Idle notes on Bad Religion

Truth is, I've never really been much of a Bad Religion fan. I had Suffer when I was younger, liked it, TRIED to love it, then I bought something earlier they did and thought it was pretty weak. Then there was the rise of the whole Epitaph thing and I basically tuned all that stuff out - including SNFU at the time - because it wasn't my idea of what punk should be. Never went to a Vans Warped tour, never owned an album by Pennywise or NOFX or any of that scene (to say nothing of bands like Green Day). Had a chance to see Bad Religion when the Rebel Spell opened for them at the Commodore and someone offered to guestlist me; I forget why, but I actually PASSED IT UP. I guess I've been kinda snobbish about them. And now suddenly I kinda want to go see them when they play the Vogue on April 13th.

What's changed? Has the pool of punk bands I care about gotten that much smaller? Has that (doubtlessly fictitious) story about Greg Graffin masturbating on webcam with a total stranger somehow humanized him?
"He jerks off, I jerk off, so I should support him?" Or maybe it's just that the new album actually sounds kinda great? (While sounding exactly like Bad Religion). I'm not sure why, but I'm digging it.

Meantime, I've discovered, thanks to Mike Usinger, that Graffin is a PhD, which is pretty impressive. Also thanks to that article I've gone over to Youtube and listened to Into The Unknown for the first time - their rather hilarious attempt at synth pop, which I am listening to as I type, and simultaneously laughing at and kind of enjoying, in a corny, silly way.  Why would an album this bad increase my fondness for the band? Maybe that it's they suddenly have an excuse for sounding the same on all their other albums - because apparently when they vary the formula...