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Underground > Radio & Music >

Bad Religion

  
 
matthew.
22:22 / 03.08.07
Bad Religion has a new album out called New Maps of Hell, which is as blistering and as awesome as anything they've done. Okay, well maybe not as good as Generator or Stranger Than Fiction but this is a band that has returned to form in the past six years.

Bad Religion has Greg Graffin, almost a Haus type person, and they have the harmonies and the riffs and brutality of the punk.

The socially conscious lyrics that tell you that no Bad Religion song can make your life complete, the crunching guitars and efficient solos. I love Bad Religion because of Graffin's amazing vocal work and the pummeling guitar work.

There's something about the lyrics that really do speak to me. There's a "I'm no expert at this and I never will be" to the lyrics. It's honest and it's still angry. We make that fucking change, we just need to want it enough.

This is punk at its best. This is Bad Religion. They want to conquer the world just to make it better. Come on!

Let's discuss their oozin aahs.

Do you listen to Bad Religion? Do you like them? Do they make your life complete?
 
 
---
01:00 / 04.08.07
Cool thread!

Damnit, didn't they recently have that whole album up on their MySpace page? I'm sure they did because someone linked me to it and I listened to a couple of the tunes, but then I went off to do something else and it seems to have gone now. I like the band a lot though, and yeah I can see the Haus resemblence with Greg Graffin, because he seems like a really intelligent guy.

There's something about them that I can't find in their music too much though, and I don't know what it is. Maybe an edge, or a bit of chaos or craziness, or simply that I'm missing some of the screaming or louder vocals that I seem to look for in a lot of the music I listen to. They are awesome though, there's no denying that.
 
 
matthew.
12:55 / 04.08.07
There's definitely a lack of chaos or anarchy in the music itself. Bad Religion is kind of like the Alan Moore of punk bands: strict adherance to structure.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:15 / 05.08.07
For some reason I always mentally file Bad Religion with New Model Army in my head, like they're the US equivalent or something. They certainly are a damn fine band though. They're awesome lyrically, and they've got a metric shitload more decent tunes than most US punk bands- catchy without seeming watered-down (maybe that's what reminds me of NMA...)
 
 
paumanok
19:33 / 14.08.07
For all their complaining about it, their second album "Into the Unknown" has some pretty good songs on it. It's more a straightforward rock album, which is unusual because they were coming off of Suffer, and they've never sounded that way again. It's got synth, horns, acoustic guitar -- stuff you wouldn't hear again in a BR album until much later in their career.

The album itself is hard to find, they stopped pressing copies back in the 80's and refuse to even acknowledge its existence, but is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan, especially if you're a fan who isn't a punk purist and wants to hear something a bit different.
the tracks "Chasing the Wild Goose" and "Billy Gnosis" are pretty damn good, AND people won't believe you when you tell them it's BR, so double the fun.
 
 
Gendudehashadenough
21:36 / 14.08.07
I was able to find mp3's floating around various places of that Lp a couple of years ago and yes, some songs show a completely different character that I'd say is closer to the Back to the Known Ep and you can really hear Graffin's voice go through some pretty dramatic changes as I believe he was still in high school (16 or 17) when they first formed. "Bad Religion" is still they're greatest song.

See my body, its nothing to get hung about.
Im nobody except genetic runaround.
Spiritual ears gone, it aint comin back.
Bad religion, a cabal, that is all thats left.
Hey mr. mind, stop wasting my time,
With your factory precision.
Factory precision is your
Bad religion, too good to take.
Indecision, its not too late.
Bad religion, bad religion. (heh, line said "nad religion")
Ay!
Dont you know the place you lives a piece of shit?
Dont you know blind faith in life will conquer it?
Dont you know responsibility is ours?
I dont care a think about eternal fires.
Listen this time, its more than a rhyme,
Its your indecision.
Your indecision is your
Bad religion, too good to take.
Indecision, its not too late.
Bad religion, too good to take.
Indecision, its not too late.
Bad religion, bad religion,
Bad religiooooonnnn.
 
 
c0nstant
00:19 / 23.08.07
The first Bad Religion album that I was exposed to was 'All Ages' and I have to say it's still one my favourite punk albums. I'm not a huge fan of 'heavy' music (Metallica is about as deep as I'm willing to go) and this album really is great, probably because of the focus on lyrics. The singers voice is never drowned out by the music and the lyrics are sharp and angry, which the seventeen year old me really appreciated, I like to be able to hear my lyrics y'know?

Songs like '21st century digital boy' and 'anesthesia' really resonated with me at the time, and I can still happily listen to this album unlike a lot of punk, which now I'm older seems more directionless and angry for the sake of it. The riffs on 'All Ages' are incredibly catchy and almost pop in their infectiousness, and the anger and resentment at the injustices of the world and society really appeal to me. Their message that you can make a difference if you WANT, in 'You Are The Government':

there's a loser in my house/and a puppet on a stool

which they juxtapose with

you are the government/you are jurisprudence/and I make a difference too.

or lyrics about the way man is destroying the ecology:

when I look back and think/when I ponder and ask why/I see my ancestors spend with careless abandon/assuming eternal supply

Seem to lack the nihilistic edge of a lot of socially conscious punk. A glimmer of hope amongst the rage and frustration shines through. A "we know better now, what the fuck is wrong with people STILL" that makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose their anger, unlike a lot of their contemporaries, seems somehow more justified or maybe it's just more eloquently put.

But...Then I was given 'The Empire Strikes First' as a present and, well, it kinda sucked. In fact that album turned me off the band for a very long time. Although in hindsight I think one of the reasons that it appealed to me less had more to do with the high expectations that 'All Ages' had set up in me than any actual failings in the quality of the album (although if someone with a bit more in-depth knowledge of the bands discography could tell me either way I'd appreciate it!).

In summary, then. A band with a fantastic sense of itself as just a band. But a band with a social conscience, a belief that things can be changed, without a clue how to do it, thrashing their frustration out with some very concise and cutting lyrics and some very very catchy tunes.

Having just re-listened to All Ages whilst typing this I have a compulsion to listen to more of them, where would be the best to start (other than the disavowed album, which does sound ace)?
 
 
Gaixo
12:28 / 23.08.07
The songs on All Ages are from Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, and Generator. These are (in my opinion, obviously) their strongest albums, and best taken in that (chronological) order. I wouldn't bother buying anything beyond those, as the band dynamic eventually gets weird as the albums start to be obviously split into "Mr." Brett Gurewitz songs and Greg Graffin songs. The small tragedy being that all of the songs suffer from the loss of the previously shared songwriting duties and sensibilities. In fact, Generator has a bit of that going on as well, and I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving it on the shelf.
 
 
c0nstant
02:36 / 25.08.07
Ah. I've owned that album for nigh on eight years and only NOW do I find out it's a compilation?! Nice going c0n...

Cheers for the advice, I will search those albums out forthwith!
 
 
Slim
02:54 / 27.08.07
Bad Religion was the first punk band I got into and they remain fucking MIGHTY.
 
 
Gendudehashadenough
21:42 / 28.08.07
The band might get weird, but the songwriting stays top notch. If anything its the replacement Peter Finestone, by Boddy Schayer on drums that halted the bands electricity. That and at some point Hetson began to share duties with the virtuouso from Dag Nasty whose name escapes me. Recipe for Hate, sounds so polished that it almost surpasses the melodies, lengths, and lyricism of Against the Grain and/or Suffer.

Anyhow, pick up 8085. Easily the best roll fer yer dough.
 
 
johnny enigma
14:08 / 13.09.07
Hmmmm......I'm hugely into punk and loads of my friends love Bad Religion, but there's huge swathes of their back catalogue I just can't get on with. Admittedly, some of the early stuff is killer and hugely influential, which kind of makes them responsible for the likes of McFly and Busted in a weird and twisted way, the chain of influence going something like Bad Religion - Nofx - Blink 182 - mindless pop pap for teenage girls, but I digress.
 
  
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