'Pretty Fly' Guys To Fly Tonight

"Our singer gets decapitated - no, scalped, by a severed hand."

Such is the fate of The Offspring's Dexter Holland in the soon-to-be-released film "Idle Hands," as described by lead guitarist Noodles.

Working on the film has been one of many projects keeping The Offspring busy throughout past months. Also included in the band's list of things to do has been the production of its most recent album, "Americana," and the launching of a tour.

As for the film, the guys play a small part in which they don't have to do much acting, portraying a band performing live at a dance.

"We did the movie just for fun," said Noodles. "It's kind of a shellac, horror, comedy film that doesn't take itself very seriously. It makes fun of that whole genre."

More important, The Offspring just put out a new record, which has already begun receiving significant attention with the release of "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," which has been included in the regular rotation of radio stations throughout the country.

The most striking aspect of the new album is the band's punk cover of the classic "Feelings," the last song anyone would have ever expected The Offspring to play.

"The song was our singer's idea," said Noodles. "He just had the song stuck in his head one day and thought it was a really cheesy song that needed to be made fun of. No one expected it - not from a band like The Offspring. I'm looking forward to doing that one live."

"Feelings" is not the only surprise on "Americana." The band mixed up its style on a few other songs as well.

"We always have a Middle Eastern flavor on at least one or two songs," said Noodles. "We really tried to capitalize on that this time. And 'Why Don't You Get a Job' is almost a Caribbean acoustic song with a lot of percussion."

The decision to title the new album "Americana" seems ironic at first, given the definition people generally associate with the word. By using this title, The Offspring attempts to change people's definitions of Americana.

"When people talk about Americana, they refer to really quaint examples of American culture," said Noodles, "like Norman Rockwell paintings, kid on a swing kind of thing. For us there's a hell of a lot more to American culture. Every song is a different example of American culture."

The making of the record went smoothly, despite the fact that the punk world has accused The Offspring of selling out from the minute the band signed on with Columbia Records. The guys aren't phased much by negative criticism in this regard, but they certainly hear their share of name-calling even today.

"A lot of other bands call us sell-outs," said Noodles. "But it doesn't really bother us. At Columbia, things are great."

Although the band takes criticism from other bands with a grain of salt, The Offspring never would have formed without the influences of other groups.

"A lot of California groups got us interested in playing music ourselves," said Noodles. "Bands like Social Distortion and The Dead Kennedys."

When the band finally did get together, one of its biggest difficulties was coming up with a name.

"We fought for a couple weeks about our name," said Noodles. "Our old drummer came up with the name. We all had these weird ideas that none of us could agree on and The Offspring was the only name that none of us hated."

More than a decade and five albums later, Dexter, Noodles, Greg and Ron are back on tour, playing shows across the country to promote their new album. But this time around may not be The Offspring's most memorable trip to Michigan.

"Our biggest headlining show ever in the U.S. was at Cobo Hall," said Noodles. "It was right after Smash. Right after we went on, we called Fletcher from Pennywise and left a message that said, 'this is what 12,000 people sound like, cheering for your band.'"

Although The Offspring just started its current tour, the guys already have future recording plans.

"We just finished recording," said Noodles, "and Dexter's already like, 'you know, we should make another record.' So there will definitely be more Offspring records in the future."

By Amy Barber, from The Michigan Daily