The Bad Religion Page News

Brett inspired to write another No Control

Thu, 3 May 2012 11:53:57 PM -0700

In a recent and quite extensive interview, Fletcher Dragge from Pennywise tells about how their new album 'All or Nothing' inspires Brett to write a fast Bad Religion record... another No Control.

Here's an excerpt from that interview on dyingscene.com:

Fletcher: So when it came time to talk about this new record, Brett said, “Hey, I’m here for you guys. Whoever you choose, I back Pennywise 100%.” It was pretty rad because when he heard the record he said “You know, you coulda delivered a mediocre Pennywise record but you delivered an old school, hardcore Pennywise record and I can’t even believe how good it is. You guys have really stepped up your game.” It was really cool.

“Brett even called me later and said, “I’m writing the new Bad Religion record right now, and your record has inspired me to write a fast Bad Religion record. I’m trying to write another “No Control” record here in my living room.”

And I’m like, “Fuck yeah! ‘No Control,’ ‘Suffer,’ please.” That’s rad. When a guy you’ve been doing business with tells you this is the best record you’ve put out since “Full Circle” that’s a pretty fucking huge compliment. He’s always been a cool guy and everybody who works there, Jeff Abarta, Tami, and Dave Hansen, and all the people that have had our backs all these years. Its been an awesome run and they’re an awesome group of people so we’re stoked to be back there.

So what do you guys think, is this something that can be pulled off?

Extra tidbit: The cover artwork for No Control was done by Norman Moore, who was also responsible for the artwork of Generator and Stranger Than Fiction. [Read more]

Ride Channel interviews Jay Bentley

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:59:08 AM -0700

Ride Channel interviewed Jay Bentley for their "Hand In Hand" show which features interviews with musicians and artists who have been inspired by skateboarding. Jay talks about his first experiences with skateboarding and how skateboarding has influenced punk rock and vice versa.

Extra tidbit: Did you know Bad Religion has their own skate decks? Check them out in the Collectibles section!

One Nine Nine Four

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:35:15 AM -0700

After almost 5 years (!) the punk documetary One Nine Nine Four can finally be watched online. We first reported about this documentary in 2007. Two years later, in 2009, the documetary was almost fully completed but due to a low budget the maker of the documentary couldn't clear the music. In December of that year he asked for help from the online community to raise money. Even though a couple of songs hadn't been cleared, a director's cut of the documentary was screened at the Calgary International Film Festival on September 29th, 2009. In February 2010 over $15,000 was raised and according to the official website (which is down nowadays) they aimed for a '3rd quarter of 2010 release'. After that announcement it remained silent.

And now, 3 years later, One Nine Nine Four can finally be watched right here:

Extra tidbit: Talking about punk rock and skateboarding...Thrasher Magazine has been mentioned in this documentary. Ever read the interview with Bad Religion in Thrasher Magazine? Check it out here!

Bad Religion to play at NXNE Festival

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 1:26:54 PM -0700

Update: It's now been confirmed that Bad Religion will perform on June14th.

Bad Religion will be playing at the NXNE Festival (Canada's version of the SXSW) in Toronto, Canada. Approximately 650 bands will be playing in nearly 50 venues around Toronto between June 11 and June 17. Besides Bad Religion, four other bands have been announced as headliners: The Flaming Lips, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Matthew Good.
As for now it's still not clear on which day Bad Religion will play.

More info (including the entire lineup) can be found on the official NXNE website.

Bad Religion song quiz - Answers included

Sun, 8 Apr 2012 5:10:38 AM -0700

First of all, thanks a lot to all the people who responsed with links to even more songs that (kinda) sound like something by Bad Religion. Some were more obvious than others, but there's definitely some great stuff in there. Check out the links in the comments below if you haven't done so already.

So here are the answers:

1. Neil Young - Opera Star
This should have been an easy one for all of you: What Can You Do? It's not just the melody of the first 2 lines in each verse, but also note the resemblance if the lyrics in the second verse:
So you stay out all night
Gettin' fucked up in that rock and roll bar

2. Eddie & The Subtitles - American Society
Again this is an easy one and also the most well-known one: 21st Century (Digital Boy). It also shows some resemblance to The Empire Strikes First, though.

3. The Who - I'm Free
It's not the melody and it's not the lyrics; it's a reference made in Along The Way: "Like Tommy you are free (...)".

4. Credence Clearwater Revival - Who Will Stop the Rain
According to Brett Chasing The Wild Goose is his version of Who Will Stop The Rain.

5. The Beatles - Glass Onion
Again it's not the melody or the lyrics; it's the way they refer to previous songs. BR has done the same thing in 21st Century (Digital Boy): "I tried to tell you about no control (...)" and "and then you told me how bad you had to suffer (...)".

6. Steve Miller Band - Come On Take The Money and Run
According to Greg Billy Gnosis is Brett's version of this song.

7. Pink Floyd - Hey You
Here it's the re-use of the line "and the worms ate into his brain" in Billy Gnosis:
But it was only fantasy
The wall was too high as you can see
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain

8. The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money
Another very clear one (I think). It's the "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all good children go to heaven" line in Anesthesia.

9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Every BR fan that hears the first line in this song should recognize The World Won't Stop Without You.

10. Badfinger - Without You
It's covered by a lot of other artists, but Mariah Carey's version is probably the most famous. Greg squeezed in the "Can't live if living is without you" line in The Empire Strikes First. Greg sings "Can't live if living is with you", though.

11. King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
The title of the song should already give it away: 21st Century (Digital Boy).

12. Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Not recognizable at first maybe, but if you skip to about 4:10 you'll clearly hear some The Dichotomy in there.

13. The Beatles - We Can Work It Out
The "No time for fussing and fighting my friend" line in You comes from this song by The Beatles.

Hey everyone, Marty here... Since it's BR off-season right now we thought it would be fun to use the front page to spread some little known facts about the band. Let's start with one of my favorites topics: songs by other artists that Greg and Brett "borrowed" melodies, lyrics or ideas from.
We're pretty sure there's more than these, but here's what we could come up with so far. If you know more, please let us know!

So check out the songs below and see if you can recognize the Bad Religion song(s). Remember: sometimes it can just be a single line in the lyrics or a reference. The answers will be posted in a few days.

@Brett, Greg or Jay... if you see this and you think we got something wrong or have more to add, we'd love to hear about it!

1. Neil Young - Opera Star

2. Eddie & The Subtitles - American Society

3. The Who - I'm Free

4. Credence Clearwater Revival - Who Will Stop the Rain

5. The Beatles - Glass Onion

6. Steve Miller Band - Come On Take The Money and Run

7. Pink Floyd - Hey You

8. The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money

9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

10. Badfinger - Without You

11. King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

12. Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Ones)

13. The Beatles - We Can Work It Out

Reason Rally recap - Updated with better quality video

Wed, 4 Apr 2012 1:51:27 PM -0700

As pretty much everyone knows, Bad Religion performed at the Reason Rally in Washington D.C. on March 24. It's been a week and half ago already, but since we had an exclusive video underway we postponed creating a news item for this.
So let's see if we can give a visual summary of what happened there...

Let's start with the soundcheck on Friday. Luckily someone was able to record The New America (yes indeed!!), Flat Earth Society, God Song and Beyond Electric Dreams:

Then, the following video contains Greg singing the national anthem and (almost) the entire set without any interuptions, which is becoming rare these days in youtube-land. It's just the last two songs that are missing: Infected and Sorrow. Check out the show page for the complete setlist and more: http://www.thebrpage.net/shows/show.asp?showID=1747

Many many thanks to frod79 for filming this and spending time and money to transfer his MiniDV tape to digital.

This video is now also available as downloadable bootleg right here (in WMV format).

Also, check out some reviews of the entire event here (by simian) and here (by frod79).

Bad Religion Sk8-Hi re-release and Reason Rally interview

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 1:15:37 AM -0700

Bad Religion Sk8-Hi re-release at Vulcanized Vinyl

Every year the SXSW (South by Southwest) takes place in Austin, TX. It's a mix of conferences and festivals that offer a unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies.

This year, Vans and Nice Kicks are joining forces at SXSW for the Vulcanized Vinyl Pop-up Shop. Classics, California models, tees, tanks, and accessories will be on sale in addition to a limited edition Vulcanized Vinyl tee.

More interestingly (for Bad Religion fans at least), for the first time ever, Vans is re-releasing five of their most popular band shoes on a first-come, first-served basis. This includes makeups for Slayer (3/13), Descendents (3/14), Bad Religion (3/15), Iron Maiden (3/16), and Social Distortion (3/17).

So this is actually today! Sorry for the late report on this!

The Vulcanized Vinyl Pop-up Shop is located at 313 ½ E. 6th Street and will end on March 18th; it's opened from noon to midnight each day.

[Source]

Bad Religion at the Reason Rally

That Bad Religion will be performing and Greg Graffin will be speaking at the Reason Rally on March 24 should not be news to you. But to warm you up a little, here's a short interview with Brett, Greg and Jay from GV30 on December 17th.

Minor League news #20

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 5:11:02 AM -0700

It's been almost a year since the last Minor League news! So for those of you not familiar with this, here's a short intro: In order prevent the site from being flooded with small news, we sometimes combine several of them in one news item. So here's number 20!

Jay Bentley on Complete Control with Joe Sib

Last night Jay was a guest on Joe Sibs's new live show called Complete Control. They talk about the band, its history, what life's like now and whats coming up next. Very very interesting stuff, which starts at about 6 minues in. Especially the part about Bad Religion's first European tour.

We're not allowed to embed the video, so just head on over to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pW9864CFN0

An interview with Jay by The AU Review

Today a brand new interview appeared online in which Jay talks about the upcoming Soundwave festival. Check it out here: http://www.theaureview.com/interviews/the-au-interview-jay-bentley-of-bad-religion-los-angeles
The most interesting part of that interview, however, is the following:

The band have hinted at another record this year - how are the songs shaping up?

Jay: "About normal. How albums work for us we’ll go ‘Hey you wanna make an album? Yeah. When are we gonna do it? I don’t know. Let’s pencil something in for July. Is that gonna work? I don’t know’ [laugh] I saw Brett a couple of days ago at a party and [he] said ‘Hey I’ve written two songs’ Awesome! Talk to Greg ‘I’ll look for my guitar. I think it’s in the garage.’ Thats how albums get written by us!" [laughs]

Good to see there’s a lot of organization going on there!

Jay: "Thats just how it is. It’s just this enjoyable hobby thats grown. We’re totally appreciative of what we have and that we get to do this thing we love. Then you look at the lyrics and the songs and you know we’re god damn serious."

Adam Ragusea covers Better Of Dead

Some people in the fan community might know him from a piano-based cover of Pessimistic Lines that he did many years ago for Tribute Tape #2.

He's done a new cover which he's pretty proud of (and should be!). Check it out on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/aragusea/better-off-dead-bad-religion

Thanks Adam, keep them coming!

Brett to be honored with Independent Spirit Award

This was already published earlier this month, but better late than never.... NARM will hang out their prestigious Independent Spirit Award at the Music Biz 2012 convention this coming May. This year, the award goes to none other than Brett Gurewitz.

"Brett personifies the independent spirit, inspiring countless punk and indie bands through his work in Bad Religion and helping many of them reach their full potential at Epitaph Records, including The Offspring, Rancid, and NOFX," said Jim Donio, President of NARM. "His creative entrepreneurship and commitment to thinking outside the box make him a strong player in today's music industry. We look forward to seeing what he does next."

http://www.narm.com/news/epitaph-records-founder-to-receive-2012-independent-spirit-award/

Bad Religion awesomeness on ebay

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 1:31:08 AM -0700

We usually don't dedicate an entire news item on something that's being sold on ebay, but in this case we're gladly making an exception. Someone on this site has decided to sell some of the rarest Bad Religion stuff you'll ever encounter. A delectable treat for any hardcore Bad Religion fan!

Check it out on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190640343166%20

In short:

ONE OF A KIND mock-up artwork used to create the cover for Bad Religion's 1985 album, Back To The Known.
A numbered and framed print of Prolyx by Ron Russell (44 of 300). This artwork was used for the 1983 album Into The Unknown.
An original factory sealed copy of "Into The Unknown" LP.

"These items have been stored safely for nearly 30 years. Originally they were owned by Brett Gurewitz. From what I was told, they were left behind by him to be claimed by his former roommate. I have personally been in possession of these items since 2002 and can guarantee they have been kept in absolute safe storage since then."

Brooks Wackerman nominated for best alternative drummer

Sun, 5 Feb 2012 6:14:36 AM -0700

Brooks Wackerman is nominated in the category best alternative drummer in the Modern Drummer 2012 Readers' Poll. Voting is open from February 1 until February 15, and everyone who casts a vote will automatically have a chance to win one of 3 free one-year subscriptions to Modern Drummer magazine.

To vote for Brooks go to Modern Drummer and provide your information. Other nominees in the best alternative drummer category are: Dale Crover (Melvins), Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Jay Lane (Primus) and Thomas Pridgen (The Mars Volta).

_{Brooks on the August 2011 Cover of Modern Drummer}