The Offspring Returns To Its Winning Sound For Its Fifth CD Americana

OC's The Offspring Reaches For The Brass Ring Again

What have The Offspring done?
Except for their hardcore fans and just about every music aficionado in Orange County, Garden Grove's Offspring have really only been known for their 1994 breakthrough single, Come Out and Play and the album it came from, Smash. That sleeper album sold an unbelievable 11 million units and hurdled them from a respectable local band on the indie label Epitaph to world wide stardom on the major label Colombia Records.

They followed that up with last year's Ixnay on the Hombre a critically acclaimed LP that sold only three million copies (and less than a million in America) and never really established a proper single.

Today (Nov. 17), The Offspring release their fifth album, Americana and hope that the return to the blueprint that worked so well on Smash will restore the band to its former phenomenon status.

What the new album sounds like:
Americana was definitely made for the fan that fell for them with 1994's Smash Many of the songs have that familiar Come out and Play rhythm, especially Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), the album's first unofficial single. Pretty Fly uses the same Latin-esque drum and guitar style that the band favors.

The song is a good representation of the album; tried and true, basic verse-chorus-verse songs with sing-along lyrics and very hooky guitar solos.

They also venture into a Jamaican-styled jam with Why Don't You Get a Job. It's very light-hearted and some ska purists will turn their nose up at this one. But give credit to the quartet for even attempting to veer away from standard punk.

If you like The Vandals, The Adolescents and The Offspring's Smash, you can't go wrong here.

Tip for diehard fans:
If you're lucky enough to buy the enhanced CD-ROM version of Americana you'll be able to download four videos from Ixnay on the Hombre and get the lyrics and instrumentals of the album.

Their lyrical inspirations: If you know anything about the band's Garden Grove history, you'll see the obvious references that lead singer Dexter Holland and guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman drew their influences from, especially on The Kids Aren't Alright.It's a somewhat depressing song written about the pitfalls of the duo's old neighborhood and their old high school friends that lived there with them.

Other themes are just as dour: classic teenage angst, escaping authority and surviving in a less-than-perfect world. They're classic punk rock subjects injected with a fresh dose of upbeat punk-pop.

What will they be doing in the future?
For reasons unknown, The Offspring adopted the policy of not releasing official singles (although they've filmed a video for Pretty Fly), they prefer to tour extensively instead. So tonight they continue their small American tour at Los Angeles' Palace Theater and return to the Universal Ampitheatre on December 12 before they head to Europe for an extensive tour.

By Michael Alarcon, from OCNow