Bad Religion Band • Page 6

Finished this morning. It’s a fun read—maybe not as much for the musical history than the members speaking about their personal lives & relationships between one another (I laughed out loud at the bit about Brett exercising his vocabulary at Jay while they attended couples therapy.) I also enjoyed that there’s plenty of Bobby’s perspective covering his tenure in the band.

Disappointed Hetson didn’t participate, and in the messy timeline, like the book implying “You” being on the THPS2 soundtrack helped expand Bad Religion’s fan base in 1989/ 1990. Also I get that Age of Unreason is their newest LP, but the section on it feels so press release-y.

BR was one of the bands I listened to most from ages 17-22, and even though I didn’t devour this like I would have when I was younger, it’s a satisfying book on the whole.

 

My copy is being delivered today

 

I do miss Bobby. I gotta get the book.

 

Haha every Bad Religion fan misses the drummer that was in the band when they started listening. I really miss Brooks.

 

I don’t think they’ve had a bad drummer.

 

Agreed! They've all been perfect for their era of the band. It's hard to imagine Pete playing on Submission Complete or Sinister Rouge, but in the same way, Brooks technical chops could've subtracted from the lyrical punch of Suffer or No Control

 

I just listened to submission complete today just to hear the drums haha.

 

SO GOOD

 

the outro

definitely an underrated Bad Religion song.

 

Brooks was easily the most proficient drummer—and arguably greatest musician—the band‘s ever had, and him joining rejuvenated BR’s sound & elevated Greg & Brett’s songwriting at a pivotal time. It honestly surprises me he chose to stay in the band so long, but I’m glad he hid.

Bobby’s skills were definitely more limited, but he’s still a great drummer. I really dig his understated playing style, and it always did an excellent job of complimenting the songs. Plus in interviews, the dude’s never come off as anything but super humble and easygoing.

Pete’s drumming was a solid backbone. Could anyone have played what he did? Probably, but that’s what’s appealing to me. When I began playing drums, all I wanted to do was become at least good enough to play along to Suffer—it’s fun as hell

 

Yes yes to all of those!

I used to not love Bobby's drumming because I kinda went backwards when I listened to the band, but Bobby is incredibly solid and elevated their sound at a pivotal time as well.

The leap from Against the Grain to Generator is wild and it hard to imagine Recipe For Hate happening without his flexibility. Much love to all the BR drummers (and guitarists, tbh. Baker has 25 years of excellent BR solos logged now)

 

Been giving The New America more love than I have in a long time over the past couple days, and I can’t express how much genuine appreciation I have for the lyric, “What good is skill if you don’t make it to the dance?”

 

I came to Bad Religion with 0 baggage, so I have found a lot to appreciate in the Atlantic years. The Gray Race is in my top 3 albums and there's fun to be found on all the records.

From The New America, I really love 1000 Memories and A Streetkid Named Desire

 

Those records should no be dismissed. So many many fantastic songs. It gave them a little room to experiment and I would say to mostly a success.

 

Their most fun album IMO.

I love my computer...

 

Process Of Belief
Gray Race
Recipe For Hate

Not even gonna lie....’Age Of Unreason’ is creeping up the list towards my top 3. Only time will tell. I listen to the album quite often. Also, bonus points for the mango vinyl variant. It’s so sick.

 

This is my top 3 if you swap Process for Empire (and tbh sometimes Generator or True North edges out Recipe)

 

Empire Strikes First
Against the Grain
Stranger Than Fiction

Suffer
Generator
The Gray Race
No Control
Recipe for Hate

The first three have consistently been my favourites in that order over the years, my next five’s rankings change between one another pretty often, and the rest I feel more-or-less the same about. Everything has its share of gems, though.

 

I love Suffer and ATG but they've never hit for me the way they do for old school fans.

No Control finally clicked for me last year after I saw them play it live in full

 

I’d put Stranger Than Fiction at the top of my list, but then figuring it out from there is too difficult. This band never dropped off in terms of album quality.

 

Just finished up my listen of No Substance for the first time in years. It's way more entertaining than I remembered. The checesefactor is full-fledge on this album and I think I love it. The production is awesome too! There are a lot of standout guitar solos on this thing that I don't remember.

The Voracious March of Godliness stood out A LOT revisiting.

 

I've always thought it had some of their best full-on riffs. They're more of a rock band on that album and the production suits it well

 

It’s definitely more of a rock version of BR, but they do a lot of cool on the record.

I think my favourite are No Substance, Strange Denial and In So Many Ways.

Listen tonight on this record in regular BR rotation. The political themes on this record feel so relevant right now.

 

Toss Hear It in there and those are my favorites too!

 

Really great opener for this record. Has the urgency we are used to from BR. Also a great contrast to Shades.