Bad Religion

Win Butler says he will "forever give" Bono "credit" for "engaging with George W. Bush when he was president," no matter how much people slag the U2 frontman. We're less concerned about Bono as we are this codified endorsement of GWB by an "indie rocker." —NME

Kanye West might hate Twitter with every single part of his body and soul (even though he seems to have gotten an account), but he loves Facebook with all his heart. Proof? He debuted three new songs at Facebook's office (yes, their office) in Palo Alto, Calif. yesterday. Hope you enjoyed them and there wasn't any Auto-Tune, Mark Zuckerberg. —Rolling Stone

The death toll from the stampede at this weekend's disastrous Love Parade festival in Germany has risen to 20 after another person died in hospital yesterday. —ABC News

Spoooooooonmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaa-aaaaaannnnnn! Soundgarden will play a pre-Lollapalooza gig in Chicago on Aug. 5. Break out your cargo shorts, grab your old flannel shirt, tie it around your waist and make sure your hair is down so you can whip it the fuck all over everywhere and annoy everyone around you. —Billboard

Bad Religion's new album, The Dissent Of Man, is out Sept. 28. The track listing is now online. —Blabbermouth

The white grand piano Elvis Presley kept at Graceland is being auctioned and is expected to fetch over $1 million U.S. (about $1.04 million Canadian). No, nobody died while playing it, you fucking creep. —BBC News

Rob Zombie is pissed off at Ozzy Osbourne for "stealing" his bandmates, calling Osbourne's tactics "shitty." Hey, Rob. Alice Cooper called. He said to stop stealing his look.

Tattoos and tequila indeed. Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was arrested for DUI in Las Vegas on Monday. —Associated Press

Just because Bono's injured doesn't mean The Edge can't show up at Glastonbury and play one of U2's songs on stage with Muse:

Daniel Lanois has been released from hospital following a motorcycle crash earlier this month and is now recovering at home. FMQB

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne called Barack Obama a "true rock 'n' roll president" at Glastonbury this weekend. —Spinner

Bad Religion's new album is called The Dissent Of Man. —Blabbermouth

Rob Zombie is to start recording new material next week with his new band, which includes former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5 and Slipknot drummer Joey #1 Jordison. —Blabbermouth

Ra Ra Riot will spend the rest of the year touring their asses off in support of their The Orchard sophomore album, which is out Aug. 24. —Brooklyn Vegan

Of Montreal's new album is called False Priest, and you can download its first single, "Sex Karma," for free. —Paste

Would bouncers at these upcoming Hatebreed shows do a better, more professional and more humane job of handling the crowd than the police in Toronto this weekend? You decide. —Blabbermouth

Triumph's "Lay It On The Line" will be used in Adam Sandler's upcoming movie Grown Ups. Appropriate... both peaked a couple decades ago. —Blabbermouth

Rush's Geddy Lee has optioned the film and television rights to Dave Bidini's Baseballisimo, which is about Bidini's travels to Nettuno, Italy (dubbed Italy's "baseball capital since 1944"). —Quill And Quire

XM's The Verge has revealed its most-played artists of 2010 thusfar. Sloan are at the top of the pack, with 1,666 plays, proving they're more satanic than you think. Metric, The New Pornographers, The Zolas (what the fuck?), Zeus, Hot Hot Heat, Tegan And Sara, Tokyo Police Club, Sam Roberts and Broken Social Scene are also in the top 10. —Facebook

My Morning Jacket Carl Broemel (a.k.a. NOT Jim James) will release his All Birds Say solo album on Aug. 31. —Tennessean

Chromeo don't want you to turn the lights on. We'll let you decide why that is. Get their new single here.

Vans has got a free download of a live version of Bad Religion's "Suffer," which was recorded for the California punks' upcoming 30 Years Live free live album, due out May 18.

To get "Suffer," you just have to point your browser over here.

If you want to get 30 Years Live, you simply have to sign up for Bad Religion's mailing list. They'll send you instructions on May 18 about how to download the album.

30 Years Live was recorded during Bad Religion's House Of Blues tour, which ran from mid-March to mid-April 2010. The track listing hasn't been confirmed yet, but you can obviously expect it to include tunes released throughout the band's history.

Here's the trailer for 30 Years:

Bad Religion are recording their as-yet-untitled 15th studio album, which guitarist Brett Gurewitz says should be out this fall. They're working with Joe Barresi (The Melvins, Fu Manchu), who produced 2007's New Maps Of Hell.

Bad Religion will spend June to August touring Europe.

You can see vocalist Greg Graffin, Gurewitz, guitarists Greg Hetson and Brian Baker, bassist Jay Bentley and drummer Brooks Wackerman here:

June 4 Nuremberg, Germany @ Frankenstadion (Rock Im Park)
June 6 Nurburg, Germany @ Nurburgring (Rock Am Ring)
June 7 Bielefeld, Germany @ Ringlokschuppen
June 8 Berlin, Germany @ Huxley's
June 9 Hamburg, Germany @ Docks
June 11 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
June 12 Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
June 13 Rome, Italy @ Atlantico
June 15 Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg @ Rockhal
June 16 Paris, France @ Le Bataclan
June 17 Gothenburg, Sweden @ Frihamnen (West Coast Riot)
June 26 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain @ Recinto Mendizabala (Azkena Rock Festival)
July 15 Bern, Switzerland @ Gurten Festival
July 17 Joensuu, Finland @ Liosaarirock
July 19 St. Petersburg, Russia @ Glav Club
July 20 Moscow, Russia @ Milk Club
July 22 Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller
July 24 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
July 26 Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
July 30 Malestroit, France @ La Daufresne (Festival Au Pont Du Rock)
July 31 Selestat, France @ Les Tanzmatten (Lez'Arts Sceniques)
Aug. 2 Munich, Germany @ Backstage-Werk
Aug. 4 Hannover, Germany @ Capitol
Aug. 8 Blackpool, England @ The Wintergardens (Rebellion Festivals)

Veteran punk rockers Bad Religion will celebrate their 30th anniversary by releasing a free live album.

30 Years Live will be recorded during their upcoming spring tour and will be available for free download through their website beginning May 18. They'll record the disc at their upcoming spring tour.

Bad Religion are "offering it as a free 'thank you' to the loyal fans who've been with [them] through all the sweat and mayhem," according to their website.

Fans who sign up to the band's mailing list will receive more details about how to get a copy of 30 Years Live later this spring.

Bad Religion will return to the studio in May to begin recording the follow-up to 2007's New Maps Of Hell. They'll be performing songs from the as-yet-untitled disc on the trek.

You can see singer Greg Graffin, guitarists Brett Gurewitz, Greg Hetson and Brian Baker, bassist Jay Bentley and drummer Brooks Wackerman here:

March 17-18 Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues Anaheim
March 19-21 San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues San Diego
March 24-25 Los Angeles, CA @ House Of Blues
March 26-27 Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues Las Vegas
March 31-April 2 Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues Anaheim
March 3-4 Los Angeles, AC @ House Of Blues Los Angeles
April 24 Meerhout, Belgium @ Groezrock Festival
April 25 Duisburg, Germany @ Landshaftspark Nord
June 4 Nuremberg, Germany @ Frankenstadion (Rock Im Park)
June 5 Nurburg, Germany @ Nurburgring (Rock Am Ring)
June 7 Bielefeld, Germany @ Ringlokschuppen
June 8 Berlin, Germany @ Huxley's
June 9 Hamburg, Germany @ Docks
June 11 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
June 12 Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
June 13 Rome, Italy @ Atlantico
June 17 Frihammen, Sweden @ West Coast Riot
July 17 Joensuu, Finland @ Loisaarirock

Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records founder Brett Gurewitz has obviously done pretty well for himself.

Gurewitz's West Hollywood, Calif. Spanish/Mediterranean-style estate is for sale for $2.795 million through Sotheby's Realty.

The three-storey, 319-square metre house was built in 1923 and sits at the end of a long, gated driveway, where it offers views of downtown Los Angeles. It includes four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a dressing room, a two-storey living room with a fireplace, a remodeled kitchen, terraces and a separate maid's suite.

The lushly landscaped grounds cover more than half-an-acre and feature an outdoor covered gym, dog run, saltwater pool and a spa surrounded by a waterfall, koi pond, dining pavilion, a large deck, a meditation site and a shared tennis court.

None of this sounds very punk rock, but good for Gurewitz.

First, there was Bad Religion's 1982 debut, How Could Hell Be Any Worse. Then there was last year's New Maps Of Hell. Now, Bad Religion are set to release a deluxe edition of the latter album through Epitaph on July 8.

New Maps Of Hell: Deluxe Edition features the original release's 16 tracks along with seven acoustic tracks performed by vocalist Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Three of those songs ("Won't Somebody," "Adam's Atoms" and "Chronophobia") were written specifically for the deluxe edition. The revamped album also comes with a DVD featuring an hour-long Bad Religion performance, videos for New Maps Of Hell's "Honest Goodbye" and "New Dark Ages," video of the acoustic recording session, liner notes and Bad Religion posters.

Graffin was recently given a lifetime achievement award for his commitment to atheism and science by Harvard University's Humanist Chaplaincy. In addition to fronting Bad Religion, Graffin holds a Ph.D. in geology from Cornell University and teaches life sciences at UCLA.

Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman recently filmed an episode of Guitar Center's Drum Pads, in which drummers show off their gear and discuss what they do at home and on the road. The episode is on YouTube in four installments.

Here's what's on New Maps Of Hell: Deluxe Edition:

"52 Seconds"
"Heroes And Martyrs"
"Germs Of Perfection"
"New Dark Ages"
"Requiem For Dissent"
"Before You Die"
"Honest Goodbye"
"Dearly Beloved"
"Grains Of Wrath"
"Murder"
"Scrutiny"
"Prodigal Son"
"The Grand Delusion"
"Lost Pilgrim"
"Submission Complete"
"Fields Of Mars""
Won't Somebody" (acoustic)
"Adam's Atoms" (acoustic)
"Sorrow" (acoustic)
"God Song" (acoustic)
"Dearly Beloved" (acoustic)
"Chronophobia" (acoustic)
"Skyscraper" (acoustic)

Punk progenitors Bad Religion's 14th studio album in 27 years, New Maps Of Hell, will hit the street on July 10 via Epitaph.

Lead single "Honest Goodbye" was influenced by the life of Perry Smith, one of the two murderers immortalized in Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood. The song can be heard on the band's MySpace page and will be put on sale as a digital download on June 12.

"I think we're reaching back to our roots as a garage band and doing some really aggressive music," says guitarist/co-songwriter Brett Gurewitz on the site. "But we're also trying to look forward and write some really interesting new rock songs."

After a long time away to focus on running Epitaph, Gurewitz rejoined Bad Religion for their past two albums. The current lineup also includes founding members Greg Graffin (singer/co-songwriter) and Jay Bentley (bass), as well as guitarists Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks) and Brian Baker (Minor Threat) and drummer Brooks Wackerman. The band recorded the LP in Los Angeles with producer Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age, The Melvins).

Catch Bad Religion on these Canadian stops of the Vans Warped Tour:
July 3 Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Stadium
July 5 Calgary, AB @ Race City Speedway
Aug. 11 Barrie, ON @ Burl's Creek Park
Aug. 12 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean-Drapeau

Here are the tracks on New Maps Of Hell:
"52 Seconds"
"Heroes & Martyrs"
"Germs Of Perfection"
"New Dark Ages"
"Requiem For Dissent"
"Before You Go"
"Honest Goodbye"
"Dearly Beloved"
"Grains Of Wrath"
"Murder""Scrutiny"
"Prodigal Son"
"The Grand Delusion"
"Lost Pilgrim"
"Submission Complete"
"Fields Of Mars"

If you're expecting the new Bad Religion album to drop before the end of the year, the band have a confession to make.

"We haven't started yet," admits bassist and founding member Jay Bentley, sounding a bit embarrassed. "We've been slacking. If you ever see the word 'slackers' in the dictionary, our picture is right next to it."

Though online posts by the band have stated that the as-yet-untitled new LP may arrive in stores in late fall, Bentley dismisses these with a laugh.

"We've been lying a lot. It's like, 'Did you do your homework?' Yeah... 'Did you finish that record?' No."

To make up for the lack of new material, BR are touring across Canada with friends the Dropkick Murphys, as well as Clit 45 and Canadian metalcore band Comeback Kid.

"It's an off year for us because we're supposed to be writing the new record," says Bentley. "It's been kind of a crazy, sporadic year where we've been playing a lot of one-off shows.

"Haven't really toured at all. Our friends in the Dropkick Murphys, we've been talking with them for a while about touring together, and we went over to England to play a bunch of festival shows with them, and while we were there we got to talking about it again.

"When we got home, I called our booking agent to see if maybe we could get something happening because it would be a lot of fun to do. The concept was, we could run across Canada, which everyone liked the idea of before winter sets in, and just go east to west with the Dropkick Murphys and take another couple of bands."

Though Bad Religion won't enter the studio until February, Bentley says that they already have a clear idea of the lyrical direction the new material will take.

"The Empire Strikes First was a record sort of dedicated to American politics. But now that's done, and to put out another record like that would just be flogging a dead horse. The most likely lyrical content will be back to talking about socio-political ideas and what it's like to be a human being, probably with a lot of, 'Now what do we do?' thrown in.

"I feel that in 2004, when we put our last record out, we wanted change, and that change didn't come. Now, that change is inevitable, but not in a positive light. It's the aftermath of a horrible atrocity, with the people who are responsible for it just walking away. No one ever feels good after that. It's basically feeling like you've just been assaulted."

The bassist feels that even after the current American administration is out of power, the country's people will be left with even more problems to deal with.

"I think we all kind of have that feeling like, 'What do we do now? Where do we go from here?' There's still no plan to deal with the Middle East structure. There's nothing. That seems to be the biggest deal. There are lots of smaller issues that this administration have basically just put upon the world, and people won't have any idea about until 10 years from now, and I think that's something that we've all talked about. It's paramount in all of our minds, that fear about what's going to happen now."

The band aim to make issues like the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the $300-billion U.S. deficit more understandable through songs that educate, not through self-righteous preaching.

"We've always had this concept of, 'How do you put this lifetime worth of emotion into a two-minute punk rock song?'" Bentley ponders. "You figure out a way. I can assure you that a square peg will fit into a round hole given a big enough hammer."

Here are Bad Religion's Canadian tour dates with Dropkick Murphys, Comeback Kid and Clit 45:

Sept. 20 Ottawa, ON @ Civic Centre
Sept. 21 London, ON @ John Labatt Centre
Sept. 22 Toronto, ON @ The Docks
Sept. 25 Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
Sept. 26 Saskatoon, SK @ Prairieland Park Trade Centre
Sept. 27 Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre
Sept. 28 Calgary, AB @ Calgary Corral
Sept. 30 Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum

Greg Graffin, the founding member and frontman for California punk band Bad Religion, is set to release his first solo album.

Cold As The Clay, which will come out on July 11 via Epitaph, is a bold departure from the high-octane, aggressive growl of Graffin's work with Bad Religion. Instead he hearkens back to his Wisconsin upbringing and family gatherings in Indiana that introduced him to traditional music.

"For most of my life, the old-time music of rural America has served as one of the soundtracks to my life and daily routines," say Graffin, who moved from the midwest to Los Angeles when he was 11.

Bad Religion have been a mainstay of the California punk scene since the early '80s. By infusing elements of psychedelia, hard rock and other genres into their punk arsenal, they ensured that each album remained distinguishable from the next. Graffin insists that traditional music heavily influenced his songwriting with Bad Religion.

"Most all our songs can be strummed on an acoustic guitar and sung without amplification like an old-time folk traditional."

For his solo debut, Graffin teamed up with songwriting partner and founding Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz — who initially came up with the concept of recording an album of old-time music — upon hearing Graffin play the standard, "Omie Wise." Both original and reworked traditional songs appear on Cold As The Clay, and Graffin says that he was heavily influenced by the ramshackle and rustic sounds of The Band, Neil Young and original alt.country outlaw Gram Parsons while making the record.

Graffin and Gurewitz are supported on the album by a talented cast of accompanying musicians, including The Weakerthans' Stephen Carroll, Greg Smith and Jason Tait. They were joined by backing vocalist Jolie Holland and Joe Wack (guitar), Chris Berry (guitar and banjo) and David Bragger (fiddle, banjo, mandolin). The album, produced by Epitaph founder Gurewitz, was recorded and mixed in seven days.

Here are the songs on Cold As The Clay:

"Don't Be Afraid To Run"
"Omie Wise"
"Cold As The Clay"
"Little Sadie"
"Highway"
"Rebel's Goodbye"
"Talk About Suffering"
"Willie Moore"
"California Cotton Fields"
"The Watchmakers Dial"
"One More Hill"

The prodigal sons are returning to their roots.

Legendary punk label Epitaph has done more than open its arms for Bad Religion. Label owner Brett Gurewitz is rejoining the band after an almost five-year absence in order to pursue further work with the Epitaph label.

While it's a reunion of sorts, Bad Religion admit they're pleased to be reunited with the guitarist and songwriter.

"Having Brett join the band and being back home on Epitaph are personally more significant to me than almost anything we have ever achieved as a band," said vocalist Greg Graffin in a press release. "Making albums with Brett is what we have done together since we were teenagers, sketching the Epitaph logo on scratchpads in my mom's living room after rehearsal..."

Bad Religion have already begun working on new songs for their next album and hope to make it into the studio this summer to begin recording. If all goes well, Bad Religion fans might see the new album out before the end of the year. It'll be the first new album since last year's release of New America.

Meanwhile, those dirty, dirty punks will be touring in Europe in June and July.