Bad Religion: C or D?

The sound of No Substance wasn't the problem. It was the no substance that was. (Their worst album by some margin imo.)

Looking forward to checking this one out.

It doesn't get any lamer than "The Fuck You" song.

I love the video, a modern take on the Replacements' infamous "Bastards Of Young" clip; the solitary Bastard listening to the vinyl smokes a cigarette and trashes the place in days of yore while the 21st Century Digital Boy checks his smartphone and dresses for the cold in layers.

I want to wait on getting the new album until the band comes to town next month and buy it directly from them, but based on this song - a throwback to my favorite era of the band, the "Against The Grain" days where the vocal harmonies and Greg Graffin's highfalutin lyrics propelled the tunes as much as the influenza-catchy riffs - I may not have the patience.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/bad-religion-find-their-true-north-premiere-20130213

I just relistened to Against the Grain last night. As a big fan at the time, I found it disappointing, and quit buying their records after that. Now, with hindsight, I think there are a lot of great songs on there (and a few real stinkers). It was probably them experimenting the most, with the best results. After that one, I do own Generator (don't care for it) and New Maps of Hell (that one stands up well).

Nothing will ever sound to me like Suffer did to my high school ears. And even that one is a slick piece of product compared to How Could Hell Be Any Worse.

As usual, the longer the song and the slower the tempo, the worse the results.

that's so funny - like, why can't they write a longer/slower song?

(it seems accurate - just funny)

i think the secret of this band is that they are basically rush

They do have a few good low/mid-tempo tracks over 3 minutes...but not many... Faith Alone (which seems to be a template for much of their post-Gurewitz output), The Streets of America, No Direction, American Jesus, Victims of the Revolution, a couple No Substance tracks, and of course Sorrow which is one of their best. I actually don't like Infected very much.

Not over 3 minutes, but a killer mid-tempo BR tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfoHrq4tNmI

And 3:01 of dirge-like Germs worship:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ5GsGiAKuY

Sorry for getting all Youtube-happy last night. I know you guys know these songs...

Good choices

I think The True North was a vast improvement on Dissent of Man, which was the first post-Gurewitz reunion BR album that I outright didn't like; sure, there were some that were more 'good' than 'great', but I outright disliked that one. I mean, they have a sound, they're sticking to it, but True North was a step back in the right direction.

seeing them open for Offspring tonight. fourth time. and then again Saturday. I hope they play "Sometimes It Feels like ##%$#%@$@"

I adore Bad Religion.

Me too. Still my favorite punkrock band. Saw them last year and they were in good form.

holy fuck what a set tonight. "Best For You"? "You are the Government"? "Anesthesia"? "Skyscraper"? "You"?

Holy God that was such a great show.

Part 2.0 tonight. They're in FL AGAIN on Tuesday. if it weren't for pre-planned hangouts w/ friends I'd be tempted to go a third time.

only thing I miss is their banter. Dr Graffin and company wisely pack as many songs in as they can for their fans since they're an opener but I usually enjoy their convos with the crowd when they're headlining.

nowhere near as good a setlist last night :/. oh well

went back through their whole discography over the last week or so.

No Substance wasnt great but In So Many Ways has a nice chuggy riff I fell in love w all over again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z545sqbROtI

this good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3HPeBWjSlc

Legendary riot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_chzBNmTHQ

hey everyone here's the worst song of all time

https://youtu.be/hES9IBTPbcw

That’s not even the worst bad religion song ever!

I mean, c’mon. https://youtu.be/hkwcehPhOXw

terrible band.

Hm wrong

Ooof, taking a cue from Green Day circa 2004

Comments are a predictable gold mine of shit.

Claudius Esperante
7 hours ago
A lot of truth to that statement. It's funny how these guys are considered "Anti-Establishment" when they have the same political views as every mainstream Democratic politician. A guy like Varg Vikernes actually is Anti-Establishment.

I AM TOTALLY A MODERATE AND IN NO WAY A TRUMP SUPPORTER BUT

I didn't support trump in his past campaign, nor did i vote for him. The tax cuts, peace talks with NK and outright stupidity of the leftist groups only tips me more towards voting for him in 2020. This song is not satire, its a biased shitshow.

Clumsiest concern-trolling evah

Not even close to the worst Bad Religion song

this won't be online for long but wow, didn't know they were still this great live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9azMEP2SRqY

officially online now: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/083415-010-A/bad-religion-au-hellfest/

Age Of Unreason is out on Friday & it's a return to form, apparently

Has anyone else here read their new oral history autobiography? Pretty disappointing, especially after just finishing NOFX's tome immediately beforehand (and
I'm not a fan of NOFX, but it's a pretty remarkable book). Far too fawning from their co-writer, who essentially treats Greg Graffin like the Bertrand Russell of
punk music instead of a fairly articulate guy with a thesaurus. Very little on their process of working with various producers, save for a few critical words
about Todd Rundgren's shambolic Hawaiian study and even less on Gurewitz's expansion of Epitaph. Of all the other artists to come through that label, only a handful
are discussed in passing, like L7 (and even they show up way more in Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town, about the Seattle scene, even though they're from L.A.!)

Will always love this band. Seeing them for millionth time tonight

Classic-their 1980-1985 hardcore shit
Suffer
No Control
Against the Grain
Process of Belief

Very good- The Empire Strikes First
Recipe for Hate
The Gray Race
New Maps of Hell

Good-Stranger Than Fiction
True North
Age of Unreason

Meh-Generator
The Dissent of Man

Destroy with fire-

The New America
No Substance

What are people's thoughts on the Gray Race? It was one of my formative albums growing up (and third BR album after Stranger Than Fiction and All Ages) and I think it's pretty much perfect, but things you love when you're 13 tend to stick with you. "Cease" is one of their best album closers.

― skip, Monday, November 7, 2011 5:07 PM bookmarkflaglink

It rules. One of their best Brett-less moments

Funny timing, I just started reading their book (Do What You Want). Honestly not the best writing I’ve ever seen, but it’s a fun read so far.

Stranger Than Fiction and The Gray Race were my first two BR albums (also quickly followed by All Ages too!), so I’ll always love them.

Think I’m due for another spin through the catalog to see how everything stacks up. I played Recipe For Hate while I read last night, another great one.

xps agree that Generator is very meh, which is weird because it's smack in the middle of the sweet spot in their discography. Were they just totally burnt out that year?

Probably. I can't even name Ny songs besides title track and Atomic Garden and latter isn't great.

Tonight was amazing in that my out of shape, aging body could not keep up with my excitement. This band shaped me as a 20-something. I felt those memories tonight.

suffer -> no control -> against the grain

thats a special run. i listen to the latter two quite often really.

i need to listen to the post no substance stuff outside of process of belief.

I like The New America a lot more than Neanderthal does, it appears, but everything after The Process of Belief is kind of a samey blur to me.

No Substance was where I tapped out. Not that they were necessarily steering off a cliff, I’d just … had my fill.
I didn’t need any more, and got the point. (I was 21 then.) When the mood strikes, honestly, All Ages does the job. And I’ll always be glad they exist, and that new generations of 15 year olds discover them.

BR were a band a close group of friends in college were deeply into so it’s tied to that time/place, and is how I was introduced to this music (and also the Fat Wreck Chords verse, frankly).

I like The New America a lot more than Neanderthal does, it appears, but everything after The Process of Belief is kind of a samey blur to me.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, October 24, 2021 11:29 PM bookmarkflaglink

this is kinda true, tbh. I remember each album after Process being a lesser album until I outright stopped enjoying them around The Dissent of Man.

Empire Strikes First has a lot of great tunes on it, but none quite reach the heights of Process, but I was mega into it because it came out during Iraq War II and I was fucking ANGRY and a large portion of the album is about it.

New Maps of Hell was surprisingly good, but definitely didn't do as much for me on relistens recently.

I am a little bummed that "Sorrow" is the enduring song from Process that everybody knows. like, come on, it's an earworm, but it's like RAdiohead's "Creep".

same thing with "Los Angeles is Burning", fuck that song.

Has anyone else here read their new oral history autobiography? Pretty disappointing, especially after just finishing NOFX's tome immediately beforehand (and
I'm not a fan of NOFX, but it's a pretty remarkable book). Far too fawning from their co-writer, who essentially treats Greg Graffin like the Bertrand Russell of
punk music instead of a fairly articulate guy with a thesaurus. Very little on their process of working with various producers, save for a few critical words
about Todd Rundgren's shambolic Hawaiian study and even less on Gurewitz's expansion of Epitaph. Of all the other artists to come through that label, only a handful
are discussed in passing, like L7 (and even they show up way more in Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town, about the Seattle scene, even though they're from L.A.!)

Just finished the book today and yeah, this is sadly spot on. I didn't expect any tremendous bombshells from a book that the band is credited as co-writing, but even with that it feels extremely thin on Graffin beyond endless praise. Everyone else seems to get (surprisingly) candid about their struggles and addictions, but besides passing mentions of Graffin's divorce, he gets almost nothing. I feel like I learned a little bit more about pretty much every member of the band, except him. And, yeah, for as much time spent talking about Brett and mentioning how successful he was with Epitaph, it hardly touched on how the label survived after the Offspring and Rancid blew up.

I mean, if nothing else it has kickstarted another deep dive into their catalog, which has been fun, but it could have been better.

Just saw them tonight in Philly... In a friggin' opera house.

Punk rock in an opera house... pic.twitter.com/ISRie7cGNy

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) November 8, 2021

Had a great time, amazing that I first saw them 30 years ago and got to take my son.

It's @badreligion! pic.twitter.com/T3koZAtr48

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) November 8, 2021

Very solid set list, played one or two songs from like ten albums, giving it a "greatest hits" feel but also brought out some deeper cuts as well.

suffer -> no control -> against the grain

thats a special run. i listen to the latter two quite often really.

Glad you got to see the show! 21 year-old me is very, very disappointed in myself for not seeing a Bad Religion/Alkaline Trio joint tour. But, if only it would have been a few months from now...

the live version of infected is way better than the album version. just watched this at 1.2 speed and it became one of their best songs lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S_lAB2WpTE

I’m 90% sure I saw BR at Warped Tour ‘98.