TEAM LAST CALL

"If someone wants to theoretically call me a punk granddaddy, that's OK," Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley chuckles. "Punk granddaddy? Fine. That old fart? Fine. Superfreak? Bring it on!"

On the eve of their 25th anniversary, Bad Religion are certainly the pater familias of the punk household. But old and feeble they are not. In fact, the political punkers have just released what might be the most vibrant and brutally poignant batch of songs of their career. The Empire Strikes First, packed with blistering anthems and furious, two-minute diatribes, is a poisonous dart aimed straight at the heart of the American beast. Bentley refers to it unequivocally as the best of Bad Religion's career.

"Obviously the current administration has given us nothing but fodder for our cannon," Bentley says. "And [frontman Greg Graffin] got his PhD last summer and his thesis that he turned in was on religion and its effects on mankind. So, between those two things, we just came out with a plethora of material to choose from lyrically, and it just kind of all fell together."

The Empire Strikes First is explicit in its purpose, even for a band like Bad Religion from which technicolor commentary on power, corruption and war is expected. "These times demand it," Bentley insists. "I want to make no mistake that people know exactly what I'm talking about. We were pretty blatant about saying things like, 'The empire strikes first,' which is fairly self-explanatory. Except I do get the question every now and then, 'Who is the empire?' I get a good giggle out of that.

"To be honest with you, on a record like this, you're kind of sticking your neck out," he adds. "You could be the punk rock Dixie Chicks and have everybody up your ass hating you and not buying your record because you are a terrorist."

But what if people bulldoze copies of The Empire Strikes First into a big pile and set them on fire like they did with Dixie Chicks albums? "Fine. Fucking bulldoze 'em over. I'll make more," he laughs. The album is the band's second since the return of guitarist and songwriter Brett Gurewitz, who took a several-year hiatus to run the band's record label, Epitaph, home to punk mainstays like Rancid and the Offspring. His second coming helped to reestablish Bad Religion as a viable band just when things were starting to slip for the veteran rockers. Lots of people are calling it a comeback; Bentley is not one of them.

"A comeback I associate with a band that disappears for 15 years and then decides to get back together and put out an album and go on tour because they're out of money," he says. "You could say this is a return to form, in the sense of a band growing and shaping itself and always trying to figure out where it is and what it's doing. I would think of it more in that sense than anything else. "Having Brett come back and write again in his capacity is always a bonus for us. I just think that technically this is the best band we've ever been," Bentley gushes. "It's been a long road, and now it just feels like we're back to doing things for fun again." Most punk bands have the shelf-life of a milk carton. That being said, here is Bad Religion, 24 years later, as vital as ever. What's their secret? They're stubborn.

"For us, it probably leans more towards tenacity. We just wouldn't go away," Bentley laughs. "People wanted us to go away and we just wouldn't stop. It's true, right? If you just never go away, people eventually give in. Like, 'Oh, fine!'"

Bad Religion will head out on the road this summer to headline the Warped Tour as part of the 10-year anniversary celebration. The tour makes tangible the impact Bad Religion has had on the punk community; they're widely recognized as the most important band still active in the scene today. And there they'll be, playing papa to a hundred other bands that they've influenced to one degree or another. That's enough to make your head swell up if you're not careful. "I realize how fortunate I am as an individual to be allowed to do what I do, and that people actually pay attention to it. That's the mind-boggling part, is that anyone actually listens. But thinking that you're somehow or another special, responsible, unique, important - those things, I don't see the time for that right now," Bentley attests. "Maybe when I'm like 100, I can say to people that I used to be in Bad Religion, and then ask them if they want fries with that."
*Reprinted from Fly Magazine