Offspring Captures Crazy Days

Nov. 27 - The Offspring became something of a punk-rock phenomenon with the success of 1994's "Smash" - it's the biggest-selling rock record (almost 11 million worldwide) ever released on an indie label.

Now the outfit is making a big splash at radio with "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" from "Americana," the band's fifth album.

The humorous single kicks off with a sample from the faux-German intro to Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages," and homegirls sing the infectious "give it to me baby" chorus.

"It's a takeoff on a guy trying to be hip-hop who doesn't really have it inside - I took the Notorious B.I.G.'s "uh-huh uh-huhs' and made them obnoxious," frontman Dexter Holland said recently. The Offspring have hit the road in support of "Americana," and the trek will take the band to the Ogden Theatre Saturday night.

Goes along with theme

"But it fits in with the theme of the record - having something to say, but doing it in a lighthearted way so it doesn't become preachy."

Lyrically, what pervades "Americana" is how America's cultural craziness is reflected in today's younger generation. Examples are "She's Got Issues," "Why Don't You Get a Job?" - and "The Kids Aren't Alright," which was inspired after Holland took a trip back to his old neighborhood in Orange County, Calif.

"I started thinking about whatever became of the kids that lived there while we were growing up," Holland explained.

"I passed this old house and remembered a kid who'd had a nervous breakdown the last I heard. I went a few houses farther and remembered a kid who was killed in an auto accident. Down the block, there was a guy who got hooked on crack after high school and ended up killing his sister. All kinds of crazy stuff.

Appearances deceiving

"And it struck me - the neighborhood looks middle-class and suburban, and you always think about families growing up and having bright futures. But it didn't turn out that way for those kids."

The sound of "Americana," which was produced by alt-rock studio whiz Dave Jerden (who also did the same honors for last year's "Ixnay on the Hombre"), is grounded in faster-and-louder punk, but the album closes with "Pay the Man," an eight-minute homage to Middle Eastern music.

"It's natural to take that hypnotic quality and make it a longer piece," Holland said. "It was a challenge to see if we could still make it interesting."

There's also a punked-up cover of Morris Albert's sappy oldie "Feelings." The Offspring revamped Albert's lyrics for "feelings of hate": "Feelings like I want to kill you . . . Feelings like I want to deck you/Feelings like I've gotta get you/Out of my life"

Wouldn't go away

"For some reason, God only knows why, I had that song stuck in my head - I must have been in an elevator," Holland said.

"I started thinking about the "whoa whoas' in the chorus - and gosh, it would probably adapt well to what we do. It's not a new idea to do this kind of song - bands have done "Seasons in the Sun,' real terrible stuff. But surprisingly, no one had done "Feelings."

"When I approached the rest of the band about doing it, they laughed me out of the room. I got them to sit down and give it a try. It ended up being something we liked."

The members of the Offspring - Holland (vocals, guitar), Noodles (guitar, vocals), Greg K (bass) and Ron Welty (drums) - will also be turning up in the horror-comedy flick "Idle Hands," in which they portray a band playing at a high school dance . . . and Holland gets killed.

Good for laughs

"They've shown an edit to test audiences, and they said I was pretty funny - if you're getting killed, you can't go wrong," Holland said with a laugh.

The Offspring recorded a version of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" and a new track called "Beheaded" for the film. Look for it next spring.

By G. Brown, from Denver Post - November 27, 1998