Bad Religion

How did Bad Religion become one of the longest-lived, most beloved bands to bust out of the early-'80s SoCal punk scene? By exploding nearly every preconception about the music — with brainy, polysyllabic lyrics, tight vocal harmonies, and a singer who moonlights as a college professor and novelist. Always ahead of the curve, they first released their hit "21st Century (Digital Boy)" in 1990, getting a decade's jump on the cultural chaos of Y2K. Eight years earlier, they were L.A. hardcore kids with a raw, scrappy sound, spitting out edgy, aggressive bursts of anger like their "theme song," "Bad Religion," but by the time they actually became 21st-century boys, they were penning poignant, melodic-but-meaty punk anthems for the ages, like the moving, majestic "Sorrow."

Prepare to be knocked out by Bad Religion's weighty wordsmith, in Next Steps.

Having a published author with a PhD as their frontman is Bad Religion's not-so-secret weapon, and fearless leader Greg Graffin wields words like smart bombs, blasting away at society's ills with pinpoint precision. He isn't afraid to turn the power of his punk poetics on himself, wondering how much can be accomplished by a "Punk Rock Song." But that doesn't discourage him from tackling the ultimate ambition on the tongue-in-cheek "I Want to Conquer the World," surely the only song ever to use the words trammel — hey, we looked it up, you can too — and fecundity in the same line. And well-aimed words aren't Bad Religion's only weapons; they muster some mighty melodies, too, crossing over into power-pop territory with the downright Beatlesque harmonies of "A World Without Melody" — a place these guys definitely don't live.

The pioneering punks let their folk-flag fly in Deep Cuts

Not only has Bad Religion head honcho Greg Graffin maintained a sideline as a solo folksinger, but by combing through their catalog you could even make a case for these San Fernando Valley boys as an undercover folk act. For instance, they set up and knock down sociopolitical targets with powerful protest tunes, and their signature song "Sorrow" hits just as hard in its all-acoustic version, and if ever there was a punk equivalent to Bob Dylan's immortal questions-without-answers ballad "Blowin' In the Wind," it's the hard-charging "How Much Is Enough?". And don't say you can't picture the anthemic "Along the Way" as fodder for the greatest punk campfire sing-along you've ever heard.

Bad Religion has been firing out their sharp-shooting brand of intellectual punk with pop hooks for three decades, redefining what it means to be "hardcore." Singer/college professor Greg Graffin can fit what seems like an entire treatise on modern society into a three-minute song, his bandmates matching him step for step with a blend of blazing punk fury and hummable, power-pop-influenced tunes. Bad Religion has always made up its own rules, letting other bands follow in their wake. They're probably the only punk outfit to go on record as being equally influenced by the Germs and Todd Rundgren — the latter even produced their 2000 album, The New America. Guitarist Brett Gurewitz started Epitaph Records as a home for his band, and today — like Bad Religion itself — it's a prolific, unprecedentedly successful punk institution. So where do you start working your way through the world of Bad Religion? We've got 75 clues for you right here.