Offspring "Fly" High With Successful New Album

SoCal punkers say hit Americana album, "Pretty Fly" single just business as usual for band.

Even before the Offspring's fifth and latest album, Americana, proved itself on the Billboard charts, the recording had already met the band's particular standards, singer Dexter Holland said. By tuning out the rest of the world while in the studio, the Southern California punkers tried to be true to themselves.

"I felt really comfortable that we could put out a regular old Offspring record," the 32-year-old Holland said of Americana. "With the last album [1997's Ixnay on the Hombre], there was that feeling that we were going to be really scrutinized, that the whole thing was kind-of under the microscope.

"Americana... has all these nice glossy connotations of Norman Rockwell and white picket fences. But today's American culture is much more about every kid having a tattoo and a nipple piercing." - Dexter Holland

"It was something that gnawed at you, but what you have to do is just get beyond that and make the record that you're going to make, regardless of whether anybody is listening to it at all."

But with Americana, people are listening, judging by the heavy radio-and-MTV play of the album's first single, "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)".

The way things are going, the Offspring should be feeling "pretty fly" themselves. Riding high three months after its release, Americana has spent the last two weeks at the #4 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

"All the gauges that I use to determine how records are performing [were] all there [for 'Pretty Fly'] - sales, research and requests," said Aaron Axelsen, music director at San Francisco modern-rock station Live105.

Axelsen reported that Live 105 has spun the song nearly 600 times."The reason why this record is doing so well is that 'Pretty Fly' has started to cross over," he said. "When you have a band like the Offspring being embraced by crossover formats, they've transcended their fanbase, and it's really helping to fuel the sales."

"It's done really well," confirmed Howard Krumholtz, rock buyer at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. "The last one didn't sell as well, but we've had to do lots of reorders on this one."

Though Billboard 's modern-rock singles chart currently ranks "Pretty Fly" at #6, some stations are shifting attention to the next single, the talk-show inspired "Why Don't You Get a Job?". For example, at Live 105, the song was the second-most-played song for last week, Axelsen said.

For Holland, "Why Don't You Get A Job" fits under the overall theme of the album, which he defines as a "'90s version of American culture," though he hesitates to call it a concept album.

"I like that each song is just sort-of a snapshot of what's going on today," he said. "It seemed to kind-of fit into this idea of Americana, which has all these nice glossy connotations of Norman Rockwell and white picket fences. But today's American culture is much more about every kid having a tattoo and a nipple piercing and a sports utility vehicle - McDonald's and a Burger King on every corner. It's a much different reality than it was before."

Recorded at Eldorado Recording Studio in Burbank, Americana still conveys the irreverent punk style that first endeared the Offspring to a wide fanbase on such songs as "Self Esteem", from 1994's Smash. But it also introduces new influences - such as the hip-hop, pop and Latin stylings of "Pretty Fly" - that were not previously apparent in their sound.

"It's a very palatable record," Axelson said. "They've reinvented themselves, and that's what you have to do as a band. They did that with this record, and that's why it's doing so well... This isn't like [the sort of] pure punk record that Offspring once was associated with. They've grown from that. They still have their punk ethics and sensibilities, but they've moved on... and that's why they're so successful."

The band was formed in Orange County, Calif. 12 years ago when Holland hooked up with guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, bassist Greg K. (Kriesel) and drummer Ron Welty. The foursome put out three independent releases, their 1989 self-titled debut, 1992's Ignition, and 1994's Smash, before signing to Columbia and releasing Ixnay on the Hombre in 1997.

By Teri Van Horn, from SonicNet - January 25, 1999