Forgotten albums: Bad Religion's "Into the Unknown"

From the moment I first heard about this mysterious, disavowed album from punk/hardcore legends Bad Religion, I've been intrigued. In the liner notes to the early years compilation, 80-85, guitarist Greg Hetson makes reference to the Into the Unknown, first making sure to say he and bassist Jay Bentley had nothing to do with its creation. Apparently, this album -- only their second full LP -- pretty much broke up the band for a minute.

Scouring their Wikipedia page many years later, I was reminded again of this lost record's existence. Bad Religion's...PROG ROCK album?! Seemed too weird to even be true. I also was kind of bummed out that they only produced 10,000 copies of this album and it would most likely be a difficult and expensive find/listen.

Enter badreligion.com! You can stream all their albums on the site, including...INTO THE UNKNOWN! Today was an exciting day for that reason only, my friends. Excuse my nerddom.

So...I giddily pressed play to hear this travesty of an album. The record opens with a keyboard swell, immediately signaling a change in direction that must've freaked out a hardcore kid or two back in 1983 on the heels of their savage classic, How Can Hell Be Any Worse?

Funny part is, though, as someone who became a Bad Religion fan a decade-plus into their existence (with Stranger Than Fiction in 1994), the music doesn't seem all that out there. Hell, if you took out the startling keyboard flourishes in some of the songs, it wouldn't sound so different from some of their 90s output.

So, I tried to put myself in the position of someone who had bought that first record and saw their shows at the time. The contrast to the first album is, indeed, shocking. Slower, mid-tempo tunes. Greg Graffin singing for the first time with that inimitable voice that's become their trademark -- instead of the raspier half-yell of the first album. And, of course, longer song lengths. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of this album is Brett Gurewitz's lead guitar work. The dude does some heavy rock guitar shredding here. I suppose, though, in the days where anything resembling slow, excessive, '70s arena rock was reviled by a lot of people, these new (for Bad Religion) sounds were not welcome.

The keys seem to be what make this a "prog" record (along with the spacey album cover). There aren't, however, the twists and turns of time signatures or ultra complex riffery and drum patterning that define most progressive rock music. That's probably a good thing.

Also included on the page for this album are two short, but great interviews with Brett and Greg -- the masterminds/criminals behind the weirdest album in the Bad Religion catalog.

In the aftermath of Into the Unknown, Bad Religion would regroup, releasing a more "Bad Religion"-y EP in 1985 -- with the self-consciously appropriate title of Back to the Known --  and, eventually, in 1988, releasing arugably their finest record, Suffer, and becoming the phenomenal band we all know and love. But, perhaps that wouldn't have been possible without a brief foray into the unknown.

Work and Non Work, Guitar "playing" and the All-Star Break

Hello, hello!

First, a disclaimer to my out-of-work friends: the following is not intended to brag nor rub anything in or complain. Well, maybe the latter a little.

So, after a month back at the grind, they've run out of things for me (and I assume the other Quality Assurers) to do. So, I sit there...daily...with nothing to do. While it sounds nice, and was at first, it's actually pretty fucking annoying. Especially considering I work not in a cubicle, but what amounts to a converted janitor's closet with a dry erase board. My closetmates seem equally unoccupied. The ad guy left at 4 today. Got in at 10. Wish I had the balls. Instead, I show up at 9 and promptly get my read on for 8 hours. I guarantee by now I'm the most well-informed person "working" there. But, as I and some of you know, there are worse things. Anyway, since I'm just looking for anything and everything to pass the time (except blogging more regularly, obviously), I've gone back -- half-assedly -- to the job hunt. I figure if work is this light now, no way they're going to keep me after December. So...time to start gearing up for being out of work in the new year! Hooray!

This week, in lieu of baseball, which is on break this week and which typically dominates my after-work life hours, I decided to dust off the acoustic guitar I've had for years and try to actually play the thing. I decided, too, not to tune it and not to learn anything, you know, proper. I think I came up with a couple cool things just fiddling and experimenting -- at least, my guitarist tells me so. I'm finding that fretting hurts my delicate fingers as does picking without a pick...those are my excuses for sounding terrible. Also, I've decided my axe-slinging stage name is Rudy Mentary. You'll be hearing from me -- er-- him.

I need to mention that I hate the All-Star Break. I used to really care about the All-Star game as a kid because I hated the American League so much and the National League were dominant then. Not so much anymore. They really need to get rid of fan voting in this thing, too. A popularity contest for what amounted to a game for bragging rights is one thing, but if they're going to base home-field advantage on it, then the fan should be left out. Mostly, because fans are idiots. (Trust me, I am one.) Also, I'm definitely done caring about the Home Run Derby. It's fun for like 15 minutes, then it's just mind-numbingly boring. Not to mention it somehow manages to make Chris Berman even more insufferable. I just can't take him anymore.  Sorry, no Mets baseball makes me cranky...but, then again, so does watching Mets baseball most of the time.

Well, let's not end on a whiny, sports note. Let's end on a fun and interesting music note. This week, one of the true mad scientist guitar players in the rock realm today, Nels Cline, is doing a string of solo gigs at the Village Vanguard. I believe it's mostly instrumental, freeform noise, free jazz kind of stuff, which makes me smile unendingly. Here's a sample of the man at work:


Nels Cline Singers

Here's the man shredding with his dayjob band, Wilco, from the show I was at last year. Highlight of their set by far.


Wilco: Impossible Germany (solo excerpt)

I'm going to try and hit one of those shows this week. Come join me for some face-melting good times!