Orange County's Punk Heroes

It's midday on a busy Monday, and the offices of one of Orange County, Calif.'s, punk-rock prime movers, Huntington Beach's Nitro Records, is bustling with activity. In an upstairs conference room, two men named Dexter and Noodles - both of whom have become for local punk what Green Day is for the San Francisco Bay area - have been answering questions about their band The Offspring.

Sure, there have been other O.C. punk acts. Dozens of 'em, actually, and most of them have had an influence on The Offspring, the mega-selling group that features ever-smiling frontman Bryan "Dexter" Holland, guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, drummer Ron Welty, and bassist Greg Kriesel. But none of them experienced the global success Dexter and the boys have.

More importantly, most of them (Social Distortion is a big exception) never got picked up by a major label, typically a punk-rock faux pas, like The Offspring did.

But that debated matter has been a thorn in this band's side long enough.

"The heat is definitely off now," a very relaxed Noodles says. "And the punkers who were going to write us off as not being punk, as being sellouts, that pretty much happened already. Once we went to Columbia [the band's current label], there were still little grumblings, but we kind of feel now like that's over."

With nothing to prove but consistency, The Offspring has quickly sprung back into action. As opposed to the nearly three-year break between the making of its breakthrough album "Smash" and last year's strong-selling "Ixnay on the Hombre," the group of intelligent, 30-something punks wasted no time in cutting a follow-up - the brazenly titled "Americana," in stores now.

The album is both more of the same - right down to the similarities between the album's first single, "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," and the band's first hit, "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" - and a bold step forward. Beyond simply smashing it up through adolescent anthems, The Offspring, led by Dexter's deepened and introspective songwriting, is positing itself as grand commentator on the flipside of suburbia.

In dispirited but turbocharged songs such as "Have You Ever" and "The Kids Aren't All Right," it seems as though the band - which performs a sold-out show Tuesday night at Manhattan's Irving Plaza - is taking a more direct approach toward reflecting the changing face of suburban teenage life.

"I don't think it was a goal we focused on or that this album as a whole was something where we said, 'OK, we want to convey these sentiments and these ideas,'" Noodles says " ... We just looked at the songs and realized that they were really an illustration of a different side of American culture - and especially suburban culture and the area we live in.

"All we're trying to do is balance some of the more Rockwellian examples of Americana. We're not trying to say the country [stinks], and we don't think we've summed up what America is all about. But it's not all about some cute little blond-haired kid on a swing in the summer sun anymore."

In that sense, it could be said that The Offspring is fighting a new fight, one that doesn't have such obvious enemies. It's a culture war, really, with unnamed opponents and Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake as referees. That's the sort of world "Americana" tackles.

" ... It seems kind of lame at any time to just be attacking the Establishment for the sake of attacking the Establishment," says Dexter. "I don't think ['Americana'] is intended like that.

"There is a theme to the album, but I'd like to call it a commentary, really. These are snapshots of American life -- and when I say American, that's more a side effect. It's broader than that. But this is where I live, this is where I grew up, this is what I know. And this is the picture that I get, and it's different from what I've heard other people say when they describe American culture."

That's pretty heady stuff for a bunch of guys who are typically more about escapism ("Gotta Get Away") and self-deprecating humor ("Self-Esteem," "Bad Habit").

Still, it's not as though The Offspring has gone completely serious. Prime example: an out-of-control cover of Morris Albert's "Feelings," with rewritten lyrics: "trying to forget these feelings of hate."

Both members, then, see The Offspring as a balance of extremes -- bash and brains. "We've always been that sort of band," Noodles explains. "That's one of the things we liked about punk from the start. Let's face it: Rock-and-roll isn't created by brain surgeons. It's 'Wow, party, Friday night, hot chicks' ... that's rock-and-roll, right?

"But punk rock took it a step further. I always thought it was music for people who were reflective. I mean, it's possible to think too much, but it's also very possible to think too little."

From Orange County Register - December 7, 1998