I'm going to lose a lot of punk credibility, but The Offspring's– wait a minute, what punk cred' do I have? Aside from electronic music's 'digital punks' The Prodigy and Gorillaz, I haven’t come within a hair of that scene – and no, I don't have any Alex Empire either. I did grow up around the stuff, many of my musically inclined associates learning to play Green Day riffs and such. Hanging out with Peter Punk and Oliver Oi’ provided enough exposure to the music, constant rotations of Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords filling whatever need I could have as a teen. Oh, and a pair of songs from The Offspring’s Smash made it onto a mixtape. What can I say, that album was freakin’ huge in 1994.
Right, so any real hardcore punks reading this (oh ho-ho-ho!) are biting their thumbs at what constituted a punk scene where I grew up. “Green Day? NOFX? Bunch’a fuckin’ mainstream pop shite, they are, mate,” says the street rat with liberty spikes. Fair enough sentiments from the hardcore, but even in the pop-punk side of things, lines were being drawn. Smash’s popularity quickly led to Offspring burn-out, such that when Ixnay On The Hombre came out, it didn’t sell as spectacularly as their breakout. Of course, by the time Americana was released, a new generation of high school kids were won over by the band’s pop-punk charms. Shame The Offspring couldn’t pull the same trick a third time, but by then emo was all the rock-kids rage.
Where was I again? Oh yeah, that punk credibility thing. The Offspring's Ixnay On The Hombre is a far better album of punk and rock than most would expect, with an opening salvo of The Meaning Of Life and Mota kicking all sorts of ass. I gotta play these whenever I need firing up to do anything. Hell, even doing the dishes sounds awesome while thrashing away to Mota!
The Offspring do show some musical diversity throughout, getting funkier with Me & My Old Lady and I Choose, slower with Gone Away (reminding me of Tears For Fears), and regular ol’ rocky with Amazed, which is nice for album pacing. Let’s be honest though, these guys are at their best when they tear out with the damned ear-wormiest hooks around. Despite many of the songs’ topics coming off immature (though I’m pretty sure Cool To Hate’s supposed to be ironic), you can’t help but get caught up in the energy of their music.
Speaking of which, holy shit, I had no idea All I Want was on this album! The tune’s hopelessly ingrained into my noggin’, as I’m sure anyone that’s played copious amounts of Crazy Taxi can attest to. Man, I was boss at that game.
I doubt anyone reading this on an electronic music blog cares to check out Ixnay On The Hombre on a whim. If you’re feeling daring though, it’s certainly not a bad place to get acquainted with the punk scene.
ACE TRACKS:
All I Want
Mota
I Choose
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