Twenty years now and counting, to be exact. Greg Graffin is a smarter punk songsmith than, well, than anyone, really. Graffin holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology, a master's of science degree in geology and is currently completing his Ph.D. in zoology at Cornell. He and his bandmates also offer up the annual Bad Religion Scholarship Fund for Field-Oriented Investigations in Cultural or Natural Sciences. Oh, yeah, in the meantime they've put out 14 albums.
Many bands wave the punk banner to account for sloppy playing and production.
Bad Religion's latest, The New America , features neither. The singing is up front, the playing is tight and the production and mix by Todd Rundgren and Bob Clearmountain is at stellar pitch.