A 'Smash'ing Success

Southern California's the Offspring will be playing at Super Toad in Des Moines tonight

Before the overnight success of "Smash," the Offspring was a typical punk band.

Its members (vocalist/guitarist Dexter Holland, guitarist Kevin Wasserman a.k.a. Noodles, drummer Ron Welty and bassist Greg Kriesel) held blue-collar jobs to help pay the bills between gigs, which were relatively few and far apart.

Its following was limited to the Southern California scene from which it was spawned (No Doubt, Sublime and Social Distortion are all from this scene). CD sales barely registered in the thousands and the band's first release, "Ignition," wasn't even available across the nation.

Then the band exploded when the "Smash" single "Come Out and Play (You Gotta Keep 'Em Separated)" hit the airwaves. CD sales approached 8.5 million worldwide and Offspring cemented its place in the music world as the next big band.

However, Kriesel still doesn't see it that way.

"We see the sales and the massive media attention to our departure from [former label] Epitaph and it is still incredible," Kriesel said. "When it happens to you, it's a little different than hearing about another band's success. But we still don't see ourselves as the next big thing."

The pathway to success has not been an easy one for the Offspring, which was together almost 10 years before the release of "Smash." Early tours were often plagued by van difficulties including numerous blown engines and transmission problems and nearly freezing to death on a Midwestern winter tour.

There is also the ongoing debate over whether the band is a sell-out because it moved to a major recording label, Columbia, and is selling millions of CDs. Punk purists contend that those two things are more than enough reason to label the band sell-outs and ignore its music.

"It's fine by me if the so-called punk purists think we are sell-outs," Kriesel explained. "I don't know if we were ever pure punk to begin with. We still play hard music the way we want to do it. We are still doing what we've been doing for the last 10 years.

"There are people who liked our music before we started selling millions of CDs," he added. "Now they don't like us anymore. Why? Because we are selling lots of CDs? It seems ridiculous to me."

Kriesel believes the group's record-label switch has been getting unnecessary bad press. He points out that a lot of musicians and bands switch record labels and aren't dehumanized because of it.

He also doesn't believe that just because his group sold more CDs on an independent label than anyone else in music history, his group should be forced to remain on the label.

"There's not many differences between the labels," Kriesel said. "When we left Epitaph, we were allowed to ask for a lot of creative control. That is something that we couldn't have at Epitaph."

The group's problems with Epitaph began when the label's founder, Brett Gurewitz, began talking with major label representatives about selling Epitaph. The group became concerned that it would be lost in the shuffle or be controlled by people it had no contact with.

The final straw was the contract Epitaph offered the group. The contract would not allow the Offspring to do cover versions of anybody's songs, play in any side projects or use its own cover art in the way the band wanted.

So the band decided to prevent a bad situation by signing with Columbia Records for less money. Since then, it has released "Ixnay on the Hombre" which was just as successful as "Smash" and yielded three hit singles -- "All I Want," "I Choose" and "Meaning of Life."

"Despite our success, things are just the same as they always were," Kriesel said. "Our day-to-day operations are the same. We hang with the same people, we still have the same friends. The only thing that has changed is that we no longer have to work at real jobs."

The Offspring has also been busy assisting with social problems. The group has appeared on two Music For Our Mother Ocean compilations, which helped to raise money for the Surfrider Foundation to combat water pollution.

The group has also assisted former Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra in the formation of the F.S.U. (standing for Fuck Shit Up or Freedom Starts Underground, depending on whether you ask Holland or Biafra respectively) Organization.

The F.S.U. provides support for social services and assistance to the needy. It also helps in the stand for basic human rights and environmental protection.

So far, proceeds from the group's concerts have benefited the Los Angeles AIDS Project, the Poor People's United Fund, the Trees Foundation, the Surfrider Foundation and Amnesty International.

By Ben Jones, Daily Staff writer