Bad Religion

This EP's been out about a month and is probably the only album of Christmas music I can tolerate these days because I'm sure we've all heard them a million times. Kudos to the band:

I've been pimping this thing for a couple weeks now.

What I really like is that the band sings the 2nd and 3rd verses of most of the songs and doesn't do the "pronoun swap" thing where "God", "Christ" or "Jesus" gets swapped out for the ubiquitious "he". Kudos to an Atheist band strong enough in their beliefs to sing the original lyrics to these songs.

I'm not a fan of Christmas albums but this sounds pretty good.  Puts me in the spirit some.

Bad Religion is a funny one for me since for a long time they were just a group I never got.  I love punk but just found them incredibly over-rated.  The last couple of years I've re-visited their stuff and now see what I didn't before.

They strike me as the kind of guys who are opened minded enough to have no problem singing them without the changes.  I think they even admit that the whole name and cross thing were just to get attention initially even if those were their own beliefs.  I've always viewed them as a political band more than a atheist one.

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

Speaking of punks doing Christmas songs, the Misfits (or as I like to call'em nowadays, "Jerry Only and the Ringers") have just released a new 7-inch vinyl single called "Horror Xmas," featuring "Blue Christmas" on one side and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on the flip.

"Blue Christmas" sounds pretty decent but damn, that "Grinch" cover is godawful.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Speaking of punks doing Christmas songs, the Misfits (or as I like to call'em nowadays, "Jerry Only and the Ringers") have just released a new 7-inch vinyl single called "Horror Xmas," featuring "Blue Christmas" on one side and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on the flip.

"Blue Christmas" sounds pretty decent but damn, that "Grinch" cover is godawful.

I like the Blue Christmas cover but the Grinch one not so much.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

That is the one to start with IMO too, especially if you're "iffy" about punk.  Actually, give the Christmas album a listen because if you like the sound of that, that's pretty much what "Stranger" sounds like; less punk sound, more melodic.

For example:



And this album was released almost a decade ago. Talk about prescient lyrics (and yes, this is one band where I pay attention to lyrics).

This sounds very well done and the guys give solid respect to the songs. While I am not a Bad Religion fan so much, this is worth owning.

tohostudios wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

That is the one to start with IMO too, especially if you're "iffy" about punk.  Actually, give the Christmas album a listen because if you like the sound of that, that's pretty much what "Stranger" sounds like; less punk sound, more melodic.

For example:



And this album was released almost a decade ago.  Talk about prescient lyrics (and yes, this is one band where I pay attention to lyrics).

Stranger Than fiction is a good album, I own it.... in fact, I think I need to break it out again!

jettafiend wrote:

This sounds very well done and the guys give solid respect to the songs. While I am not a Bad Religion fan so much, this is worth owning.

That's it right there. If you like your Christmas songs "rocked up" but like me, get annoyed with all the pronoun switching just because a band can't bring themselves to say "Jesus", "Christ" or whatever, then this is the album to get.

Personally, I don't care what someone's beliefs are but we all know the words to these songs and to switch up the lyrics just to avoid saying those words is extremely distracting to me.

thejokeriv wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

That is the one to start with IMO too, especially if you're "iffy" about punk.  Actually, give the Christmas album a listen because if you like the sound of that, that's pretty much what "Stranger" sounds like; less punk sound, more melodic.

For example:



And this album was released almost a decade ago.  Talk about prescient lyrics (and yes, this is one band where I pay attention to lyrics).

Stranger Than fiction is a good album, I own it.... in fact, I think I need to break it out again!

Was a high school freshman when this came out. Looking back at it coupled with having just read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, this rings loud and clear to me now.

tohostudios wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

That is the one to start with IMO too, especially if you're "iffy" about punk.  Actually, give the Christmas album a listen because if you like the sound of that, that's pretty much what "Stranger" sounds like; less punk sound, more melodic.

For example:



And this album was released almost a decade ago.  Talk about prescient lyrics (and yes, this is one band where I pay attention to lyrics).

That does sound good. Way more melodic than I expected. Not really punky at all. I thought they'd be more hardcore/shouting type. And looking on Amazon, the price is right (48 cents). Perhaps after the holidays and I have some gift card money to spend.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not familiar with Bad Religion, but I've been giving this disc some serious thought. It would fit in nicely with my other non-traditional Christmassy stuff. Maybe I'll pick it up cheap after the holidays for next year.   

Stranger than Fiction is highly recommended by me.. Killer album!!!

I'm not ready to dive head-first into their entire discography or anything at the moment. I'm kinda picky when it comes to punk music. But I'll keep that in mind.

That is the one to start with IMO too, especially if you're "iffy" about punk.  Actually, give the Christmas album a listen because if you like the sound of that, that's pretty much what "Stranger" sounds like; less punk sound, more melodic.

For example:



And this album was released almost a decade ago.  Talk about prescient lyrics (and yes, this is one band where I pay attention to lyrics).

That does sound good. Way more melodic than I expected. Not really punky at all. I thought they'd be more hardcore/shouting type. And looking on Amazon, the price is right (48 cents). Perhaps after the holidays and I have some gift card money to spend.

Don't you know by now that if Toho pimps a band odds are the vocals will be melodic?   

It would have been cool if they had added Silent Night, Joy to the World, and First Noel on this album as bonus cuts as they have covered those as well: