Religious experience
by Mike Larocque

Vue Weekly, no. 524, November 2, 2005

After 25 years and 17 albums, Bad Religion is still fighting the good fight

One of the saddest things for a fan to watch is a once-great band sink into the depths of mediocrity, and it can be hard, after all, for a group to continue to produce fresh material after decades together. But long-serving punk-rock band Bad Religion has learned a thing or two about sticking around in style.

“We realized early on that Bad Religion isn’t a gang, it’s not a club, we don’t have to wear the same clothes, live in a community house or drive around in a van; we can actually be individual human beings,” says Jay Bentley, the band’s bassist. “If you want to go to the furthest corner of the universe and say that you don’t want to talk to each other until we’re onstage, that’s your prerogative and no one in the band will talk about it. You can’t make being in a band the most important thing in your life, or think that somehow it makes you a better person.”

The fact that band has managed to stay around as long as it has—a respectable if not downright amazing 25 years—suggests that the importance of a little alone time is only a small part of Bentley’s band-survival knowledge, and he goes on to point out that Bad Religion has been especially careful not to slip from critical artistry to simply maintaining the status quo.

“You try not to repeat yourself too many times, but it’s inevitable that you will draw upon your history when you write a song,” says Bentley. “I’ve always held that when people say that Bad Religion albums sound the same, it’s a good thing. We are Bad Religion.”

Still, Pitchfork Media described their latest album, The Empire Strikes First, as “unfettered by nostalgia,” a comment that would likely sit well with any rock band releasing their 17th album. “We don’t want to go and make a 1980s punk-rock records,” states Bentley. “I think what people don’t realize is that the reason that those records sounded like they did was because that was the talent level of the band, and we were also working with the technology available. It wasn’t a planned-out thing to make the records sound crappy and to play really fast.”

With their next album slated for a 2006 release, Bad Religion doesn’t show any signs of slowing down soon. While most groups of a similar vintage have been releasing only the occasional recording of B-grade material, Bad Religion has, for better or worse, been releasing new, socially conscious discs approximately every 18 months. And while Bentley admits that they still face the potential wrath of critics with each release, making music that has more soul than popular appeal remains paramount.

“As long as you honestly believe that the record you’re releasing is something you stand behind 100 per cent, you can’t really worry about whether people will like it or not,” he asserts. “You’ll see other bands talk about their girlfriends and how lonely they are, and while people can relate to that, it doesn’t carry much weight. It’s just sort of—cute. Maybe they think it’s some deep shit they’re writing about, but you’ll find that there is more to life than being bummed because your mom told you to pick up your clothes.

“With our records that were bad [in the past], I had the ability to lie through my teeth and say that it was the best record we’d ever put out,” continues Bentley. “Now I could just say that the record is shit and that I don’t know why we made it, although we wouldn’t put it out. I can look back at records that should have been called Contractual Obligation Number Three.”