The Offspring

The Offspring (sometimes referred to as simply "Offspring") are a popular and highly influential American rock band from Garden Grove, California formed in 1984. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Dexter Holland (lead vocals, guitar), Noodles (lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals) and Greg K. (bass, backing vocals). Their current drummer is Pete Parada, formerly of Face to Face and Saves the Day, who has been with the band since 2007.

To date, The Offspring have released seven studio albums, one compilation, three EPs and three DVD's^[11], selling over 34 million albums worldwide^[8], making them one of the best-selling punk acts of all time.^[12] The band is credited, along with fellow California punk bands Green Day and Rancid, with reviving popular interest in punk rock in the United States during the mid-1990s.^[13]

[edit] Band history

[edit] Early years (1984–1987)

The band was formed in 1984 by guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland and bassist Greg K., who met on their high school cross-country team, under the name "Manic Subsidal". The decision to form a band came outside of a Social Distortion concert, when both were refused entry.^[8] Doug Thompson was added for vocals,^[14] and Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman, the school janitor, was welcomed into the band, allegedly because he was old enough to purchase alcohol for Holland and Kriesel, both of whom were under the legal drinking age.^[8] The band used Thompson's friend, Jim Benton, as their drummer. Thompson was eventually forced out of the band, while Benton left. This led to Holland taking over on vocals, and James Lilja joining as the drummer. The band changed their name to "The Offspring" in 1985.^[14]

In 1987, the band released their first single; the 7" "Blackball/I'll Be Waiting". They released the album on their self-made Black Label record company, which was named after the brand of beer named Black Label. Lilja quit shortly after the release to pursue a medical career in gynecology,^[15] and was replaced by Ron Welty, who was only 16 years old at the time.^[16]

[edit] The Offspring and Ignition (1988–1993)

After recording a demo in 1988^[17], The Offspring signed a record deal with a small-time label, Nemesis Records. Then in March 1989, the band teamed up with producer Thom Wilson (of Dead Kennedys, Social Distortion and The Vandals fame) to record their first album, simply titled The Offspring.^[17] The album was released in limited numbers by the label, only in a 12" vinyl format, and a proper CD release did not surface until 1995. A six-week national tour followed, but Noodles was later stabbed during their Hollywood anti-nuclear benefit.^[17]

In 1991, The Offspring teamed up with Wilson again to produce the Baghdad 7" EP. This EP was instrumental to the band's signing with Epitaph Records. Wilson had been trying to get The Offspring to switch to Epitaph, a label run by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Gurewitz felt that The Offspring was just not quite pronounced enough for his label, but Baghdad convinced him to give the band a shot.

In 1992, Wilson and The Offspring returned to the studio to record their second album Ignition, which was released in October of that year. The album exceeded all of the label's and band's expectations. The band went on tour for the next two years with other punk bands such as Pennywise, and ska punk bands like No Doubt and Voodoo Glow Skulls.

[edit] Mainstream success with Smash (1994–1996)

When The Offspring returned to the studio to work on their third album in 1993, the band's relations with producer Thom Wilson had begun to strain. The band released what would become their biggest selling CD, titled Smash (1994). Fueled by the hit singles "Come Out and Play," "Self Esteem," and "Gotta Get Away," this album set the all-time record for most units sold by an independent label band at 16 million records.

After the release of Smash, and armed with a newly expanded income, the band decided to buy out the rights to their first album. Holland and Greg K then created their own record label, Nitro Records, and started signing bands. One of their first releases was a re-release of their first album The Offspring. The label also signed a number of punk bands including AFI, The Vandals, and Guttermouth. Soon after Nitro Records became solely Dexter's responsibility.

[edit] Height of fame (1997–2002)

After two years of touring for Smash, The Offspring left Epitaph and signed with Columbia Records. The band began writing and recording their fourth album, titled Ixnay on the Hombre, in 1996. The album came out on February 4, 1997, which happened to be Noodles' 34th birthday. This album was not as successful as Smash, although it did sell 4 million units. The album saw the band move away from the political-punk themes common to many Epitaph bands, and more into mainstream rock with songs like: "All I Want," "Gone Away," and, "I Choose." The video for "I Choose" was directed by Holland himself. Dexter commented that Ixnay probably wasn't as well-received as Smash was because it was such a departure, and that many fans probably were expecting "Smash Part Two."^[18]

In 1999, the band appeared as themselves in the film Idle Hands. They play "Beheaded" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" at a school dance before Holland's character is killed. They also appeared at the infamous Woodstock 1999, where their performance was broadcast live on pay per view television.

2000 saw the band release a new album called Conspiracy of One. The band intended to release the entire album online through their official website, to show their support for downloading music on the internet.^[19] However, under threat of legal action by Columbia through their parent company Sony, only the first single "Original Prankster" was released on their official website (the rest of the record was leaked to fan sites).^[20] The band also sold T-shirts on their website with the Napster logo on it and donated money to Napster creator Shawn Fanning with the profits.

The band also released a new single "Defy You" exclusively for the film Orange County.

[edit] Splinter (2003–2005)

Nearly three years after the release of Conspiracy of One, long-time drummer Ron Welty left the band in 2003 to start Steady Ground, a band in which he plays the drums and co-produces. Neither Welty or the remaining members have elaborated on the departure.

In 2003, the band released their seventh album Splinter. The Offspring recruited Josh Freese to record the drums for Splinter, and later announced that Atom Willard would be the official replacement for Ron Welty. The album's original title was to be Chinese Democracy, the name of the long-delayed album by Guns N' Roses. As a result, Axl Rose filed a cease and desist order against The Offspring, and to avoid delaying the release, the band chose to simply rename the album. The first single "Hit That" enjoyed moderate success on MTV. "Hit That" used a variety of electronic samples, different from what The Offspring have done in the past.^[21]

In 2005, the band released a Greatest Hits album with a DualDisc. The Greatest Hits album contains 14 of the band's hits between Smash and Splinter, and two previously never released songs "Can't Repeat" and "Next to You" (a cover of The Police) (a hidden track). The compilation does not contain any material from the first album and Ignition. The DualDisc contains video of Dexter and Noodles discussing the band's history and a bonus acoustic version of the song "Dirty Magic." About a month later, the band released a video DVD with all of their music videos, and some videos from a live show.

During the summer of 2005, the band played the Vans Warped Tour for the first time, and followed that with a tour of Europe and Japan. After the "Greatest Hits" world tour the band took a break from writing, recording and touring. During the hiatus, Willard was recruited by Tom DeLonge for his band Angels & Airwaves and released an album, We Don't Need to Whisper, in 2006.

[edit] Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2006–present)

In November 2006, it was reported that The Offspring were back in the studio recording their eighth studio album, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace with producer Bob Rock and "a fistful of demos". In July 2007, Dexter announced that the band had finished "two more songs" and the album was being recorded in Orange County, California.^[22]

It was announced on July 27, 2007 that former Saves the Day drummer Pete Parada had been chosen to be The Offspring's new drummer, replacing Atom Willard. The band's first shows with Parada were at the Summer Sonic festival in Japan in August of the same year.^[23] Parada will not play on the new album however, Josh Freese once again handled drum duties, as he did with Splinter.^[24]

The band headlined the 2007 Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, making their first live appearance since mid-2005, and also their first appearance with Parada.^[25] During their performance in Japan, they also debuted a new song called "Hammerhead". The new track, along with 12 other songs, was being completed for the new album^[26].

In September 2007, The Offspring posted a studio cam on their fan board.^[27] It shows the mixing and recording rooms, occasionally with the band members and producers/mixers. The cam updates every 30 seconds. In November 2007, the Offspring began posting short 'in the studio' videos on YouTube. The videos featured short segments of the band recording new material for the upcoming album.

When asked on Christmas Eve 2007 what the current status of the new album was, Dexter replied:

On February 4, 2008, which was to be Noodles' 45th birthday, Download Festival's official website announced that The Offspring would be headlining the Download Festival alongside Lostprophets and Kiss, on June 14th at Donington Park, England. On March 12, 2008, The Offspring also announced on their website that they will headline Greenfield Festival in Interlaken, Switzerland on June 13th (the day before they perform at Download Festival), along with Linkin Park and Die Ärzte.^[29]

On April 9, 2008, Dexter announced on The Offspring's official website that the band had finished recording the new album. He also announced that the album would be called Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace and would be released on June 17th.^[32] The album's first single, "Hammerhead", went to radio on May 6th.^[33] Additionally, The Offspring official site provided an MP3 download of the song to the general public on May 5, 2008.^[34]

Epitaph Records recently announced that the label would be re-issuing Ignition and Smash; both albums will be remastered and Smash will have a new 24 page booklet. The re-issues are due out on June 17.^[35]

[edit] Music style and influences

While The Offspring are primarily considered an alternative rock, skate punk or (simply a) punk rock group, their music contains strong elements of grunge, metal and occasionally ska. Many of their songs contain refrains of "whoas" in either their verses (as in "The Kids Aren't Alright" and "One Fine Day") or choruses (as in "Get It Right", "Something To Believe In", and "All Along"), which are a sort of hallmark of the band's. Their lyrics are typically sardonic and sarcastic and discuss wide-ranging issues from personal relationships ("Hit That", "She's Got Issues") to the degradation of United States ("L.A.P.D.", "Americana").