the Grain
1. Modern Man
2. Turn On The Light
3. Get Off
4. Blenderhead
5. The Positive Aspects Of Negative Thinking
6. Anesthesia
7. Flat Earth Society
8. Faith Alone
9. Entropy
10. Against The Grain
11. Operation Rescue
12. God Song
13. 21st Century (Digital Boy)
14. Misery And Famine
15. Unacceptable
16. Quality Or Quantity
17. Walk Away

1992 Generator (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=3589)
1. Generator
2. Too Much to Ask
3. No Direction
4. Tomorrow
5. Two Babies in the Dark
6. Heaven is Falling
7. Atomic Garden
8. The Answer
9. Fertile Crescent
10. Chimaera
11. Only Entertainment

1993 Recipe For Hate (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=2692)
1. Recipe for Hate
2. Kerosene
3. American Jesus
4. Portrait of Authority
5. Man With a Mission
6. All Good Soldiers
7. Watch it Die
8. Struck a Nerve
9. My Poor Friend Me
10. Lookin' In
11. Don't Pray on Me
12. Modern Day Catastrophists
13. Skyscraper
14. Stealth

1994 Stranger Than Fiction (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1965)
1.Incomplete
2.Leave Mine To Me
3.Stranger Than Fiction
4.Tiny Voices
5.The Handshake
6.Better Off Dead
7.Infected
8.Television
9.Individual
10.Hooray For Me...
11.Slumber
12.Marked
13.Inner Logic
14.What It Is
15.21st Century (Digital Boy)

1996 The Gray Race (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1916)
1. The Gray race
2. Them and Us
3. A walk
4. Parralel
5. Punk Rock song
6. Empty Causes
7. Nobody Listens
8. Pity The Dead
9. Spirit Shine
10. The Streets of America
11. Ten IN 2010
12. Victory
13. Dunk Sincerity
14. Come Join us
15. Cease

1997 Tested
1. Operation Rescue
2. Punk Rock Song
3. Tomorrow
4. A Walk
5. God Song
6. Pity The Dead
7. One Thousand More Fools
8. Drunk Sincerity
9. Generator
10. Change Of Ideas
11. Portrait Of Authority
12. What It Is
13. Dream Of Unity
14. Sanity
15. American Jesus
16. Do What You Want
17. Part iii
18. 10 In 2010
19. No Direction
20. Along The Way
21. Recipe For Hate
22. **** Armageddon
23. It's Reciprocal
24. Struck A Nerve
25. Leave Mine To Me
26. Tested
27. No Control

1998 No Substance (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=2015)
1. Heart it
2. Shades of Truth
3. All Fantastic Images
4. The Biggest killer in American History
5. No Substance
6. Raise Your Voice
7. Sowing the Seeds of Utopia
8. The Hippy Killers
9. The State of the End of the Millenium Adress
10. The Voracious March of Godliness
11. Mediocre Minds
12. Victims of the Revolution
13. Strange Denial
14. At the Mercy of Imbeciles
15. The Same Person
16. In so Many Ways

2000 The New America (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=5157)
1. You've Got A Chance
2. It's A Long Way To The Promise Land
3. A World Without Melody
4. New America
5. 1000 Memories
6. A Streetkid Named Desire
7. Whisper In Time
8. Believe It
9. I Love My Computer
10. The Hopeless Housewife
11. There Will Be A Way
12. Let It Burn
13. Don't Sell Me Short
14. The Fast Life
15. Queen Of The 21st Century

2002 The Process of Belief (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=3254)
1. Supersonic
2. Prove it
3. Can't Stop it
4. Broken
5. Destined for Nothing
6. Materialist
7. Kyoto Now!
8. Sorrow
9. Epiphany
10. Evangeline
11. The Defense
12. The lie
13. You Don't Belong here
14. Bored And Extremely dangerous

2004 The Empire Strikes First (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=589)
1. Overture
2. Sinister Rouge
3. Social Suicide
4. Atheist Peace
5. All There Is
6. Los Angeles Is Burning
7. Let Them Eat War
8. God's Love
9. To Another Abyss
10. The Quickening
11. The Empire Strikes First
12. Beyond Electric Dreams
13. Boot Stamping On A Human Face Forever
14. Live Again - The Fall Of Man

Biography:

We’ll start in the beginning. 1980, Los Angeles, California. San Fernando Valley suburbs. 4 young gentleman by the names of Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz, Jay Bentley and Jay Ziskrout get together to form a band where they can express their views and beliefs, and thus is born one of if not the most influential Punk bands ever.

Unfortunately, they soon run into a problem that plagued all Punk bands of the time, no major record labels were interested in signing American Punk acts. Punk was on the decline in America and no one cared to revive it. Brett decided that wasn’t going to fly and created Epitaph records as a means to convey Bad Religion‘s voice and message. Shortly thereafter, the group released their self-titled EP. The EP was 6 short, fast songs more akin to the old Hardcore style than the Punk style they’d later develop in their career, and carried a very recorded-in-the-garage sound with it.

However, problems with band members already plagued the young band and a frustrated and upset Jay left the band. Pete Finestone was brought in as a replacement and began to work with the band towards their next release. A year after the release of their EP the band put together their first LP, How Could Hell Be Any Worse? with a little financial assistance from Brett‘s father. The debut LP sold over 10,000 copies in the first year and the band was already facing more success than they’d anticipated. Graffin’s basement turned rehearsal room was dubbed The Hellhole.

With that success driving the band, Greg Hetson, formerly of the Circle Jerks, officially joined the band after being a sideline assistant for some time prior. 1983’s Into the Unknown was hell for the band. Brett bought Graffin a keyboard to write songs on, but during or before production everyone quit the band at some point or another. Gurewitz left the band to deal with substance abuse issues and Bentley left as well leaving Graffin as the only remaining original member. The final lineup on the LP ended up being Graffin, Gurewitz, Paul Dedona on Bass and Davy Goldman on drums. Fans hated the slow, keyboard arranged works and abandoned the band for selling out the Punk mentality. Bad Religion disbanded.

A short while later, Hetson approached Graffin about restarting Bad Religion again. Pete Finestone returned to work with the band and bassist Tim Gallegos was brought in to round out the necessary players. The “new” Bad Religion recorded and released the band’s second EP, Back to the Known. Shortly thereafter former band members Gurewitz and Bentley were brought back in and Bad Religion was back for good. Brett used the return of the band to launch the return of Epitaph records, and fans’ faith in the band was restored.

Stepping back from their breakneck pace of a new album each year, the band took some extra time and care, on hiatus, and by the end of 1987 had begun work on one of their career defining albums, Suffer. When they were finally ready to begin work on it, Bad Religion was Graffin, Gurewitz, Ziskrout, Hetson and Finestone. Upon release Bad Religion was immediately re-recognized as an important band in the Punk scene.

[Permanent Solution]

Following Suffer the band released two more of their classics, No Control and Against the Grain, though there were not many major happenings for the band. Just consistently strong albums coming out to good reviews and fan receptions. In 1991 they released 80-85 (which I did not include in their discography), a compilation album of their work in that time period excluding Into the Unknown (for obvious reasons). 1992’s Generator was not groundbreaking either, but is notable for the replacement of Finestone with Bobby Schayer now behind the drumset.

1993 marked an important year of change for the band. The band was getting huge. Mainstream radio was polluted with Alternative Rock, but these guys were still selling tons of records and reaching new heights of success. Shortly after the release of Recipe for Hate, the band signed with Atlantic and left the label that had been created as their launching platform. Shortly after, Atlantic re-released Recipe for Hate with their full support and resources. Many fans also see this as the entrance of Bad Religions second dark age, their time on Atlantic.

A year later, the band released their proper debut with Atlantic, Stranger than Fiction. This album marked the departure of founding member Gurewitz. Epitaph had had an unexpected and huge success with the album Smash by The Offspring. Brett was busy with his responsibilities there with his label as a result and had less time to spend with the band so he had to quit. Though rumor also had it that he wasn’t too pleased with the band’s departure from his label.

To replace Brett, Bad Religion brought in Minor Threat’s Brian Baker. Following the replacement, the band went on their most successful tour to date. In 1995 All Ages, a greatest hits compilation, was released. In 1996 Bad Religion released The Gray Race, their second release on Atlantic, to a very lukewarm response among fans. Tested was released in 1997 and was a compilation of live shows from all over the world. 1998’s No Substance received even less fan appreciation, and by 2000 when the band put out The New America, many fans had lost faith in the band. The drop in popularity led to the band’s decision to return to Epitaph.

Around this time Bobby Schayer left the band with a shoulder injury and was replaced with Suicidal Tendencies’ Brooks Wackerman. The band then began to remaster their older recordings and re-releasing them. Gurewitz rejoined the band just before they went back to the studio to record what most consider the band’s return to form, The Process of Belief, in 2002. The duo of Graffin and Gurewitz behind the band’s music provided a much stronger assortment of music than the band had had at Atlantic.

June 2004 the band released their latest album, The Empire Strikes First. My personal favorite. Similar to Process of Belief stylistically, the album showed fans that the band is definitely back in full form.

As of yesterday, Jay Bentley has purportedly confirmed a September release this year for the band’s new album. March 7 the band is releasing a DVD called Live in Palladium as well. Greg Graffin published his PhD dissertation a little over a year ago and now has it for sale at the band’s website and in addition there are several essays for free on the site dealing with social issues. Though I’ve not read them all, anyone interested in the actual mentality of Punk is sure to get something out of them.

Check out the Wikipedia article for lots of other little trivia bits I omitted for space’s sake. J

Sound Samples:
http://www.badreligion.com/titles/ (all over the page, just scroll around)
http://www.purevolume.com/badreligion
http://www.myspace.com/badreligion

Links:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8770/bio.htm
http://www.badreligion.com/home/
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/bad_religion/bio.jhtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Religion

[Gnarmageddon]

Very nice.

I love Bad Religion, but I can only take so much of them at a time. Most of their songs sound exactly the same.

[Permanent Solution]

Early days are more Hardcore, later Epitaph is Punkier, Atlantic is Poppier and New Epitaph is just sexy.

But there's not much variety within those categories yeah :-\ But there are definite time periods.

[form]

Great job, Vince, ilbad religion aswell. I knew they have a lot of cds but dang. I have: No Control, Suffer, The Empire Strikes First and I think another one, not sure.

Anyway what album would you guys reccommend next?


:chug: Good job.

[DJ Ducksauce]

I got No Control a while back when YSI was up here. It was pretty good, but I can't really listen to all of it because like Spence said, their songs get kinda redundant after awhile. Great by themselves though.

Good job.

[B]

I agree with Spence, a lot sounds the same, but I do like them.

[Mute Print]

Wow, nice job Vince.

I love Bad Religion. I have a bunch of their albums, and for the most part, they're all great.

[Pazz]

Nicely done Vincent.

[TakeWarning]

Good work Vincenzo. Great band, I've got three albums and they're all real good.

[Dead Star]

I can truly say that I actually love this band.

[Firecracker]

Beautiful FA, I used to love BR very much, i still love a few songs such as "American Jesus" and "You"

[Rootsradical]

This band is amazing. Even though they have changed a lot I like their newer stuff just as much as their older stuff. There are very few bands I can actually say that about. My favorite album is probably No Control, but they have only put out a couple of bad albums in their 25 years of existence.

[billiejoe84]

<avatar :cool:


But yeah, BR rules. And that was an outstanding FA, Vince. Good work.

[form]

Today I listened to The Empire Strikes First straight through, great album.

<3br

[billiejoe84]

How many of you guys have seen them live? They are so, so good. I just found a load of live videos (a full set's worth) on foropunk which I'm having a look at now. Good stuff.

[Permanent Solution]

I wish :(

Hopefully upon the release of their new album they'll go on tour so I can catch them.

[Drop The Baby]

Bad Religion are an amazing band, they put on a stunning live performance. I've seen them three times.

Very good review, although as you said yourself, with a little more time perhaps you could've gone into more detail on some aspects. The album listings are very handy, and it's well written.

Brett Gurewitz's first departure from the band was not just down to basic substance abuse. He had himself stole money from the band in order to buy what he fancied.

Can't wait for their upcoming releases. Good job son.

[Anti-Prefix]

Great profile. This band is amazing, especially live.

[Jonny]

They're a great band. One of the ''punkier'' bands I listen to.

I think my fave song atm is 'Broken'.