Song Of The Week: 6/3/12

Song: "Drunk Sincerity"

Artist: Bad Religion

Album: "Tested"

Year: 1997



"Drunk Sincerity" appears to be about how people are manipulated to believe lies, whether those lies are told by political or religious leaders, warmongers, or just as simple as feeding into lies of love or relationships. What the band is saying is to just not by into the bullshit!! See through the lies and educate yourself so you just don't buy in to someone else's idea. Inform yourself and form your own opinions. The original version of "Drunk Sincerity" was released on Bad Religion's 1996 album, "The Gray Race". The version I chose for my song of the week comes from the band's 1997 live album "Tested". Bad Religion formed as a band in 1979, hailing from Los Angeles, California. Very much influenced by punk legends such as The Ramones, The Germs and Minor Threat, Bad Religion would carve out their own niche in punk rock circles beginning with their debut album, 1981's "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?". The band's second album, 1983's "Into The Unknown" nearly ruined the band. It was such a departure from their hardcore punk roots that all the band members besides vocalist Greg Graffin decided to leave the band. Thankfully, in 1988 Graffin, guitarist Brett Gurewitz, bassist Jay Bentley and former Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson would bring BR back to it's roots, dropping perhaps one of the most influential punk albums of all time, "Suffer". As the 80's turned into the 90's, a musical revolution began happening. The Seattle grunge scene started bringing back that garage rock sound. Out was the overproduced, candy coated hair metal and in was an aggressive sound that focused more on the music and lyrics than the image. After the Nirvana's and Pearl Jam's exploded on the music scene, there was an undercurrent of punk rock that began catching a wave of success. Bad Religion, along with Rancid, Green Day and The Offspring were at the head of that wave. In 1993, Bad Religion would sign to major label Atlantic Records and also would have one of the band's most successful singles, "American Jesus" off the album "Recipe For Hate". 1994's release, "Stranger Than Fiction" would prove to be the band's highest selling album. Unfortunately for the band, this was also a time when founding member, Brett Gurewitz became unhappy with all the success and the direction the band was going and decided to quit and focus on his upstart punk record label, Epitaph Records. In 2001, Bad Religion would leave Atlantic and go back to Epitaph Records. The good news was Brett Gurewitz decided to rejoin the band who was now a six piece with the addition of Minor Threat guitarist Brian Baker. With Gurewitz back, the band plowed through the rest of the 2000 decade releasing four more albums, 2002's "The Process Of Belief", 2004's "The Empire Strikes First", 2007's "New Maps Of Hell" and 2010's "The Dissent Of Man". For 33 years, Bad Religion has been one of the most influential punk rock bands of all time. Their anthems of not conforming to various establishments as well as their songs of political and social unrest mark them as one of the most important bands of all time as well. Currently, Bad Religion are working on what will be sixteenth studio album, hoping to have it released some time in 2012.