21st Annual Almost Acoustic Christmas Artist Spotlight: Bad Religion

One of the pioneers of the SoCal punk scene, Bad Religion will be playing Saturday night at the 21st Annual Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band, who originated in 1979, recently released their 15th studio album on September 28th, just days after Epicenter.

The original lineup of Bad Religion included Greg Graffin (vocals, keyboards), Jay Bentley (bass), Jay Ziskrout (drums), and Brett Gurewitz (guitar). Their first show was in 1980, when they opened for Social Distortion in a small warehouse in Fullerton. Gurewitz then founded Epitaph Records and released the band’s first self-titled EP. In 1982, they released their first studio album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, and also saw a change of drummers as Peter Finestone came in to replace Ziskrout during recording.

In 1983, they released their most “unpopular” album to date, Into The Unknown, which had a more progressive rock sound than their previous albums. It has since become a collector’s item, with only about 10,000 copies released. In 1984, Graffin teamed up with Greg Hetson (from Circle Jerks) on a track for the soundtrack to the movie Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. Hetson would then replace Gurewitz, who had recently gone into rehab for drug problems, and the band then put out their second EP, titled Back To The Known. After the release of the EP, the band went on a short hiatus.

Bad Religion reformed in 1986, and got to work on their third studio album, Suffer, which was eventually released in 1988. The album has been regarded by many as one of the most important albums in the SoCal punk scene, and according to Gurewitz, took only eight days for the band to record and mix.

During their Suffer Tour, the band continued writing material and went in to the studio in 1989 to record their next album, No Control, and followed that up with Against The Grain, which was released in 1990. ATG contained one of their most well-known songs ever, “21st Century (Digital Boy).” In 1991, Finestone left the band to pursue his other project, The Fisherman, and was replaced by Bobby Schayer on the drums. The band went back into the studio and recorded their sixth studio album, Generator, which was released in early 1992.

Bad Religion signed to Atlantic Records in 1993, during the rock/grunge boom of the early 90′s and put out their next album, Recipe For Hate, which was followed up by the album Stranger Than Fiction, which was released in 1994. This became their most successful album, featuring the songs “Infected” and a newer version of “21st Century (Digital Boy).” Before the album was released, Gurewitz left the band, citing that they had “sold out” even though he was making millions off of The Offspring, who were signed to Epitaph and one of the hugest bands of the 90′s. He was replaced by Brian Baker, who had previously been in Minor Threat and a few other bands.

1996 brought The Gray Race, which had their next hit song “A Walk.” The band followed up this with their 10th studio album, No Substance, another that didn’t sit well with fans. The last of three albums that were put out during Gurewitz’s absence was The New America, which was released in 2000. Schayer would soon suffer a severe shoulder injury and left the band, getting replaced by Brooks Wackerman (of Suicidal Tendencies).

After this, the band left Atlantic Records and returned to Epitaph, and Gurewitz rejoined the band to bring the total number of members to six. The reunited Gurewitz and Graffin went back to the studio, and in 2002 released their next album, The Process of Belief. Two years later, The Empire Strikes First was released, as well as several re-mastered versions of earlier albums.

In 2006, a live DVD called Live At The Palladium was released, which captured a 2004 show at the Palladium. They followed this with the release of their 14th studio album, New Maps of Hell, in 2007 and hopped on The Warped Tour in support of their album. “New Dark Ages” became an instant radio hit and helped the album reach #35 on the Billboard 200.

Earlier this year, to commemorate their 30th anniversary of the band, they played a 30-day tour and played 30 songs each night, with a European tour planned for the summer. The band recorded some of the songs from their anniversary tour and released a live album called 30 Years Live, which was made available as a free download to members of the band’s mailing list. In April, the band stopped by the KROQ studios and did an interview with Kevin & Bean and revealed that they would be hitting the studio May 6th to start recording their newest album.

Bad Religion’s new album, The Dissent Of Man, was released on September 28th, just days after they rocked Epicenter Twenty-Ten. Check out our review of their set here.

See them out at the sold-out KROQ’s 21st Annual Almost Acoustic Christmas, Saturday, December 11th at the Gibson Amphitheater!

Click here for all the details on the show!

[Photo Gallery] KROQ Epicenter…