BAD RELIGION ***

Bad Religion is an American punk rock band founded in 1979 by Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars), and Jay Ziskrout (drums). They are often credited for being involved in the revival of punk rock and inspiring several subsequent punk bands during the late 1980s, as well as influencing a large number of other punk and rock musicians throughout their career. In the 32 years since its inception, Bad Religion has had numerous lineup changes, and Graffin has been the only constant member, although the band currently features three of the original members.
Bad Religion has released fifteen studio albums, two EPs, three compilation albums, two live recordings, and two DVDs since their formation. Almost all of their albums were released on Epitaph Records, started in 1980 by Gurewitz, who still runs the label today. Bad Religion is considered one of the most successful independent punk acts, selling over 5 million albums worldwide. The band earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and critical acclaim, with their 1988 album Suffer cited by some critics as one of the most important punk rock albums of all time. Following a series of albums on Epitaph, Bad Religion signed to Atlantic Records in 1993. The band achieved their greatest success with their 1994 album Stranger Than Fiction, which peaked at number 87 on the Billboard 200, and spawned their well-known hit singles "21st Century (Digital Boy)" and "Infected". That album also became the only Bad Religion album to obtain gold status in the US. Following Gurewitz's departure in 1994, Graffin took over the majority of the songwriting duties, which lasted for the next three albums. Gurewitz rejoined in 2001, making Bad Religion a six-piece band, and contributed to their four most recent albums (the last being 2010's The Dissent of Man). They are particularly known for their use of soaring 3 part vocal harmonies (which they refer to in their album liner notes as the "oozin' aahs"), sophisticated and intellectual lyrics, and political or religious commentary. Their lyrics often relate to matters of social responsibility.

History

Formation and early career (1979–1982)

Bad Religion was formed in Los Angeles in 1979 by high school students Greg Graffin (vocals, keyboards), Jay Bentley (bass), Jay Ziskrout (drums), and Brett Gurewitz, also known as "Mr. Brett" (guitar). James O'Hanlon from New York filled in on guitar briefly as well while Brett was in the hospital with a broken leg. The band's major influences stemmed from earlier punk acts such as The Ramones, The Adolescents, Black Flag, The Germs, and The Sex Pistols. Outside of the punk scene, their influences ranged from Elvis Costello, The Jam, and Nick Lowe to authors like Jack Kerouac. Greg Graffin called his influences "pop sounding rock tunes that were not necessarily commercial."

Bad Religion considers their first show to be held in 1980, opening for Social Distortion in Fullerton, CA, at a warehouse.

In 1981, the band released their eponymous debut EP on the newly-formed label, Epitaph Records, which was and continues to be managed and owned by Gurewitz. 1982 saw the release of their first full-length album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, gaining the band a sizable following. During the recording of How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Jay Ziskrout left the band and was replaced by Peter Finestone.

Into the Unknown, Back to the Known and hiatus (1983–1985)

In 1983, the band released Into the Unknown, a keyboard-driven progressive rock album that was enormously unpopular with the band's core fanbase. It is now officially out of print, after almost all of the 10,000 copies were surreptitiously sold out of the warehouse they were being stored in by Gurewitz's ex-girlfriend, Suzy Shaw (who currently runs Bomp Records). The record has since become a collectors item, and has also gained acceptance from some fans. It can be seen going for more than $100 on eBay.

Also in 1983, the Mystic Records compilation album "The Sound Of Hollywood, Vol. 2" was released featuring two Bad Religion songs- "Every Day" and "Waiting For The Fire" which continued in the mellow acoustic/keyboard direction of the previous album. Every Day is exclusive to this vinyl-only release which has been out of print for many years, while Waiting For The Fire is available on the "It Ain't My War!" compilation available on iTunes.

In 1984, Greg Hetson of Circle Jerks fame, who had played the guitar solo for "Part III" on How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, teamed up with Graffin on the song "Running Fast" for the soundtrack of the film Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. Originally credited to Greg Greg on the initial release, the 1997 CD reissue lists the artist as Greg Graffin and Greg Hetson. Soon after, Graffin reassembled Bad Religion with Hetson replacing Gurewitz, who had gone into rehab for his drug problem. Bad Religion returned to a somewhat mellower, rock and roll version of their original sound with the Back to the Known EP, but disbanded temporarily soon after.

In 1985, Brett Gurewitz released a 5-song EP on Epitaph Records under the name The Seeing Eye Gods. This psychedelic influenced record is long out of print and has never been released on CD.

Reunion and Suffer (1986–1988)

Bad Religion slowly reformed in 1986 out of the Back to the Known lineup when Greg Graffin called Jay Bentley and asked him to return. Bentley's response was tentative, but after being assured that the setlist consisted mostly of tracks from How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, he agreed to return for one show, and ended up staying on because he had so much fun. A freshly rehabilitated Gurewitz was eventually convinced to come back aboard, and with Pete Finestone returning on drums and Greg Hetson on second guitar, Bad Religion was back.

The reunited band released their long-awaited third album Suffer in 1988, cementing their comeback in the punk community. Not only is this album often cited as one of their very best by fans, but it is credited with "saving" the Southern California punk rock scene by fans and Bad Religion's contemporaries alike.

No Control, Against the Grain and Generator (1989–1992)

During the Suffer tour in 1988, Bad Religion began writing "albums worth of material. In early 1989, while the band was on a brief break from their Suffer tour, they decided to commence work on their next album and entered the Westbeach Recorders studio in June of that year to record it. The resulting album, No Control, was released in November 1989, and ended up selling more than 60,000 copies.[16] By the time it was released, the band had become one of the most critically-praised hardcore punk bands of the time, in spite of lack of mainstream success.

Bad Religion's hardcore punk style continued with their next album, Against the Grain, which was released in 1990. While the album still did not break the band into mainstream audiences, it was the first 100,000 seller, and showed how quickly they were growing. "21st Century (Digital Boy)", one of the tracks off the album, is generally regarded as the band's most well-known song, and has been played at almost every live show.

Drummer Pete Finestone left Bad Religion again in April 1991 to focus on his other band, The Fishermen, which had signed with a major label, and Bobby Schayer joined the band as his replacement. In May 1991, Bad Religion entered the Westbeach Recorders studio to begin recording material for their sixth studio album, Generator, which was not released until March 1992. The album was recorded almost live in the studio, because, at the time, Gurewitz had moved Westbeach to larger premises, and for the first time, the entire band could play in the studio at the same time. He stated that it was "time to change" and the band "did it in a different studio, but as far as the songwriting, it was a deliberate effort to try something different". To accompany the album, Bad Religion filmed their first music video "Atomic Garden", which was also their first song to be released as a single.

To coincide with the band's success, Bad Religion released a compilation album, 80–85, in 1991. It is a repackaging of their debut album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, their two EPs, Bad Religion and Back to the Known and the band's three track contributions to the Public Service EP. This compilation did not include Into the Unknown. 80–85 is now out of print and has been replaced by the 2004 re-issued version of How Could Hell Be Any Worse? with the same track listings.

Mainstream success and departure of Gurewitz (1993–1995)

With alternative rock and grunge breaking into the mainstream, Bad Religion decided to leave Epitaph for Atlantic Records in 1993 and quickly re-released their seventh full-length studio album Recipe for Hate on the label that same year. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, the album finally broke Bad Religion into mainstream audiences and got their highest U.S. chart position to date, debuting at #14 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, with "American Jesus" and "Struck a Nerve" in particular becoming major rock radio hits at their time. Also in 1993, the band recorded the song "Leaders and Followers" (which later appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese version of their next album) for the soundtrack for the Kevin Smith film, Clerks.

Recipe for Hate was followed up by Bad Religion's eighth studio album Stranger Than Fiction. The album met high critical reception upon its release in September 1994, and subsequently became their most successful album, scoring hits with "Infected" and a re-recording of "21st Century (Digital Boy)", which was originally released on Against the Grain. The album was Bad Religion's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at number 87, and was awarded gold certification on 4 March 1998 for sales of over half a million copies. Before the release of Stranger Than Fiction, Gurewitz left the band. He officially cited the reason for his departure as the increasing amount of time he was needed at Epitaph as The Offspring (who had just released Smash to unexpected success and acclaim) became one of the biggest bands of the mid-1990s, but it was well known that his departure was not on good terms. Gurewitz, along with many fans, accused the band of selling out for leaving Epitaph to seek greater financial success despite the fact that Gurewitz was making millions off of The Offspring alone.

As tensions increased, Graffin would sing alternate lyrics during concerts such as "I want to know where Brett gets his crack" or "I want to know why Gurewitz cracked," on the song "Stranger Than Fiction".These barbs referred to Gurewitz's struggles with crack, heroin and other addictions which plagued him for years. Brett discussed his drug use in an interview on the band's Suffer Tour documentary, Along the Way, and is now clean and sober. In response, Gurewitz recorded a song with his new band The Daredevils entitled "Hate You", reportedly directed towards Jay Bentley.

Gurewitz was replaced as a guitarist by Brian Baker, a former member of bands such as Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, and Junkyard. Since Greg Graffin and Gurewitz had split songwriting duties, Graffin was now Bad Religion's primary songwriter.

Post-Gurewitz period (1996–2000)

Bad Religion continued touring and recording without Brett Gurewitz and released three more albums for Atlantic, starting with The Gray Race (1996), produced by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek. Despite never garnering the amount of attention that Stranger Than Fiction received, it would score Bad Religion a minor U.S. radio hit with the song "A Walk" as well as the European release of "Punk Rock Song" (sung in both English and German).The band would find its greatest success in Europe, where the album would reach the German music charts at #6 and score the band their first European gold record for sales in Scandinavia alone.

In 1998, Bad Religion released their tenth full-length album, No Substance, produced by Alex Perialas, Ronnie Kimball and the band themselves. While the album was anticipated by both music critics and fans as a result of the band's previous worldwide successes with Stranger Than Fiction and The Gray Race, it was given mixed reviews by critics and fans. Following the release of No Substance, the band embarked on a year-long tour. They were supposed to play with The Offspring in Argentina in 1999, and while Bad Religion was flying to Buenos Aires, they were told that The Offspring refused to play, so this never happened. The Offspring have yet to explain to Bad Religion why they did that, but they suspect it was The Offspring being petty, wanting to be the headliners, and not wanting to share the stage with Bad Religion, as Greg Graffin explained in a radio interview in Buenos Aires in 2001.

In 1999, Gurewitz reunited with Graffin to co-write a song together, called "Believe It", which would appear on their next album, The New America (2000). For it, Todd Rundgren, an early musical inspiration for Graffin, was brought in to produce. "Todd was kind of an underground sensation back in 1974. Here's a guy who was making pop music but in a way that you wouldn't hear on the radio. So much of my early musical identity was wrapped up in the way he conducted himself." In the summer of 2000, they set out on a three month US arena tour opening for Blink-182. Unfortunately, the experience might not have been all that Greg and the rest of the band might have hoped. Interest in recording the record waned, due to Rundgren's poor attitude. Jay Bentley reflects on this by saying, "I didn't feel we were going anywhere and so did Greg. Todd didn't like Greg and that made Greg so mad! He met his idol and he was a jerk! I don't think Todd gave a shit about anything." However, Greg Graffin later writes in his book, Anarchy Evolution, that although Todd Rundgren was difficult to work with, he and Greg are friends to this day. Meanwhile, Bobby Schayer left the band following a serious shoulder injury and was replaced by Brooks Wackerman (Suicidal Tendencies).

Bad Religion departed from Atlantic Records in 2001 and returned to Epitaph.

Reunion with Gurewitz (2001–2004)

In 2001, Brett Gurewitz rejoined the band. The expanded six-piece lineup then recorded and released The Process of Belief (2002). Graffin states, "there was a little bit of disappointment on my part when he left the band, but we never had any serious acrimony between the two of us. I can't say the same for the rest of the band. But he and I, being the songwriters from way back, we really wanted to try again."

Their next album, The Empire Strikes First, was released in June 2004. Like The Process of Belief, it is widely regarded by fans as a return to the faster punk-style songwriting that some felt was less prominent in the band's music during their time on Atlantic.

In April 2004, the band also re-released digitally-remastered versions of all of their first six studio albums on Epitaph Records (except Into the Unknown). The How Could Hell Be Any Worse? re-issue, though reclaiming the original title of the band's debut LP, contained all of the same material as the previously issued 80–85 compilation, including their first EP, the Public Service EP (with different versions of the songs Bad Religion, Slaves, and Drastic Actions than the self-titled EP) and the "Back To The Known" EP. To coincide with the reissues, they also released their long-out of print live VHS Along the Way on DVD for the first time. Though Recipe for Hate was released on Epitaph, the album could not be reissued; due to the fact that it was re-issued on Atlantic, problems with the rights ownership made a reissue unlikely.

New Maps of Hell (2005–2008)

On 7 March 2006, a live DVD, Live at the Palladium was released. This DVD featured a live show performed in late 2004 at the Hollywood Palladium, as well as extensive interviews, several music videos, and a photo gallery. During one of the interview segments, guitarist Brett Gurewitz said the band's next album would be a double length release, but this turned out not to be the case.

Greg Graffin released his second solo album, Cold as the Clay, on 11 July 2006.

Bad Religion's fourteenth studio album, New Maps of Hell, was released on 10 July 2007. On 29 June of that year (Greg Hetson's 46th birthday), Epitaph Records started selling New Maps of Hell at the Warped Tour in Pomona, California. The album was a commercial success and spawned three hit singles "Honest Goodbye", "Heroes and Martyrs", and "New Dark Ages", and as a result, New Maps of Hell reached number 35 on the Billboard 200, marking Bad Religion's highest ever chart position. Bad Religion also joined the 2007 Warped Tour to support the album.

Hetson formed a supergroup band called Black President, consisting of Charlie Paulson (from Goldfinger), Jason Christopher, Wade Youman (both from Unwritten Law) and Christian Martucci (from Dee Dee Ramone).

In early March 2008, Bad Religion played several-night residences at House of Blues venues in Southern California as well as Las Vegas. They also played at the KROQ Weenie Roast (y Fiesta) on 17 May along such bands as Flobots, Metallica, The Offspring, Pennywise, Rise Against, and Scars on Broadway. Following that, they performed four European festival appearances in May and June.

On 8 July 2008, Bad Religion released their first-ever deluxe edition CD, a reissue of then-current album New Maps of Hell. The deluxe version includes the original 16 song CD, along with seven new acoustic tracks recorded by Graffin (vocals) and Gurewitz (guitars/back vocals). Three of the acoustic songs are new, written specifically for this release; the other four tracks are new acoustic versions of BR songs. The release also includes a DVD with an hour-long live performance, music videos, and behind-the-scenes footage.

30 Years Live, The Dissent of Man and beyond (2009–present)

In June 2008, Jay Bentley said in an interview at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, Netherlands that Gurewitz had already begun writing new material for the next Bad Religion album. Bentley stated that the band was planning to return to the studio after Graffin teaches UCLA to start work on the follow-up to New Maps of Hell planned for a June 2009 release. However, according to a December 2008 report on the fan site The Bad Religion Page, Bentley revealed that due to Bad Religion's upcoming touring commitments for 2009, the band would not have a chance to record their new album until around the end of the year, for an expected 2010 release date.

In August 2009, guitarist Brett Gurewitz sent an e-mail to a fan site mentioning he was writing new material for the next Bad Religion album.

In December 2009, Bentley revealed to the fan site The Bad Religion Page that the band was expected to go into the studio on 26 April 2010 to start recording their new album. He stated that a few songs for the album had been written and "it feels like the songwriting is picking up momentum. Baker said he was going to drive up to Graffin's, Brooks and I are going to do some demos with Brett, so we have a pretty good jump." According to Brett's Twitter, Bad Religion is aiming for a fall release of the new album. In January 2010, Bentley revealed that Bad Religion would record their new album at a studio in Pasadena, California with Joe Barresi, who engineered 2004's The Empire Strikes First and produced its 2007 follow-up New Maps of Hell. Despite the statement made by Bentley about entering the studio in April, he noted that the recording date was now 1 May.[37] On 6 April 2010, Bentley revealed in an interview with KROQ's Kevin and Bean that the date on which the band would record their new album is now 6 May.

Bad Religion toured Southern California and Nevada House of Blues locations, in March & April. To commemorate their 30th anniversary Bad Religion played a 30 day tour, playing a 30 song set each night.

They also have plans for a tour of Europe from June to August.

To coincide with the band's 30th anniversary tour, Bad Religion announced a live album called 30 Years Live, which was a released as a free download for those who had signed up on the mailing list at Bad Religion's website. It consists of songs recorded during their House of Blues tour during March and April 2010 which also includes some new songs from their 15th studio album, before the new album was released. 30 Years Live was released on 18 May 2010.

At the House of Blues concert in Anaheim, California on 17 March 2010, the band debuted a new song called "Resist-Stance", which will appear on their upcoming album and is included on 30 Years Live.

On 1 May 2010, Brett posted an update on his Twitter saying, "threw me a going away [to the studio] party and all my friends hung with me tonight – thx everybody, I love you guys." This adds fuel to the possibility of the band's new album being recorded the first week of May. According to a report on thebrpage.net, the band started recording on 5 May 2010.

On 12 May 2010 (which happened to be Brett's 48th birthday), bassist Jay Bentley posted an update on their Facebook page regarding the recording process of the album: "first week of recording at joe's house of compression and brooks gets the medal for superasskicking. brian has finished 14 basics... a couple more to go. i started getting some good bass sounds late, late last night, the liver wins the shootout again. brett is playing late night tracks on his birthday, some way to celebrate! happy birthday bg! quote of the day; BG "what percentage of the sound is coming from the snakeskin?". haha... working of album titles and ideas today. it's all coming together. joe says the corn flavored kit kats are gross, but the wasabi ones are quite delicious.... get back to work. work work work. will send photo's soon".

In June 2010, The Bad Religion Page reported that the new album would be released on September 28, 2010. Jay (who goes by jabberwock in The Bad Religion Page) mentioned in the site's message board that Bad Religion had finished recording their new album and was mixing it. In an interview at the Azkena Rock Festival on June 26, 2010, the band members announced that the new album would be called The Dissent of Man.

On August 30, 2010 the album version of the song "The Resist Stance" was released on Bad Religion's MySpace page.

On September 21, 2010 the full album was made available for streaming on Bad Religion's MySpace page.

On 7 October 2010, The band began a North American tour that will continue through early 2011.

The Dissent Of Man was released on September 28, 2010. The album debuted at #35 on the billboard 200 chart and at #6 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart.

On 18 October 2010 Bad Religion released a Vinyl box set of all their albums that is limited to 3000 copies, including Into The Unknown, the first time the album has been officially reissued.

Style and influences

Brett Gurewitz acknowledges attempting to emulate The Germs singer Darby Crash early on in Bad Religion's lyrical style. "He wrote some intelligent stuff, and didn't shy away from the vocabulary, which I thought was cool." In addition to their use of unusually sophisticated vocabulary for a punk band, Bad Religion is also known for their frequent use of vocal harmonies. They took their cues from The Adolescents, in the way that they used three-part harmonies. Bassist Jay Bentley says, "Seeing The Adolescents live, it was so brilliant. So, in a way, the Adolescents influenced us into saying we can do it too, because look, they're doing it."

Many of Bad Religion's songs are about different social ills, although they try not to ascribe the causes of these ills to any single person or group. Greg Graffin believes that the current political situation in the United States can make it difficult to voice these concerns, as he doesn't want to feed the polarization of viewpoints.

The band contributed a song to the Rock Against Bush series organized by Fat Mike's Punkvoter, a political activist group and website whose supporters are primarily left-liberal members of the punk subculture.

Brett Gurewitz attributed his anger towards former U.S. president George W. Bush as the major inspiration for The Empire Strikes First. "Our whole album is dedicated to getting Bush out of office. I'm not a presidential scholar but I don't think you'll find a worse president in the history of the United States. He's probably one of the worst leaders in the history of world leaders. I just hate the guy."

In 2008, while at the San Diego, California stop of the Vans Warped Tour, the band autographed a Gibson Guitar for the non-profit Music Saves Lives and assisted in their goal of raising the nation's blood supply.

Many of today's punk groups cite Bad Religion as an influence, including AFI, All, Authority Zero, The Bouncing Souls, Death by Stereo, Lagwagon, NOFX, The Offspring, Pennywise, and Rise Against.

Religion

Faith in your partner, your fellow men, your friends, is very important, because without it there's no mutual component to your relationship, and relationships are important. So faith plays an important role, but faith in people you don't know, faith in religious or political leaders or even people on stages, people who are popular in the public eye, you shouldn't have faith in those people. You should listen to what they have to say and use it.– Greg Graffin

Despite the name of the band, or the band's logo, the members do not consider themselves antitheist. Singer Greg Graffin states that more often than not, the band prefers to use religion as a metaphor for anything that doesn't allow for an individual's freedom to think or express themselves as they choose. In this way, their songs are more about anti-religion. Contrary to popular belief, Greg Graffin does not identify himself as an atheist, but chooses to identify as a naturalist.

Wired Magazine came out with a big exposé of "the new atheists". Uh.. I was interviewed for it—and yet I think I was included as a sidebar but not as a main feature and I think the main reason they did that was because they noticed that I wasn’t that happy billing myself as an atheist. To me it just doesn’t say that much; it doesn’t say much about you. Um instead I bill myself as a naturalist, which I think says a lot more. Uh because a naturalist is uh someone who.. first of all—they study natural science, and they have a hopeful message—I think—to send to the world, which is.. we can agree on what the truth is, but it has to be through verification, discovery—and uh, well it has to be through experimentation, verification, and new discoveries, followed by more verification. So.. if we can agree that—on those terms—if we can agree on those terms, we can agree that the truth changes, based on new discoveries, and the structure of science is such that you can never be so sure of something, because a new discovery can rework the framework—uh it can reconstruct the framework of your science and you have to look at the world differently. That makes it a very dynamic and exciting place to be. And if you say "you're an atheist", it's not really saying much about how you came to that conclusion. But if you say "you're a naturalist", I think it says something. You've—You've reached that point because uh you've studied science, because you believe there's a uh.. fundamental way of looking at the world that is part of a long tradition. And so, I prefer naturalist. – Greg Graffin

Despite this, he did co-author the book Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?, which is based on a series of lengthy debates about science and religion between Graffin and historian Preston Jones. In 2010, Graffin released Anarchy Evolution, in which he promotes his naturalist worldview.

The band's bassist Jay Bentley has stated that he has spiritual beliefs. Brett Gurewitz is a "provisional deist."

In the media and legacy

Bad Religion appeared once on Late Show with David Letterman in 1994, twice on The Jon Stewart Show in 1994 and 1995, twice on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn in 2000 and 2002 and Late Night with Conan O'Brien five times in 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002, and 2007. In the early days, Bad Religion appeared twice on the New Wave Theatre in 1981 and 1982. During the 90's, MTV sponsored their The Gray Race Tour. They were considered a "classic" band on MTV's 120 Minutes, appearing a number of times live on the show. They also appeared on MTV's Most Wanted in 1995. Frontman Greg Graffin appeared three times on Politically Incorrect in 1994, 1996, and 2000. In 1993, one of their concerts at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago, IL was featured on JBTV. In 2010, the band was featured on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly about their 30 year anniversary. In 2004, Brett and Jay from the band were featured on CNNfn's show The Biz. In the comic book "Blackheart Billy" by Rick Remender, the story a guy who had trouble letting go of the 1980s hardcore punk scene, Bad Religion is constantly referenced through their Crossbuster logo on the main character's jacket and poster in his room.

Bad Religion music has appeared in movies such as Clerks, The Chase, Glory Daze, The Hammer, Eyeborgs and Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator. Bad Religion's "Crossbuster" logo appears in Juno, SLC Punk!, 8mm and Helmiä ja sikoja. Posters for The Empire Strikes First appear in Superbad, Strange Wilderness, Kids in America, Special, Dishdogz, Lilla Jönssonligan och stjärnkuppen and Fifty Pills. A Bad Religion poster appears in The Sentimental Engine Slayer. A Bad Religion sticker appears in The Ring and Cheaper By the Dozen. A poster for Recipe for Hate appears in PCU. Two Bad Religion songs appear in the 2000 short movie entitled "What to Do?". On TV, Bad Religion's song "New America" appeared in the final episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 and "Portrait of Authority" was in an episode of Lizzie McGuire. During the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, a guitar riff from "New America" was played before it cut to commercials. A sample of "Infected" was played during a commercial for Vans Warped Tour 2009. In an episode of Las Vegas, Piper requests that she has Saturday off because Bad Religion are in town and she has "killer tickets". A poster for The Empire Strikes First appears in an episode of Zoey 101. A Bad Religion poster appears in an episode of Weird Science. A boy wears a Bad Religion t-shirt in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In an episode of The Gilmore Girls, Graffin's master in biology and his PhD in evolutionary biology are used as examples of how college and rock n' roll go together. A poster for Recipe for Hate appears in the music video to Back to School (Mini Maggit) by Deftones.

In video games, Bad Religion songs have made it into Crazy Taxi, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk Underground, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Tony Hawk's Project 8, NCAA Football 2006, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, NHL 2K9 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. A cover of "Infected" (from Stranger Than Fiction) appears in Guitar Hero and is downloadable for Guitar Hero 2. The song "21st Century (Digital Boy)" (from Against the Grain) is downloadable for Guitar Hero: World Tour. The songs "Sorrow" (from The Process of Belief), "21st Century (Digital Boy)" (from Against the Grain), New Dark Ages (from New Maps of Hell) and No Control (from No Control) appear as downloadable songs for both Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Bad Religion have been featured twice on ScrewAttack's Video Game Vault, once in the review for Crazy Taxi (which also featured some Bad Religion music in the background) and again in a review for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. A Crossbuster can be seen on ScrewAttack's "Top 10: Local Multiplayer Games (Console Edition)". Bad Religion were also featured in GameTrailers' review of Tony Hawk: Project 8.

The Los Angeles modern rock radio station KROQ listed Bad Religion at #39 in the "top 106.7 biggest KROQ bands of all time" memorial for six years in a row, and #70 at the "Top 166 Artists of 1980–2008" list.

Alternative Press did a Top Ten Singles of the Decade list in 2009. It was a list for the 2000s. "Los Angeles Is Burning" came in at number 90 and "Sorrow" came in at number 56.

The Crossbuster

Bad Religion's logo has been referred to by fans as the "Crossbuster". It features a black cross with a red prohibition sign over it. It was created by guitarist Brett Gurewitz by drawing it on a piece of paper and showing it to the rest of the band. They supposedly thought it would be a good way to annoy their parents.

In the live documentary Along the Way, frontman Greg Graffin claimed to regret choosing that as their symbol because it may put off a lot of religious people who he feels could benefit from listening to Bad Religion. When bassist Jay Bentley was asked about it in the same documentary, he claimed it was a symbol meant to "piss off our parents" and that it was "something easy to put on t-shirts and for kids to spray paint on walls"; when people ask him what it means, he says, "whatever you think it means". Guitarist Greg Hetson claims in the documentary that it stands for anti-establishment.

Brian Baker, who joined the band later in their career, sums it up as follows:

“The name Bad Religion and the crossbuster logo came to pass in the minds of two fifteen year olds who were trying to find the most offensive name and image they could possibly find for the punk band they were starting in their garage… These are not people who thought that 21 years later they would be on the telephone doing interviews.”

The Crossbuster caused controversy in Russia when a religious group found a shop in Moscow selling Bad Religion posters.

A lot of Bad Religion merchandise including hats, t-shirts, and hoodies contain the Crossbuster. The logo was also used on the covers for their early EPs, 1981's self-titled and 1985's Back to the Known, and the disc for New Maps of Hell. It can also be found on other Bad Religion albums including Suffer (on the back of the boy on fire's t-shirt), No Substance (on Kristen Johnston's right breast, behind one of the actors playing a TV host and on a woman's fingernails), The Process of Belief (inside the booklet there is a small one mixed with all the other symbols) and on 30 Years Live (replacing the zero in 30).