The Offspring TshirTS,

The Offspring PosTerS

The Offspring (sometimes referred to as simply "Offspring") is a popular American band from Orange County, California which formed in 1984. The Offspring currently consists of Dexter Holland (lead vocals, guitar), Noodles (guitar, backing vocals), Greg K. (bass, backing vocals), and Pete Parada (drums).

Since their 1994 album Smash, the best-selling independent label album of all time, The Offspring has achieved commercial success over five albums, with singles such as "Come Out and Play," "Self-Esteem," and "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)". In addition to Smash, The Offspring albums Ixnay on the Hombre, Americana, and Conspiracy of One have each received platinum certification.

The Offspring has sold over 32 million albums worldwide[8], making them one of the best-selling punk acts of all time. The Offspring is credited, along with fellow California punk bands Green Day and Rancid, with reviving popular interest in punk rock in the United States during the mid 1990s.

The Offspring was formed in 1984 by guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland and bassist Greg K, two friends who met on their high school cross-country team and formed the band "Manic Subsidal." The decision to form a band came outside of a Social Distortion concert, when both were refused entry. Doug Thompson was added for vocals, and Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman, the school janitor was welcomed into The Offspring, allegedly because he was old enough to purchase alcohol for Holland and Kriesel, both of whom were under the legal drinking age. The Offspring used Thompson's friend, Jim Benton, as their drummer. Thompson was forced out of The Offspring, while Benton left. This led to Holland taking over on vocals, and James Lilja joining as the drummer. The band changed their name to "The Offspring" in 1985.

In 1987, The Offspring released their first single; the 7" "Blackball/I'll Be Waiting". The Offspring released the album on their self-made Black Label record company, which was named after the brand of beer named Black Label. Lilja quit The Offspring shortly after the release to pursue a medical career in gynaecology, and was replaced by Ron Welty, who was only 16 years old at the time.

In 1988, The Offspring signed a recording deal with a small-time label, Nemesis Records. With producer Thom Wilson, The Offspring recorded their debut album, simply titled The Offspring, which was released in 1989. The album was released in limited amounts by the label, only in a 12" Vinyl format. The CD release of the album would not surface until 1995.

In 1991, The Offspring teamed up with Wilson again to produce the Baghdad 7". This EP was instrumental to The Offspring's signing with Epitaph Records. Wilson had been trying to get The Offspring to switch to Epitaph, a label run by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Gurewitz felt that The Offspring was just not quite pronounced enough for his label, but Baghdad convinced him to give The Offspring a shot. Wilson and The Offspring entered the studio again and recorded Ignition. Released in 1992, Ignition exceeded all of the label's and The Offspring's expectations. The Offspring  went on tour for the next two years with other punk bands such as Pennywise, and ska punk bands like No Doubt and Voodoo Glow Skulls.

When The Offspring returned to the studio to work on their third album in 1993, The Offspring's relations with producer Thom Wilson had begun to strain. The Offspring released what would become their biggest selling CD, titled Smash (1994). Fueled by the hit singles "Come Out and Play," "Self-Esteem," and "Gotta Get Away," this album set the all-time record for most units sold by an independent label band at 14 million records. Holland credits Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana for creating the environment which allowed The Offspring to succeed.

After the release of Smash, and armed with a newly expanded income, The Offspring decided to buy out the rights to their first album. Holland and Greg K then created their own record label, Nitro Records, and started signing bands. One of their first releases was a re-release of their first album The Offspring. The label also signed a number of punk bands including AFI, The Vandals, and Guttermouth. Soon after Nitro Records became solely Dexter's responsibility.

After Smash and the subsequent two years of touring, Wilson, who during the Smash studio sessions criticized the direction of The Offspring's music as straying away from punk, was fired. Around the same time, The Offspring left Epitaph and signed with Columbia Records, allegedly because they were offended by an insurance policy that Brett Gurewitz had taken out on The Offspring . Epitaph sued, claiming that The Offspring had not fulfilled its contract. The settlement was an estimated $2 million and the rights to all European single sales. Not only this, but the move caused a fan backlash. Most fans of The Offspring thought that the move to Columbia was purely for financial gain; to this day The Offspring still deny that charge.

After the Smash tour finally ended in late 1995, The Offspring began writing and recording their fourth album, titled Ixnay on the Hombre, in 1996. The album came out on February 4, 1997, which happened to be Noodles' 34th birthday. This album was not as successful as Smash, although it did sell 4 million units. The album saw The Offspring  move away from the political-punk themes common to many Epitaph bands, and more into mainstream rock with songs like: "All I Want," "Gone Away," and, "I Choose." The video for "I Choose" was directed by Holland himself. The Offspring believe that when Ixnay... came out that the fans were expecting "Smash Part Two" (in their own words) which is why they moved away from their former style.

In 1998, The Offspring released Americana. This album was musically lighter than Smash and Ixnay but lyrically darker in attitude, while still maintaining a punk-like sound. Two of the album's singles: "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)," and "Why Don't You Get a Job," became The Offspring's two biggest hits, both charting in the ARC Top 40  and making the album the peak of The Offspring's mainstream popularity.

In 1999, The Offspring appeared as themselves in the film Idle Hands. They play "Beheaded" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" at a school dance before Holland is killed. The Offspring also appeared at the infamous Woodstock 1999, where their performance was broadcast live on pay per view television.

2000 saw The Offspring release a new album called Conspiracy of One. The Offspring intended to release the entire album online through their official website, to show their support for downloading music on the internet. However, under threat of legal action by Columbia through their parent company Sony, only the first single "Original Prankster" was released online. The Offspring lso sold T-shirts on their website with the Napster logo on it and donated money to Napster creator Shawn Fanning with the profits.

The Offspring also released a new single "Defy You" exclusively for the film Orange County.

Nearly three years after the release of Conspiracy of One, long-time drummer Ron Welty left The Offspring in 2003 to start Steady Ground, a band in which he plays the drums and co-produces. The parties have not elaborated on the departure.

In 2003, The Offspring released their seventh album Splinter. The Offspring recruited Josh Freese to record the drums for Splinter, and later announced that Atom Willard would be the official replacement for Ron Welty. The album's original title was to be Chinese Democracy, the name of the long-delayed album by Guns N' Roses. As a result, Axl Rose filed a cease and desist order against The Offspring, and to avoid delaying the release, The Offspring  chose to simply rename the album. The first single "Hit That" enjoyed moderate success on MTV. "Hit That" used a variety of electronic samples, different from what The Offspring has done in the past.

In 2005, The Offspring released a Greatest Hits album with a DualDisc. The Greatest Hits album contains 14 of The Offspring's hits between Smash and Splinter, and two previously never released songs "Can't Repeat" and "Next to You" (a cover of The Police) (a hidden track). The compilation does not contain any material from the first album and Ignition. The DualDisc contains video of Dexter and Noodles discussing The Offspring's history and a bonus acoustic version of the song "Dirty Magic." About a month later, The Offspring released a video DVD with all of their music videos, and some videos from a live show.

During the summer of 2005, The Offspring played the Vans Warped Tour for the first time, and followed that with a tour of Europe and Japan. After the "Greatest Hits" world tour The Offspring took a break from writing, recording and touring. During the hiatus, Willard was recruited by Tom DeLonge for his band Angels and Airwaves and released an album, We Don't Need to Whisper, in 2006

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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