Come Out and Play
adventures in microbiology and punk rock, with a side trip through music law
Garden Grove, California, a city of about 175,000, is the home of several notables. Steve Martin grew up there, as did MLB legend Lenny Dykstra, makeup artist Jeffree Star, and author Jennette McCurdy. (If you haven’t read I’m Glad My Mom Died, go fix that now. It’s incredibly powerful.) There have been more than a handful of musicians to grace the Orange County town, including Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe, and all of the metalcore band Atreyu. There’s only one band, though, that fully encapsulates the Garden Grove spirit.
In 1983, two teenagers in nearby Cypress, California decided to form a garage band. A bassist and a drummer respectively, they quickly realized they needed more than just the duo to realize their dreams. After a Social Distortion show where they barely escaped a crowd riot, the twosome elected to pursue a punk rock direction and hired a guitarist and singer. When their first singer didn’t work out, our drummer took the mantle of frontman and main songwriter. Hiring a new drummer from local band Clowns of Death (great name) led to replacing their existing lead guitarist with the local elementary school’s janitor, whose primary appeal was that he could buy alcohol legally for the rest of the band. Together, they formed a legendary band known far and wide: Manic Subsidal.
At this point, you’re thinking to yourself that you’ve never heard of that band and you’re wondering if I’ve sent this from an alternate universe where everything is topsy-turvy in some sort of absurd “for want of a nail” morality play. Instead, I want you to know that they changed their name by 1986. Bryan “Dexter” Holland (vocals, rhythm guitar), Greg “Greg K.” Kriesel (bass), Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman (lead guitar), and James “no cute nickname” Lilja (drums) took their name from a terrible movie called The Offspring: They Were Born to Kill. Holland had graduated in 1984 from Pacifica High School (as valedictorian specializing in mathematics no less!), so they were free to pursue music as a career full time.
Their first record was a self-produced and self-distributed seven-inch single titled “I’ll Be Waiting”. For the youngins amongst us, a seven-inch single was a small vinyl record played at 45 revolutions per minute instead of the 33 revolutions of a full-sized long-play album. Singles could hold just one song on each side, with one usually being the primary focus (the “a-side”) and one being of secondary importance (the “b-side”). The single the Offspring produced was more in line with the hardcore punk of T.S.O.L. or Youth Brigade than the skate-punk for which they would later become best-known. At the same time, they also recorded a demo that was shopped around to bigger labels, though unsuccessfully.
Shortly after the single’s release, Lilja announced that he was quitting the band to pursue medical school. Dr. Lilja would go on to become a leading dual specialist in both oncology and gynecology/obstetrics, with a thriving practice in Los Angeles to this day. To replace Lilja, Holland hired sixteen year old Ron Welty, who was so young that his mother asked Holland to affirm in writing that he would personally ensure Welty’s safety on tour. It was this configuration that would have the most lasting impact to music history.
Following several years of playing shows throughout Southern California and attracting some limited media attention (including a positive write-up in the Maximumrocknroll zine for a second demo recorded in 1988), the Offspring reconvened with tiny Nemesis Records to record their first full-length album in 1989. The self-titled album was released in June of that year, producing just five thousand copies on vinyl and cassette. The album included both of the songs on the initial single three years prior (although re-recorded with producer Thom Wilson), and a bonus cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” exclusive to the cassette.
The album was not a success at all, with those five thousand copies taking almost three years to sell out. Part of the lack of success was due to Nemesis not having much of a marketing or distribution system, while the stabbing (!) of Noodles at an anti-nuclear benefit concert shortly before a projected six week national tour didn’t help matters. Over the next few years, the Offspring attracted attention from bigger labels, specifically Brett Gurewitz’s Epitaph Records.
Gurewitz, who made his name with Bad Religion and was instrumental in changing the course of punk and punk-adjacent music distribution in the early Nineties, didn’t think the Offspring fit his image of a marketable band he could promote. The band reconvened with Wilson in 1991 to produce a four song EP called Baghdad with some re-worked versions of older songs, and used the studio time to sketch out some potential new material. On hearing this version of the band, Gurewitz signed them to a multi-release contract.
1992 saw the release of Ignition, featuring a greater emphasis on guitar and songwriting. One of the differentiators for Noodles in particular has been the use of non-Western scales like the Arabic and Phrygian modes. This gives their leads a distant and otherworldly feeling unlike the pentatonic or minor-scale figures found in most other punk-influenced music. Despite the perception of punk as “dumbed down” in comparison to other popular genres, there can be considerable depth and variety if the artists are capable.
Ignition was the impetus for a seemingly never-ending series of performances throughout the country, as the Offspring toured as both headliners and in supporting roles for acts like Lunachicks, Korn, NOFX, and labelmates Bad Religion. Although not selling a fantastic amount of copies, Ignition was fairly well reviewed at the time. Epitaph kept them on the road through 1994 with a tour behind Pennywise for their Unknown Road album.
Less than a week after the end of that tour, the Offspring released Smash. With Epitaph Records giving the band a miniscule budget of $20,000, they used every trick they could to maximize their time in the studio including recording overnights when the studio would otherwise be empty and the owners would give them a discount. Musically, the Offspring had developed a more refined approach that combined the guitar harshness of hardcore punk with the addition of accessible melodies from popular music. While still retaining the aggression and energy of punk, this was catchy, hooky material.
Luckily for the Offspring, two other bands were exploring some of the same territory. Green Day took a similar trajectory when the independent release Kerplunk began burbling underground in 1991; by the time of their 1994 album Dookie, they had signed to a major label and gotten significant marketing muscle that allowed them to reach a much wider audience. On a smaller scale, Rancid followed the Offspring’s path towards Epitaph Records when they pivoted from Lookout! Records’ less comprehensive publicity mechanisms. By combining Rancid’s ska-influenced sound with the Offspring’s esoteric and sardonic music, Epitaph constructed a touring lineup that effectively multiplied their appeal. The duo attracted eyes and ears beyond the state of California, allowing national audiences to sample their wares. Together, the trio (for better or for worse) expanded the scope of punk rock to a new generation of listeners.
In May 1994, the Offspring released their first music video and wide-release single in “Come Out and Play”. Thanks in part to early support from Los Angeles radio station KROQ, the song was their first to reach number one on the Billboard modern rock charts. Exposure on MTV via their video meant that the album began to see significant sales as well. Although not an immediate success, Smash would build upon itself to the point where it is now the biggest selling independent album of all time in any genre, selling more than six million copies in the United States and over eleven million worldwide.
With this achievement came some significant obstacles. Epitaph outstripped their capacity for promotion and distribution, to the point that Gurewitz transferred their contract for future albums to Columbia Records. Whether this transfer was voluntary or spurred by legal action of some variety remains a matter of contention and dispute, as do so many occurrences in the band’s history. Holland’s version of events is that Gurewitz offered the band a very lucrative deal upfront with generous royalties and advances that had some severe strings attached: namely restrictions on what material could be recorded (specifically no cover songs), a ban on playing with outside bands (making side projects impossible), unlimited use of Offspring songs on Epitaph compilations, and most egregiously the rights to take out life insurance policies on band members that would pay out directly to Gurewitz. The Offspring refused to sign an extension with these concessions, so Gurewitz sold the rights to Columbia. The band signed a contract with Columbia as well, with less favorable terms including more albums and lower royalty rates. Epitaph portrayed the move in the punk and independent music press as the Offspring “selling out” to a major label.
Around this time, Holland and Kriesel founded their own record label, Nitro Records, with Holland quickly taking control of the day-to-day operations. (This will be a recurring theme as well.) Nitro Records bought the rights to the debut Offspring album, reissuing it in an updated version with wider distribution than the original tiny release. Nitro also served as a place for Holland to release material from both established bands that influenced the Offspring (like The Damned, the Vandals, and T.S.O.L) as well as new and upcoming bands that became important to the next generation such as Guttermouth and most notably AFI. It was with Nitro Records and in his negotiations with Columbia that Holland developed his reputation as a smart and shrewd businessman; neither rejecting nor embracing the term “sellout”, Holland made good use of his savvy to keep both the band and his own personal fortunes afloat for the next several decades.
Having navigated the transition to a major label, the Offspring began work on their follow-up Ixnay on the Hombre in 1996. With actual funding this time around, the band were able to spend almost four months in the studio. They also departed from Thom Wilson’s production, instead choosing to work with engineer Dave Jerden (famous for working with such diverse acts as the Rolling Stones, Herbie Hancock, Talking Heads, and Alice in Chains). The album was released in February 1997, the same month that an eleven-month long tour commenced. The Offspring would tour internationally and domestically for all of 1997, playing shows in Canada, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Europe. (In Europe, their record was still distributed by Epitaph thanks to some clever legal wrangling on the part of Gurewitz.)
Unfortunately, the “sophomore slump” hit the band like a ton of bricks. There were no singles that had the impact of “Come Out and Play” or “Self Esteem”, and audiences were less enthused by the more metallic direction of Jerden’s production. The lack of a killer single led to lower sales of the album, with Ixnay moving only three million copies. (Considering Ignition sold approximately fifteen thousand on its initial release, may we all be so lucky to have such a flop.) The relentless road schedule would pay dividends soon enough, though, as new ideas for the next album were plentiful.
July 1998 saw the Offspring enter Eldorado Studios in Burbank once more with Dave Jerdan at the helm. This time, the band sought to expand on the genre diversity they toyed with on Ixnay and embrace a more experimental direction rather than strictly punk and metal influence. Songs from these sessions would incorporate Latin percussion, reggae basslines, and psychedelic guitar in turn, keeping audiences on their toes. Americana was released in November of that year, to a resounding resurgence of commercial power. Entering the Billboard album charts at number six with almost two hundred thousand copies sold in the first week, Americana was (pardon the pun) another smash. Spurred on by the massive promotion behind their most successful single ever “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”, the Offspring were now one of the biggest bands in America.
Subsequent singles like “Why Don’t You Get a Job” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” helped cement the album as a runaway success, with the album peaking at number two on the charts and selling over ten million copies worldwide. (This was also my first Offspring album, though I had the cassette version because my family didn’t own a CD player yet. Score one for the lower middle class.) Americana also marked the first pseudo-change to the band’s lineup since Welty’s arrival, when Chris “X-13” Higgins made his recording debut. Higgins joined the touring band in 1994 as essentially a utility player (backing vocals, additional guitar, incidental percussion, and keyboards). All of the “extra” pieces that give the Offspring sonic depth were usually played live by Higgins.
Another year-long tour followed before the band reconvened in 2000 after a short break to recuperate. Now buoyed by two separate diamond-selling albums, Columbia Records opened the pocketbook to hire the most lucrative producer in alternative music up to that point, Brendan O’Brien. Working out of NRG Studios in North Hollywood, the band spent the better part of the summer refining demos into a finished product. Instead of expanding further into different genres, the Offspring focused almost exclusively on pop-punk and skate-punk, with only one tangent into something different: a collaboration with the rapper Redman on “Original Prankster”. When the album Conspiracy of One was ready for release, the band planned on pursuing a truly novel way of distribution: they were going to release the album onto the internet to show their appreciation for file-sharing and get their music into as many hands as possible. Instead, Columbia Records threatened to sue them out of existence, so a more traditional release was enacted.
Conspiracy of One gets a bad rap, but it is almost certainly the most slickly produced, radio-ready album in the Offspring catalog. Every arrangement is deeply layered, intricate, and tight, although following the trend in popular music mastering at the time, the album is brick-walled to within an inch of its life. The investment in the album and the promotion that went into it were not well spent, though. Sales stalled at just over a million copies, and none of the singles did the business of anything on Americana. Undeterred, the band spent the majority of the next two years on tour, because the Offspring are nothing if not road warriors.
Three weeks prior to returning to the studio for their next album, Ron Welty was no longer a member of the band. What exactly happened is up for debate, but from the details of a lawsuit filed by Welty in 2020, it appears Holland and Wasserman fired Welty while portraying it in media as Welty voluntarily leaving. That may have been a case of saving face or spinning a story into a positive, but the result was that the band was without a drummer and in a crunch. Luckily, there was a ready solution. One of the bands signed to Nitro Records was the Vandals, who have the honor of including one of the most sought-after hired gun drummers in all of popular music: Josh Freese. Freese at the time was a member of the Vandals and A Perfect Circle, and had just come off of a stint with Guns ‘N’ Roses. With just two days free, Freese recorded all of the drums for each song without breaking a sweat. With the album in the bag, the band hired Atom Willard of Rocket From The Crypt (and later Angels and Airwaves) as their permanent drummer.
Splinter is probably the weakest Offspring album, and the sales reflect that. Topping out at number thirty on the Billboard charts, Splinter ended up selling just over five hundred thousand copies. Neither “Hit That” nor “(I Can’t Get My) Head Around You” are worth writing home about, and the non-single album tracks are significantly worse. “Hit That” plays with some electronica influences, in the same way “Original Prankster” played with hip-hop, although with less success both commercially and artistically. Another two years of touring supported the album, and for the first time the Offspring played the Vans Warped Tour all summer long. At the end of the tour, the band took a significant break for the first time.
In 2005, the band released a Greatest Hits album (only featuring songs from Smash forward) as a stopgap and a way to satisfy Columbia’s insistence on another album. The compilation also included a new song recorded with Willard (“Next to You”, a cover of the Police) and an unreleased vault track with Freese behind the skins (“Can’t Repeat”, a holdover from the Splinter sessions). The album sold moderately well, moving more than a million copies.
The Greatest Hits album also marks the only time that Willard recorded anything with the Offspring, as he left the band prior to their next album. Willard had devoted himself to the then-nascent Angels and Airwaves, and didn’t have time to record and tour with the Offspring any more. Bob Rock (of Metallica and Mötley Crüe fame) was chosen to produce and help refine the direction of what would become Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace in 2006, but sessions lasted for the next two years. When it came time to record drums, the band once more reached out to Josh Freese who as always delivered a timely and professional performance. The songs were definitely more metal-inspired, with a deeper hardcore leaning returning to the fold. Like their last album five years previous, it was seen as a sales disappointment, selling just over five hundred thousand copies.
The band still needed a drummer on a permanent basis, as Freese was unavailable at the time for any kind of extended engagement. Pete Parada, formerly drummer for Saves the Day and Face to Face, was chosen, and went out on tour with the Offspring to promote 2008’s Rise and Fall. Over the next several years, the group would alternate short tours (backed by Warren Fitzgerald, Andrew Freeman, and Todd Morse in succession to replace Chris Higgins) with studio time, in addition to pursuing outside interests.
Prime among those outside interests was Holland’s resumption of his academic career. Around this time, he re-enrolled at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, where he used computer modeling of proteins with samples from the human immunodeficiency virus to determine novel approaches to anti-viral and retroviral solutions. That is to say, he knows his stuff when it comes to microbiology and public health. He earned his PhD in microbiology under Dr. Suraiya Rasheed in 2017. (This will be relevant later, because we live in the dumbest timeline.)
In 2012, the Offspring released Days Go By, once more produced by Bob Rock. It… is certainly an Offspring album. It’s wholly unremarkable, with no standout tracks whatsoever. Interestingly, over half of the drum tracks are recorded by Freese instead of Parada, either due to Freese being the better drummer (no argument there) or Holland’s stated reason of Parada not living in California with the rest of the band. It sold less than five hundred thousand copies, becoming the first Offspring album since their debut to not at least hit a Gold certification. Days Go By did serve one distinct purpose, though: it completed the contract with Columbia Records, allowing the band to find a new home for their music.
Once the contract completed, Holland and the band’s management reverted the ownership of their music back to themselves, allowing the Offspring to sell or license their music as they say fit. A minor bidding war emerged, as platinum-selling catalogs are seen as lucrative investment vehicles. (Just ask Taylor Swift, or better yet ask Scooter Braun.) In 2016, the band sold their publishing to Round Hill Records to the tune of $35,000,000, with $20,000,000 split among the current and former band members for their mechanical royalties and $15,000,000 going directly to Holland in his role as songwriter. Additionally, the Offspring eventually signed a deal with Bicycle Concord Records for new material, with distribution by Universal Music. Briefly, the band’s management signed the band to their own label Time Bomb Recordings, though Bicycle Concord bought them out as well. Instead of the punk bands that were the Offspring’s labelmates at Epitaph, they now share a label with Esperanza Spalding, Tears for Fears, Boz Scaggs, and Kristin Chenowith. (Hell of a dinner party, that.)
In 2018, Greg Kriesel alleges that he was told by Holland and Wasserman that he was no longer allowed to participate in any band functions, including recordings and live performances. He claimed that this was an attempt to circumvent his role as a “founder” of the band, and that he should have say in whether the band continued under its current form. Holland and Wasserman clearly disagreed, and went so far as to attempt to buy out Kriesel’s shares of the oral partnership that is the Offspring. Said partnership was formed when Dr. Lilja left the band, according to legal documents that would later be entered into court records. Kriesel filed suit to prevent this buyout from happening, but that process is still ongoing. (The last update was filed in January of 2023.) In the short term, the Offspring asked Tony Kanal of No Doubt to fill in as bassist for a tour of Australia and Japan, while long-term they asked Todd Morse to move permanently to bass as a full band member instead of just a touring member.
The Offspring almost completed their next album Let the Bad Times Roll in 2020 (with Holland recording basslines himself) just as COVID-19 hit. This delayed the release for another year, but the most lasting impact to the band is the subsequent dismissal of Pete Parada. Parada says he has Guillain-Barre Syndrome and that his doctor indicated a vaccine would potentially trigger his disease. Holland, in his role both as bandleader and a doctor of microbiology specializing in immunology and antivirals, insisted that for the safety of all involved vaccines were necessary to continue working together. Parada refused. Holland and Wasserman said that they would have to make other arrangements for the time being, which Parada interpreted as being fired.
Parada was not a band member from a legal perspective, instead falling under a salaried arrangement like a touring member or fill-in a la Josh Freese. After Kriesel’s firing/dismissal/whatever it was, only Holland and Wasserman retain ownership of the Offspring brand. Ergo, it was relatively simple to replace Parada. When you need a Josh Freese type, who’s the best solution? Josh Freese. They contracted with Freese for the entire promotional tour for the new album, and prepared to tour behind it once the pandemic subsided enough to be safe.
However, this would not be the only dispute regarding Offspring drummers at that time, as Ron Welty sued Holland, Wasserman, and Kriesel for what he believed to be unfair distribution of the 2016 publishing sale. Welty’s argument was that he should be considered a songwriter for all of the songs for which he provided drums, so the $15,000,000 songwriting royalties payout should be split multiple ways. Unfortunately for Welty, both Wasserman and even Kriesel (who had just sued the other two) agreed that the split in royalties was fair. (One might think that Kriesel was “made whole” at some point in-between the two lawsuits, but I don’t have a Lexis-Nexis account to check for sure and Kriesel’s suit appears to be active. Just a reminder: I’m not a lawyer, but I’m a fairly decent amateur researcher.) The judge who dismissed Welty’s case in 2023 cited Kriesel and Wasserman’s opinions, as if there were a discrepancy they would also be party to the complaint. From Judge William F. Fahey himself:
It is hard even to envision a reason why these two other band members would agree to such a structure unless they believed that Holland was the creator and owner of the music compositions. To adopt Welty’s theory would require this court to conclude that Wasserman and Kriesel knowingly walked away from a share of the additional $15 million […] as part of some scheme to deprive Welty of additional compensation. Such a conclusion is completely illogical as well as unsupported.
Let the Bad Times Roll came out in 2021, after nine years without new music. The delays caused by shuffling labels, shifting members, lawsuits, academic pursuits, and that pesky coronavirus stacked on top of one another, creating a perfect storm. Bob Rock once more produced the band, throughout all of the machinations. It appears that large portions of the songs were recorded, re-recorded, and even re-re-recorded thanks to various departures and legal wrangling. The album itself is middling, but solid in comparison to weak outings like Splinter or Days Go By.
After the release of Let the Bad Times Roll, the Offspring continued to work with Bob Rock to begin the process of their next album. Unfortunately, Josh Freese was no longer available due to the tragic death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, as Freese joined the Foos as Hawkins’ replacement. The Offspring (i.e. Holland and Wasserman) contracted former Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies drummer Brandon Pertzborn to replace Freese on a more permanent basis. As of yet, no new material has emerged.
This brings us to the present day. I hope you enjoyed all of the legalese and fact-finding, but part of me wishes I had picked a less litigious subject for this article. Now let’s move on to what you’re going to chastise me for the most: my picks for the top ten Offspring songs of all time. These are my choices and my choices alone; I bear sole responsibility for my tastes or lack thereof. I didn’t make a conscious choice to only select songs from their most successful era, but I wasn’t surprised to find myself choosing those tracks exclusively. Starting with number ten…
10. Defy You
“Defy You” wasn’t actually released on any primary Offspring album, instead finding a home on the Orange County soundtrack in 2001. The song was later released on their 2005 Greatest Hits compilation. Falling in-between Conspiracy of One and Splinter, this song represents the Offspring at their most “mainstream alternative”, as it doesn’t fit into their usual brand of skate-punk easily. This is also the last release with Ron Welty on drums before his departure.
9. Million Miles Away
The third single from Conspiracy of One, there was little fanfare for its release. Rather than a traditional music video, the single received a dubbed live performance as the visual component. I prefer performance-based videos to the vast majority of “conceptual” videos, so this is perfectly fine with me. The band doesn’t play it live with any regularity, and even left it off of the Greatest Hits compilation just four years later. Is this their secret shame? There are far worse songs in their catalog to be sure.
8. Gone Away
“Gone Away” has two very different versions in the Offspring discography. The first is the second single from Ixnay with traditional instrumentation. While playing it live, the song transformed from a full-band arrangement into a solo piano piece for Holland, a radical departure from their usual fare. The second arrangement was also released as a single, this time as the fourth single from Let the Bad Times Roll in 2021. (I prefer the original, and it’s not close.)
7. Smash It Up
Who doesn’t love the Val Kilmer version of Batman? Oh, most right-thinking people. As bad as the movie is, the soundtrack is fairly decent. Such luminaries as U2 (“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”), Seal (“Kiss From a Rose”), and Method Man (“The Riddler”) all contributed. The Offspring added a cover of the Damned song “Smash It Up”, which was also their last official Epitaph release in America.
6. Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
I believe it was Kurt Cobain who said that once Weird Al Yankovic uses your song, you know you’ve made it. “Pretty Fly” was and still is the Offspring’s most successful single, and the inherent “comedy” in the song made it ripe for parody. In retrospect, most of the lyrics are incredibly cringe. To be honest with you, I think I prefer the Yankovic version, even though Yankovic is not himself Jewish. Decide for yourself here:
5. All I Want
The lead single from Ixnay was the result of an Epitaph Records challenge to write a song like Bad Religion. When Holland took a crack at it and played it for Gurewitz under the working title “Protocol”, it was soundly rejected. Holland then took the bones of the song and re-worked it to sound more like the Offspring. The result was “All I Want”, which is pure skate-punk. In keeping with traditional punk, it’s also the shortest single in the Offspring discography.
4. Come Out and Play
Their first real introduction to national audiences, “Come Out and Play” was for a while omnipresent on both the radio and MTV thanks to support from KROQ and specifically DJ Jed the Fish. The song was inspired by the violence Holland perceived as pervasive when he was travelling to and from his master’s degree program at USC, while the “keep ‘em separated” interjection was originally made in regards to handling Erlenmeyer flasks in the lab while they were fresh from the autoclave. The band Agent Orange were not amused, though, when they thought that the main guitar line was lifted from their song “Bloodstains” originally recorded in 1979. They never actually filed suit, but much was made of how “un-punk” their attitude was. Joe Escalante, in his role as member of the Vandals (signed to Holland’s Nitro Records) and an entertainment lawyer, poked fun at the owner of Agent Orange’s publishing in his song “Aging Orange”:
Back in ancient Egypt many pharaohs went to jail
For misappropriation of my Phrygian scale
I said “Listen, Tutankhamun, you're driving me insane
It's obvious those bellies are all dancing to 'Bloodstains'
I figured out you owe me, and please try not to laugh
But every time I hear it, I get one more golden calf”
Ironically, the Offspring later covered “Bloodstains” for the Ready to Rumble soundtrack in 2000. Go figure. You make the call: is it a ripoff?
3. Self Esteem
The lyrics for this song are Holland at his most sardonic. He has taken pains to explain to audiences before that the experiences he wrote about are not his, but instead were inspired by the toxic relationships of people he knew. Arguably the Offspring song with the most lasting impact (especially in terms of “serious” songs), it has had more radio plays than all but five songs ever on “alternative rock” stations. Since its initial release in 1994, it has also been the traditional closing song for each Offspring concert.
2. Want You Bad
I feel okay in putting this song so high in my ranking as it is also one of Holland’s favorite songs to perform live. Unfortunately the video is epically bad, to the point where he says he is actively ashamed of it. The second single from Conspiracy of One, it was also the opening song to the epically bad 2001 film Tomcats, currently holding a solid 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It should be readily apparent that Jerry O’Connell shouldn’t be your leading male actor in a film, but common sense usually isn’t.
1. The Kids Aren’t Alright
When I sat down to write this article, there was no doubt as to what would be the top entry. “The Kids Aren’t Alright” was the third and best single from their best album Americana, and its lyrical content focused on the discrepancy between what future Holland’s friends growing up projected, and what actually happened. When he returned to Garden Grove as an adult, Holland discovered that many of his Orange County classmates had seen tragedy unfold in their lives. He decided to change the specific details like names, but each line in the song is an actual story of one of the people he and his bandmates went to school with. Ultimately, the song is the perfect encapsulation of what a mid-major suburb in America looked like in the late Nineties, making the Offspring one of the best representations of their culture. (The main riff is almost certainly ripped off from “Electricity” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, for what it’s worth.)
Thank you for indulging me this week. I almost certainly won’t go into this depth of research for my next one, unless the mood strikes me again. I’m open to ideas for future topics, so let me know what you want to see. (Yes, Brillie, I’ll eventually get to Chief Keef. Pinky swear.) See you next time, same LK time, same LK station.