Bad Religion's Against the Grain Album Art
Against the Grain was my first Bad Religion album and was crucial to the development of a burgeoning punk rocker in middle school.
I ran out and purchased this after seeing the music video for "21st Century (Digital Boy) on the late night, public access channel PUNK TV, which was likely the video for the Stranger Than Fiction album version of the song, but ATG was the only BR CD the local record store had, so it was the one I bought to sit proudly in my growing punk collection which then consisted of the Ramones ACID EATERS (this was right before Green Day exploded punk everywhere), next to awesome bangers like Amy Grant and Billy Joel CDs my dad couldn't stop buying from those Columbia House CD scam promos (Google that shit if you don't know).
Bad Religion changed my life and has been a constant rotation in my ears for almost 30 years now.
I have many fond memories of seeing them live, meeting the band members, listening to their music but one of the less obvious, or maybe glaringly obvious results of being a teenage and wearing shirts with their classic "cross-buster" logo was constantly being stopped by religious people who either were A: offended and wanted me to know, as if I even cared, or B: wanted to try and convert me and have some sort of theological debate, which I wasn't even remotely interested in doing. "Get out of here, you crazy Jesus freak," was what I likely said, while pushing away on my skateboard, cursing myself for having to wear these tight, punk rock pants, when looser fitting jeans would be more suitable for skateboarding and allow for the freer movement I needed to escape the talons of offended missionaries.
Some friends thought it was a good idea to engage with this people and have a "dialog." I thought I'd rather be listening to Bad Religion in my basement, alone.