Drastic Actions

There have been a few records from Tim's old collection that have carried a higher price tag than I'm used to spending, and I've been on the fence if I should pull the trigger on them or not. In every instance where I stepped up and threw money out the window for a classic record, like Social Distortion or Minor Threat, I've never regretted the decision... while I still kick myself for letting The Smiths Hatful Of Hollow with a misprint sleeve go because I thought it was too expensive. So when I saw the first Bad Religion EP 12 inch available from Tim's collection, I again started wringing my hands over the price.

The Bad Religion EP is such a classic punk record and one that I needed in my collection regardless of the price. The original 7 inch pressing of this carries a much higher price tag, and while the 12 inch reissue from 1984 is still expensive, it is a price that I am much more comfortable paying.

I was really not going to find this record in better condition, so it was money well spent.

Change Of Ideas

As a kid growing up in the 80's, I didn't have a lot of resources at my fingertips to help guide me when it came to checking out new music. We didn't have the internet. I didn't have an older brother to point me in the right direction. Most of my friends weren't into heavy music, and if they were, they weren't really taking any lead to discover new bands unless I put the cassette in their hands. And on top of that, I was in the musical wasteland of Maine, so I was basically alone out there as I'd stumble my way around record stores at the mall, desperate to find the heaviest and fastest music there was. Initially, I was left to gamble on album covers that looked cool..."Hey, who is this band Savatage? I don't know, but the album cover is a picture of some fist smashing through glass, and there are songs named Necrophilia and Skull Session, so let's check it out."...and then a couple years later, it was offensive and obnoxious band names like Dead Kennedys, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles or Dayglo Abortions that were drawing me to check out new stuff...so when I saw the CD for a band named Bad Religion at the mall back in '89, I figured that I'd roll the dice.

When I first heard the No Control album, I didn't know what to make of it. Sure it was fast and aggressive, but there was so much melody that I was thrown off, and I couldn't get my thrash metal head around it. Lyrically, it kept pulling me back in, and with repeat listens it finally sank it's hooks in me.

I've been wanting to pick up an original pressing for a long time now. I figured that it would be pretty easy to cross off the list, but for some reason, there aren't a lot of US sellers that have one available through Discogs. Sure, I could grab a copy from some dude in Italy, but it seemed like a waste to pay for overseas shipping on a record that I expected to be readily available in the US. After watching them come and go in my Discogs alerts for a couple years, I decided to finally just make a move and get the job done.

30 Years Live

There was a time when I loved Bad Religion up through Generator, but time has narrowed my view, and lately if you'd have asked me, I would have told you that the band only had three albums that were worth a damn...the first one, Suffer and No Control. That was it. Everything else wasn't really worth my time.

I hadn't listened to Bad Religion very much over the past couple of years, but when I was recently stuck in a 1990 playlist, I decided to give Against The Grain a casual listen. I didn't expect it to move me very much, but much to my surprise, that album really sunk it's hooks in me, and I was listening to it daily.

At one point in my life, I had a Bad Religion Against The Grain shirt from the one time that I'd seen them live back in the early 90's. I hadn't worn that shirt for probably 10 years, but seeing how I was currently obsessed with the band, I wanted to dig it out and wear it. The problem was, I couldn't find it anywhere.

Desperately needing a t-shirt fix, I hit up the Bad Religion store. I was really digging the "Television" design, and noticed there was a package deal with the shirt and a copy of the new live album.

Celebrating a 30 year career, there were a lot of songs on this album that I wasn't familiar with at all. I was so obsessed with the band, that I figured that I'd take a chance on it, and maybe find some hidden gems that would shine through in the live setting.

The gamble pays off, because this album is great. You know, I'm not really into the live album format, but here it works, and has got me thinking that I've got to dig into those albums post-Generator.