Bad Religion still playing punk the way it should be
By Steven Hyden
Post-Crescent staff writer
Twenty two years old and still punker than you will ever be, L.A.'s Bad Religion is back on the Warped tour this summer, heading up a bill of bands made up mostly of guys born around the time they started in 1980.
A four-album stint on Atlantic Records aside, Bad Religion still defines punk indiedom better than anyone this side of Fugazi. Even if punk is supposed to be about rejecting the old ways, baby punks can't help giving props to the graying, late 30-something members of this pioneering band.
"People are definitely really nice to us but it's not an (expletive)-kissing situation," said guitarist Brian Baker, who spoke by phone in advance of Wednesday's Warped tour stop at Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee. "These people are doing something creative that's important to them, too, so you really can't spend too much time wondering where grandpa is."
With its place in American punk history secure, Bad Religion has had a harder time staying relevant in a Blink-182 world. A record deal with Atlantic in 1993 led to a series of same-sounding albums that treaded water more than kicked out the jams. Many blamed the decline on the departure of founding member Brett Gurewitz, who jumped ship to focus on running Epitaph Records, which went on to huge mid-'90s success thanks to blockbuster releases from the Offspring and Rancid.
Long-suffering fans had their prayers answered this year when Gurewitz and lead singer Greg Graffin put aside their differences and collaborated once again on a new Bad Religion album. The result, called "The Process of Belief," doesn't reinvent the punk wheel by a long shot, but it has the classic Bad Religion sound down cold: minute-long socio-political blitzkriegs tempered by melodic harmony vocals.
Baker thinks the reformed songwriting team has reinvigorated the band.
"I'm not going to be make any allusions to other songwriting teams because I think its pretentious, but there is a certain thing that happens when Brett and Greg are writing with each other and against each other, and it makes a better Bad Religion album," he said. "Even as a band member, my favorite Bad Religion albums had always been the ones from the era when they were both writing together, including the ones I wrote on."
Fans heading to the Milwaukee show shouldn't get their hopes up about seeing Gurewitz on stage. Baker said the prodigal guitarist only makes about 10 percent of the band's gigs, and the chances of him playing here is a big fat goose egg.
"He is a little bit hampered because he owns this little independent label I'm sure you've heard of," Baker said, alluding to Epitaph. "He's a hands on, day-to-day guy, and he can't take off for two months like we can. And we knew this coming into it. He would be the first one to tell you that the writing and recording of the music is much more fun for him than the day-to-day riding around on the bus and picking up your guitar."
Baker admits that Gurewitz's return had him nervous for a split second; the former Minor Threat guitarist replaced Gurewitz when he left in 1993. But his label head/bandmate immediately put him at ease.
"About the first thing Brett said to me was, 'Oh, incidentally, you're not going anywhere,' so I didn't really have a chance to get all weird about it," Baker said. "My job is to provide a certain something that Brett really seems to enjoy, so I guess I made the cut."
Steven Hyden can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 296, or by e-mail at shyden@postcrescent.com
