Can A Mainstream Punk Rock Band Stay Relevant After 20 Years?
The Offspring in 2012, releasing their 9th studio album
In 1996, the Offspring had reached enormous levels of success which could have never been predicted by an record label executive. The band had sold millions of copies of their third full-length record, "Smash" without the backing of a major label. They were all over the radio, plastered on the front of rock magazines, selling out headlining shows, and receiving constant play on MTV. They even had a performance in 1994 at the Billboard music awards. Their first attempt to match "Smash" was met with a decline in sales and airplay, while their second shot on a major would nearly match those sales. It was hard to say where the band would go, or if they would even stay together up to 2012.
This 1994 performance of fan favorite "Bad Habit" exposed the Offspring to a whole new audience, and with gusto.
From 2003 until now, the band has gone on to record three full length records, with their longest span in between releases seen from 2003 to 2008. "Splinter" was the first of these releases. The record received the most mixed reviews the band had ever seen, as many complained about the length of the record, with a couple of songs considered straight filler which threw a wrench into the flow of an album struggling to find an identity - and that was easily how the Offspring could have been described; as a band without identity.
With a mixed bag such as "Splinter", one could only suggest that the band was losing touch with it's roots but at the same time experimenting with trying to stay fresh to constant turnover of fans. After all, who's buying your records from the chain stores? Kids, mostly. How could the band appeal to kids? It seemed as if they didn't know, so they tried nearly everything they could.
The lead single from "Splinter" seemed like something the band had never recorded. "Hit That" was poppy punk hid behind a synthesizer beat which amped itself up with driving guitar in the chorus. But behind the mask of production was really just another attempt to recreate the magic of "Come Out & Play", as Dexter Holland went back (again) to attempt his signature vaguely sociopolitical lyrics with a wink to his audience. Thankfully, it wasn't as painful as "Original Prankster", but it begun to feel as if every lead single was just becoming another degree of a poor mans "Come Out & Play". Did the band have any other tricks up their sleeves to get their records off the shelves?
"Cant Get My Head Around You" borrowed it's opening riff from "Americana's" "Staring At The Sun". A boring video accompanied the boring track.
"Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace" would be the bands next release. An album three years in the making, it was recorded in various locations over the time period, including Hawaii. The result was another incredibly mixed bag from the band, perhaps even more so than "Splinter". As Holland tried to dig deeper, and throw away the cluttered humorous tracks from previous albums in order to fill those gaps with songs for a new generation of youths to relate to, he fell more than short.
He takes a shot at the sentimental with the apologetic ballad, "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" which he wrote for a girl who grew up in the same town as him and was sexually abused. Apparently most of the town was aware, but failed to intervene. This track could have resulted in a richer direction for the band, but instead Holland's simply unimaginative lyrics gave way to an instrumental reminiscent of Simple Plan's corniest tracks.
"Kristy Are You Doing Okay?" bumps up the sentimentality with lackluster results.
Another single effort, "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" stood out like a sore thumb on an album which ranged anywhere from trying to replicate the recent major label success of Rise Against (who both Holland and Noodles claim to be fans of) to "American Idiot" era Green Day and all the way back to 90's Post-Grunge. For a band always attempting to replicate their past success, it seemed as if their new choice of direction was to replicate the recent success of others.
"You're Gonna Go Far Kid" is perhaps one of only a few tracks which sound anything close to the Offspring of the past on "Rise & Fall..".
Regardless, "Rise & Fall..." went on to sell less than a million copies, receive mixed to negative reviews, though it did crack the top ten on the Billboard chart. Despite the reaction to the album, the band didn't seem phased, perhaps due to settling into a constant groove and a comfortable life, they chugged along touring and preparing for their next record.
In comparison to their 1994 performance posted above, just last year the band plays a set clocking in at just over an hour at a festival in the Netherlands. During the first track, Holland loses his breath, failing to regain his energy for the remainder of the show. The rest of the band plays on, looking disinterested. This is 11 years after the band claimed to MuchMusic's George Stroumboulopouls, "We just love doing what we love to do." In regards to why the band has lasted so long. Perhaps things have changed.
2012 sees the release of two new singles from the bands upcoming ninth studio release, "Days Go By". The uninspired, flat tracks don't show as much as a change in direction for the band, more of a path running into a brick wall. The title track from the upcoming LP seems to be another attempt at current faceless radio rock the group seems to think they can not only pull off, but do better than the groups 20 year younger than them. Frankly, they are dead wrong.
The video for "Days Go By" looks as if it has a budget of under 500 dollars, but not in a punk rock way, more in a "were about to be dropped by our label if we don't go gold in the states with this record" way.
Of course, the band fails to disappoint us this time around, finally releasing a single that will get our toes tapping and the girls at the beach singing along with these California elderly punks again - that is, of course, before we all stick the barrel of a shotgun in our mouths and pull the trigger. The companion single to "Days Go By" is just that awful. In the same vein of "Pretty Fly" and "Original Prankster", "Crusin' California" attempts to parody. This time, the band takes on the music industry, ironically enough. Seemingly, the pop hooks are a stab at artists such as Katy Perry in a "Look! Hey! We can do it, too!" kind of way. Unfortunately, the track will both be misinterpreted as a real radio hit, and as an biting satire, neither of which it is.
An awful video for the Offspring's worst single to date. "Crusin' California" might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the bands critical career.
"Days Go By" will be released later this month, and I am sitting here, dreading to write the review. If anything, going in with low expectations based on these two singles, I may be pleasantly surprised. Most signs point to the Offspring going to way of the Dodo when it comes to being plastered on mainstream media, but only time will tell.
