Offspring - Biography

Offspring Biography

The Offspring are a popular American punk rock band consisting of vocalist and guitarist Dexter Holland, Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman (also on guitar), bassist Greg K. and Ron Welty on drums (pre 2003) replaced by Atom Willard on drums (post 2003).

Contents

1 Background

2 Discography

2.1 Studio Albums
2.2 EPs
2.3 Singles
2.4 DVDs and Videos

3 External links

Background

On March 18, 2003, Ron Welty left The Offspring to devote all his energies on a new band 'Steady Ground'. The Offspring held hundreds of auditions for a new drummer, finally deciding to announce Atom Willard as the new drummer. Atom Willard was in Rocket From The Crypt for ten years and more recently played with Moth, the Alkaline Trio and Melissa Auf Der Maur.

Although their first album, The Offspring, was very similar to late 1980s punk, the next album, Ignition, saw them move away from more traditional punk, heading into the punk of the mid-1990s with songs like 'Dirty Magic'. It was 1994's Smash that brought Offspring into the mainstream; that album sold over eleven million copies worldwide.

In 1996, The Offspring jumped ship from Epitaph and signed with Columbia Records. Many punk rock purists criticized this decision, feeling that The Offspring jumped from an independent to a major label, solely for financial gain. They released their follow up to Smash in 1997, entitled Ixnay on the Hombre. The commercial success of this record was somewhat disappointing, only going on to sell four million copies.

On each album, The Offspring always tend to have a couple of songs based on social/political subject matter, a testament to their punk roots. Songs like 'Jennifer Lost The War' and 'Kill The President' on The Offspring, 'L.A.P.D' on Ignition, 'It'll Be A Long Time' and 'Not the One' on Smash, and 'Meaning Of Life' and 'Change the World' on Ixnay On The Hombre, communicated the band's general position on social and political issues (though the band has not been known to be outspoken or active politically, especially by punk standards).

Although Smash was the album that originally brought The Offspring into commercial success and wide recognition, it was the release of 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)' from the 1998 album Americana which established the band as a regular feature on MTV and established The Offspring as a regular chart presence. Their latest is Splinter. They are working on a greatest hits album as their first compilation that is currently untitled, they'll release it sometime in 2005 and they might be working on their 8th album that will be released probably late in the same year.

Discography

Studio Albums

''The Offspring'', 1989/1995 (re-issue) self-titled debut album	''Ignition'', 1992	''Smash'', 1994	''Ixnay On The Hombre'', 1997
''Americana'', 1998	''Conspiracy Of One'', 2000	''Splinter'', 2003