Bad Religion

Bad Religion
From left to right: Jay Bentley, Greg Hetson, Brooks Wackerman, Greg Graffin, Brian Baker and Brett Gurewitz
Background Information
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genre	Punk rock, melodic hardcore, hardcore punk (early)
Years active	1979–present
Label(s)	Epitaph, Atlantic, Epic
Website	http://www.badreligion.com/
Members
Greg Graffin Brett Gurewitz Jay Bentley Greg Hetson Brian Baker Brooks Wackerman
Former Members
Jay Ziskrout Davy Goldman Tim Gallegos Pete Finestone John Albert Lucky Lehrer Bobby Schayer Paul Dedona

Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. The band makes extensive use of soaring 3-part vocal harmonies (which they refer to in their album liner notes as the "oozin' aahs"), guitar solos and intellectual lyrics that often contain political or religious commentary. Their lyrics often relate to matters of social responsibility. The band's lineup has changed several times over its lifespan, with lead vocalist Greg Graffin being the only consistent member; the current lineup, however, features three out of four of the band's original members (Graffin, Brett Gurewitz and Jay Bentley).

Bad Religion has released sixteen studio albums, two live albums, three compilation albums, two EPs, and two DVDs (which were both recorded live). Although they gained a cult following with many of their early albums, Bad Religion did not experience major worldwide commercial success until the 1994 release of their eighth studio album Stranger Than Fiction, which spawned their biggest hits "Infected" and a re-recorded version of "21st Century (Digital Boy)", and was certified gold in both the United States and Canada. Their latest album, True North, was released on January 22, 2013. Bad Religion has sold over 5 million albums worldwide.

Connections to The Offspring

• Like The Offspring, Bad Religion are credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1990s punk rock scene.
• Along with Green Day and Rancid, The Offspring and Bad Religion have been labeled as the "Big 4 of 90's Punk Rock".
• The Offspring were labelmates with Bad Religion for a very brief moment before they signed to Atlantic Records in 1993.
• Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz is the founder of Epitaph Records, the label that released Ignition, Smash and Ixnay on the Hombre in some parts of Europe. Epitaph also released the 1995 reissue of The Offspring.
• The Offspring, along with The Muffs, opened for Bad Religion at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California on January 23, 1993.
• Both bands performed live at the second annual KROQ Inland Invasion on September 14, 2002.
• Both bands performed live at the sixteenth annual KROQ Weenie Roast on May 17, 2008.
• Both bands performed live at Sunset Strip Music Festival on August 18, 2012.
• Bad Religion were supposed to play with The Offspring in Argentina in November 1999. However, this did not happen because The Offspring wanted to headline but not be on the bill with Bad Religion . Bad Religion were replaced by The Vandals.
• "All I Want" was written as part of a Bad Religion song writing contest. The original song was called "Protocol" and featured complex vocabulary. Dexter wanted to play it to Brett but was told to "play it on acoustic later or something" whereupon he felt rejected and rewrote the song. The chorus of Protocol was: "Your backs to the wall / That's protocol / It's sequestering your spirit / Misleading us all".
• The Offspring used Friz Quadrata as the font of the Americana-era and Splinter-era logo of their band. Bad Religion are famous for using this font as their logo on most of their album covers, shirts and memorabilia.
• Josh Freese—who played drums on Splinter, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace and Days Go By—was a member of Daredevils, a project that Brett was involved during his departure from Bad Religion.