The Offspring

The Offspring is a popular American band from Orange County, California which formed in 1984. The band currently consists of Dexter Holland (lead vocals, guitar), Noodles (guitar), Greg K. (bass), and Atom Willard (drums). The band was brought to the mainstream with their 1994 album Smash, which would become the best-selling independent label album of all time.^[6] In addition to Smash, the band's albums Ixnay on the Hombre, Americana, and Conspiracy of One have each received platinum certification.^[7]

The Offspring has sold over 32 million albums worldwide,^[8] and are 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.^[9]

The band has also performed at numerous famous rock festivals, including the 2005 Warped Tour, the first Dew Action Sports Tour, Woodstock 1999, KROQ Weenie Roast, KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, and the 1999, 2002, and 2004 Leeds and Reading Carling Festivals.

Band history

Early years (1984-1993)

The Offspring was formed in 1984 by guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland and bassist Greg K, two friends who met on their high school cross-country team formed the band "Manic Subsidal". The decision to form a band came outside of a Social Distortion concert, when both were refused entry.^[6] Doug Thompson was added for vocals,^[10] and Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman, the school janitor was welcomed into the band, allegedly because he was old enough to purchase alcohol for Dexter and Greg, both of whom were under the legal drinking age.^[6] The band used Thompson's friend, Jim Benton, as their drummer. Thompson was forced out of the band, while Benton left. This led to Dexter taking over on vocals, and James Lilja joining as the drummer. The band changed their name to "The Offspring" in 1985.^[10]

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 gynaecology,^[11] and was replaced by Ron Welty, who was only 16 years old at the time.^[12]

In 1988, The Offspring signed a recording deal with a small-time label, Nemesis Records. With producer Thom Wilson, the band recorded their debut album, simply titled The Offspring, which was released in 1989. The album was released in limited amounts by the label, only in a 12" Vinyl format. The CD release of the album would not surface until 1995.

In 1991, again with Wilson, The Offspring produced the Baghdad 7". This single 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. Wilson and The Offspring entered the studio again and recorded Ignition. Released in 1992, Ignition 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, Voodoo Glow Skulls, and ska punk bands like No Doubt.

Mainstream success (1994-2002)

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 darker atmosphere in the studio resulted in 1994's landmark album Smash. 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 8 million records. Holland credits Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana for creating the environment which allowed The Offspring to succeed.

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.

After Smash and the subsequent two years of touring, Wilson, who during the Smash studio sessions criticized the direction of the band's music as straying away from punk, was fired. Around the same time, the band left Epitaph and signed with Columbia Records, allegedly because they were offended by an insurance policy that Brett Gurewitz had taken out on the band. Epitaph sued, claiming that the band had not fulfilled its contract. The settlement was an estimated $2 million and the rights to all European single sales. Not only this, but the move caused a fan backlash. Most fans of The Offspring thought that the move to Columbia was purely for financial gain; to this day the band still deny that charge.

The Offspring released their fourth album Ixnay on the Hombre 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 Dexter himself. The band believe that when Ixnay... came out that the fans were expecting "Smash Part Two" (in their own words) which is why they moved away from their former style.

In 1998, The Offspring released Americana. This album was musically lighter than Smash and Ixnay but lyrically darker in attitude, while still maintaining a punk-like sound. Two of the album's singles: "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)," and "Why Don't You Get a Job," became the bands two biggest hits, both charting in the ARC Top 40.^[13]Making the album the peak of The Offspring's mainstream popularity.

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 Dexter is killed.

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.^[14] However, under threat of legal action by Columbia through their parent company Sony, only the first single "Original Prankster" was released online.^[15] 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.

Post-Welty period (2003-present)

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. The parties have not 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, however his name remained absent from the album credits. 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 has done in the past.^[16]

In 2005, the band released a Greatest Hits album with a DualDisc. The Greatest Hits album contains 14 of the band's hits from 1994 to 2003, and two previously never released songs "Can't Repeat" and "Next to You" (a cover of The Police) (a hidden track). 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. Atom Willard was recruited by Tom DeLonge for his band Angels and Airwaves and released an album, We Don't Need to Whisper, in 2006.

The Offspring is currently in the studio recording their as-yet untitled eighth studio album with producer Bob Rock and "a fistful of demos". Although an official title and release date have yet to be confirmed, the recording process has begun and the band hopes to have the album released around the spring or summer of 2007. There are also rumors of the band releasing a rare/b-sides album.

On January 13, 2007, it was erroneously reported that Atom Willard had left The Offspring.^[17] However, Ryan Sinn of Angels and Airwaves, who was rumored to have initially made the allegation that Willard had left the Offspring, confirmed that the rumors were untrue, and that Willard has not left the Offspring.^[18]

The band recently announced that they will be one of the performers at the 2007 Summer Sonic Festival in Japan.^[19]

Music style and influences

While The Offspring is primarily considered a punk rock group in the Southern California vein, their music contains strong elements of grunge, metal and occasionally ska as well as some elements of pop punk.^[20][21] The band cites their main musical influences as Agent Orange, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, D.I., Descendents, Sex Pistols, Social Distortion, TSOL and The Vandals.

Band members

Live members

• Chris "X-13" Higgins - backing vocals, percussion, synthesizer, samples, and rhythm guitar

Discography

Main article: The Offspring discography

Album Cover	Date of release	Title	Label	US Billboard Peak[22]	Certification[23]	Format	Other information
Image:Offspring - ST 1989.jpg	1989	The Offspring	Nemesis	Uncharted		CD/LP	Debut album. Not released properly on CD until 1995.
Image:The Offspring-Ignition.jpg	1992	Ignition	Epitaph	Uncharted	Gold	CD/LP	First release on Epitaph.
Image:TheOffspringSmashalbumcover.jpg	1994	Smash	Epitaph	#4	6x Platinum	CD/LP	Best selling independent label album of all-time. The most successful Offspring album to date. Included the band's hits, "Come Out and Play" and "Self-Esteem", which led to MTV airplay, and national radio airplay.
Image:The Offspring-Ixnay on the Hombre.jpg	1997	Ixnay on the Hombre	Columbia	#9	Platinum	CD/LP	In Europe, it was released on Epitaph and in the U.S. on Columbia.
Image:TheOffspringAmericanaalbumcover.jpg	1998	Americana	Columbia	#2	5x Platinum	CD/LP	The second most successful Offspring album to date.
Image:The Offspring-Conspiracy of One.jpg	2000	Conspiracy of One	Columbia	#9	Platinum	CD/LP	Last album recorded with the "classic" line up.
Image:The Offspring Splinter.jpg	2003	Splinter	Columbia	#30	Gold	CD/LP	Though never actually a member of the band, studio drummer Josh Freese handles the drum tracks for this album while there was no replacement for Ron Welty who left the band in early 2003.
	2007	Untitled 8th Studio Album	Columbia	Uncharted	Not yet released	CD	The Offspring is supposedly gearing up to release a new album. Very first proper studio album recorded with drummer Atom Willard.

References

Wikipedia information about The Offspring This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Offspring". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.