Stranger than Fiction: My accidental introduction to one of my favorite bands

I found about these guys because of Columbia House; which you will likely be unaware of unless you are North American and over 30.

Columbia House used to spam our mailboxes before email existed with a flyer or brochure claiming you could receive 12 albums for 1 cent. This was true in a way but you had to pay shipping and handling and that's where the con is on you because we all know what shipping is; but "handling?" What is that?

I put stuff in these 3 boxes. That'll be $700

Columbia House was still a pretty good deal considering that CD's were around $20 each in the early 90's but there was another catch: There was a very limited supply of titles available. I have to presume this occurred because the record companies overestimated how much something was going to sell and getting $4 for them was better than nothing. So I guess both sides kinda win if you can find something you want.

Anyway, I frequently ended up finding about 6 albums I wanted and 6 albums that were either something I was "meh" about or something I had never heard of. I had never heard of Bad Religion.

Now before you accuse me of not knowing about one of the most legendary modern punk bands of all time understand this: I grew up in a town of 30,000 people - it wasn't exactly Orange County or Manhattan. It took a while for information to get to us because the internet was still a thing very very few people had (remember Prodigy?)

So I ordered Stranger than Fiction by Bad Religion and to be honest with you I didn't even take the plastic off it for weeks. However, once I did open it, i found what i still consider to be one of the best albums ever made by anyone.

If you follow my blog you might be aware that I once said that I have a 3-way tie for my favorite band of all time and Bad Religion is one of them. I can't believe this was actually their 8th album.

This doesn't happen very often but nearly every single track on the album is just great. The lyrics are intelligent and insightful (did I use that word right?), the harmonies are excellent, and the guitar and bass are complicated enough to hold the interest of a musician but simple enough to appeal to a non-musician.

Greg Graffin, the lead singer, wrote most of the songs and in addition to being one of the best in punk rock, he also has a PhD and has been a university lecturer at UCLA and also Cornell. These are not colleges to be scoffed at. It is a big deal.

He said in his book (which is also great) that "most of punk rock fans have no idea I am a university professor and most of my students have no idea I am a famous punk rock singer"

I was fortunate enough to see these guys live twice. The first show I just happened to live in Wrigleyville in Chicago and was walking to my favorite hot dog stand and pass by a theater along the way. The marquis said "Saturday - Bad Religion".... It was an unadvertised show and I got in! I remember not believing that the band would be able to play their complicated guitar and bass as well as sing the sometimes 3-part harmonies but oh did they ever! It was a truly amazing show and in such a small theater, just incredible.

In case you are one of the people out there that have never heard a song by Bad Religion then please check out "21st Century Digital Boy" - which was the most "popular" track on the album

Well I hope you enjoyed this and am hoping even more-so that you have never head of them and are happy to have some new tunes. If you really like them you will be delighted to find out they have nearly 20 albums.

As always, I welcome your comments and criticism.