Bad Religion promo CDs

[originally posted April 22nd 2023 on cohost]

3 Bad Religion promo CD singles, I Love my Computer, Punk Rock Song 2002 and Honest Goodbye

First, their 2007 single Honest Goodbye", in a simple plastic sleeve, pretty standard for promo CDs past the mid 2000s. Really like art direction for the New Maps of Hell era, cool to have. Also contains a different mix of the track, labelled as "vocal up", though I wouldn't really have noticed a difference to the album version personally.

Next, I Love My Computer, from their unloved 2000 album The New America. Probably one of the more awkward song they ever released. Even though this came at the tailend of an era that had lots of CD singles released for the band, this one seems to only exist as a promo. Always wanted to have this one but never stumbled upon a copy until now. Really like the artwork for some reason. Also contains Whisper in Time from the same album.

Finally, this is a really weird one. Can't find anything about this one, doesn't even seem to have an entry on discogs. Punk Rock Song 2002, is a re-release of their probably most well known song from 1996. This was likely put out to promote the greatest hits compilation from the same year, that compiles tracks from their time on Atlantic Records and was released in Europe without the band's input. It is a pretty shitty typical cashgrab compilation and the fact that a promo single was released for it is pretty funny. Both the single and the album have god awful, very dated and cheap looking graphic design:

Bad Religion - Punk Rock Songs 2002 promo CD, showing the inlay and CD design

The track listing on it actually lists the title of the track as Punk Rock Song 2002, as if it was a re-recording of the original song, but no, it's literally just the 1996 version. Maybe it has minor mixing differences, I don't know. Since I also can't really tell apart the two versions of Honest Goodbye, I'm clearly not good at picking up on minor mixing differences, but it sounds the same to me. Also contains an alternative version of the song with German lyrics, which was also included on the European release of the 1996 album The Gray Race. Really weird CD, I wonder how rare it is cause I literally cannot find any info on it even existing!