The Offspring still got it............. (Offspring in general)

Member Name: mr_shagwell23

Product:	Offspring in general
Date:	23/01/01 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome music

Disadvantages: turning commercialised

For Quite a long time now the Offspring have been one of my favourite bands. They first caught my attention with ‘Smash’ and then after that I was hooked.

I saw them at Reading 1999, which I loved and I thought it was fantastic when Dexter Holland sprayed everyone with the fire hoses.
And I still like them now. I have just been to see them at Manchester on their European Tour. They were awesome. The mosh pit absolutely exploded when Dexter started the gig with ‘hey man you know I’m really OK….’ (you know the rest).

They then continued to fire out track after track, so old ‘sh*t’ and some of the knew stuff, and the sound of ‘Want You Bad’ as the last song was memorable, mainly because I could hear every word crisp clearly as I crowd surfed to the front. I can’t decide whether they were better at reading or at Manchester, but I know they were fantastic both times.

So I went through my Offspring archives to bring you everything I know about one of the best bands in the world. Enjoy!:

The Offspring have been playing together since 1986 when Holland and Kreisel (Greg
K) got together through their high school cross country track team in Garden Grove,
California. The group went from playing covers on the weekends to a deal with
Epitaph, the Los Angeles indie run by former Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The
1994 Epitaph release 'SMASH' spawned the international hit "Come Out and Play
(Keep 'Em Separated)."

At Pacifica High, a large public school in Garden Grove, Calif. Holland wasn't a member of any 1 of those groups. The third of four children born to a hospital administator father and a schoolteacher mother, he kept busy being a "good kid" and hoped to be a doctor. He also happened to be class valedictorian (thus his nickname, Dexter).
His senior year, Holland's older brother gave him
a Rodney on the ROQ compilation album. Before then, Holland was a casual listener. But soon after, he was devouring Flipside and Maximumrocknroll, fanzines out of Pasadena, Calif., and Berkeley, Calif., respectively, that are
virtual how-to guides to punkdome. His favorite bands were T.S.O.L. (particulary 1981's Dance
With Me), the Adolescents and Agent Orange County bands that weren't as hung up on politic as
their Bay Area counterparts.

Holland's cross-country teammate Greg Kriesel discovered punk even later. His investment-banker father saw law school in his son's future. And for most of high school, Kriesel was a sports fan and self-proclaimed jock (he also played baseball). The first punk records he ever heard were the ones the ones Holland played for him.
Holland and Kriesel formed their first band, Manic Subsidal, with two other cross-country team mates. One night in 1984 after failing to get in a Social Distortion show. At the time, the two didn't even own instruments, much less know how to play them.
Kriesel's house was the site of the band's first gigs. "It's just always a hangout," Kriesel said, "on
any given weekend night up to 20 people could drop by. I had a big upstairs that was pretty much
mine, and my mom was downstairs. But she's always been really cool about it”. This was one of the many quotes I found describing the formation of the band.

That fall, Holland began premed studies at USC (he's currently a Ph.D. candidate in molecular
biology). Kriesel was attending Golden West Junior College and later recieved a B.A. in finance
from Long Beach State while working part time in a print shop (he was planning to attend law school).
Weekends were the only time the band could rehearse.
Once Holland had written a handful of songs with self-explanatory titles like "Very Sarcastic" and "Sorority Bitch," the fled
gling band headed for a cheap studio. Momentarily waylaid when its guitarist jumped ship, the band recruited Kevin Wasserman, an older Pacifica grad who then worked as the school janitor. Pretty soon, Wasserman was "not doing a hell of a lot except practising at Greg's house on weekends and drinking excessively." Being the only member of the band over 21, Wasserman was particularly useful when it came to buying beer.

Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister
introduced him to Holland. Welt was only 16 when he begged Holland to let him substitute for Manic Subsidal's drummer who had started medical school and was missing lots of gigs.
In 1987, the Offsping paid to release their own 7-inch single. Unable to afford the additional quarter per copy it cost to paste the front sleeves to the backs, the band bought a case of beer and glue sticks and held a party for its friends. "To this day the covers don't hold together too well," says Holland. It took the band two and a half years to get rid of the 1,000 copies it printed.
Two years and a pile of rejections later, the Offspring scored a contract with Nemesis, a small punk label distributed by Cargo. After tracking down producer Thom Wilson, who had crafted their favourite albums by T.S.O.L., the Vandals and the Dead Kennedys, the Offspring recorded another 7-inch single, called Baghdad, and an album debut titled The Offspring. "All punk bands back in '84 wrote about was police, death, religion and war," says Holland. "So that's what we did."

While recording a track for a Flipside compilation with Brett Gurewitz - owner of Epitaph records and then Southern California's biggest punk success story, Bad Religion - the Offspring glimpsed a rosier future. "A little after that, I got a tape," says Gurewitz. "But I have to admit I passed on it."


A year later, when the Offspring began circulating demos for what would become their next album to every punk label they could think of, Gurewitz reconsidered. "It definitely had what people call the Epitaph sound," he says. "High energy, rebellious punk with great melodies and cool economical song structures.” In 1992 Epitaph released Ignition, 12 brief but energetic Offspring songs that summed up the previous decade of Orange County Punk. This album includes some of my favourite songs such as ‘Session’ (awesome live) and ‘Dirty Magic’.
Other Epitaph bands include Rancid and NOFX.

In 1994 their breakthrough single Come out and Play and top hit Self Esteem helped push their third album, Smash to the best selling independent record of all time (9 million plus), and heavy MTV rotation. This is by far their best album, with nearly every song being a classic, including Bad Habit, Smash and Self Esteem.

After the success of Smash, new fans discovered Ignition as it reappeared in stores. Due to the amount of overpriced, poor quality bootlegs, they re-released their self titled The Offspring in 1995 with their own label, Nitro. Nitro has released albums for several other bands, including The Vandals and Guttermouth.
In 1996, the Offspring signed with Columbia records after disputes with Epitaph. Their fourth album, Ixnay on the Hombre, came out in February 1997. This didn’t sell as well as Smash, but was still a good album.

About two years later, in 1998, they released their fifth Album, Americana, which was a lot more commercialised then any of their other albums. It included the number 1 hit ‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy’, ‘Why don’t you get a job’ and ‘The kids aren’t alright’. This sold better with the young people but didn’t go down too well with The Offspring fans who became fans because of the punk/ska songs from the previous a
lbums. It did however create a new wave of Offspring fans, and the band have even appeared at the MTV awards and on Top of the Pops.
They have just released their sixth album, which mixes old with new and is a very good album. ‘Million Miles Away’ and ‘Want You Bad’ are two very promising tracks and will probably bring back the fans that lost faith after Americana.

Some people are sceptic that the Offspring have passed their sell by date, being in their 30’s and so people are starting to lose faith. For any former Offspring fans reading this, regain faith – the Offspring are back, and they are better, badder and better than ever!

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