Thom Wilson will be best-remembered for producing the Offspring's albums on Epitaph (especially the highest-selling independent album of all time), but his punk credibility was set ages earlier, with his name on records ranging from Christian Death's Only Theatre of Pain to the Dead Kennedys' Plastic Surgery Disasters. Like millions of kids who were in middle school in the mid-90s, I will best remember the late Thom Wilson for Smash, but more than enough will be written about that album this week. Let's take a look at Mommy's Little Monster.
It probably didn't seem likely that Social Distortion would last much longer in 1983. The heroin-addicted bandleader with an affinity for guyliner decades before it had a name and a fashion sense that owed as much to the Fonz as Johnny Rotten barely looked like he could keep his life together, much less a band. In the must-see punk doc Another State of Mind, the charms of Social Distortion and bandmates Youth Brigade (whom Wilson also produced) are far more apparent than their talents, even when we get a glimpse of Mike Ness writing a future punk anthem. Live, Ness barely knows what to do with his voice yet, but on Mommy's Little Monster he sounds not only self-assured but downright powerful, the bellowing old rockabilly hero in a hardcore kid's body any punk worth his or her patches today could instantly recognize. Orange County punk wasn't anyone's idea of a big seller in 1983, but the world would eventually catch up, as Green Day, the Offspring and Rancid could tell you, or even Social D, who have walked the line between punk and mainstream as well as any guitar slingers this side of Joan Jett. Maybe Ness was already more confident in the studio, but from Another State of Mind I'm guessing Wilson had to coax it out of him. Rock fans should be ever grateful.
Showing posts with label the offspring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the offspring. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Song of the Day: Suicidal Tendencies, "Pop Songs"
How did I never hear this song until this weekend?
On this week's Sound Opinions, Jim DeRogatis played this song to make a point that I disagree with (that the Grateful Dead suck) and to direct you to Nick Paumgarten's piece about Deadheads in The New Yorker. But with my Deadheadedness intact, I still get a huge kick out of "Pop Songs," a Suicidal Tendencies track from 2000.
"Pop Songs" takes swipes at the Dead, Britney Spears, Puff Daddy (rhymes with "and his friend the dead fatty") and more, but most of all the increasingly terrible bubblegum punk bands that have been on the airwaves in Dookie's wake. The lyrics are a scream ("If I hear another love ballad/I think I'm going to have to toss my salad,") and the music is even funnier, a formulaic, smoothed-out mall-punk jam that deserves the dance moves that Mike Muir gives it in the song's video. Satire a thin line, and it's hard to walk it without falling over (just ask the Offspring,) but "Pop Songs" is nasty and hilarious enough to keep itself from, as Kurt Cobain once put it, "choking on the ashes of her enemy." Not only that, it's one of ST's best moments.
On this week's Sound Opinions, Jim DeRogatis played this song to make a point that I disagree with (that the Grateful Dead suck) and to direct you to Nick Paumgarten's piece about Deadheads in The New Yorker. But with my Deadheadedness intact, I still get a huge kick out of "Pop Songs," a Suicidal Tendencies track from 2000.
"Pop Songs" takes swipes at the Dead, Britney Spears, Puff Daddy (rhymes with "and his friend the dead fatty") and more, but most of all the increasingly terrible bubblegum punk bands that have been on the airwaves in Dookie's wake. The lyrics are a scream ("If I hear another love ballad/I think I'm going to have to toss my salad,") and the music is even funnier, a formulaic, smoothed-out mall-punk jam that deserves the dance moves that Mike Muir gives it in the song's video. Satire a thin line, and it's hard to walk it without falling over (just ask the Offspring,) but "Pop Songs" is nasty and hilarious enough to keep itself from, as Kurt Cobain once put it, "choking on the ashes of her enemy." Not only that, it's one of ST's best moments.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Worst Song That You'll Hear All Year
Dexter Holland turned down a Ph.D. for this?
I'll stick up for the Offspring as one of the best mainstream rock bands in the '90s. Purists will still cry about the Orange County quartet watering down punk rock for MTV, but more so was the Woodstock '94 crowd catching up with punk. If Smash was on Alternative Tentacles, it'd be on all your punk bar jukeboxes.
Like their peers in Green Day and No Doubt, the Offspring's punk roots have been dissolving, but still apparent, over the past 15 years. That was until now, with their screamingly-awful new song and video, "Cruising California (Bumpin' in My Trunk)."
If the Offspring's muse is taking them towards Katy.I.Am's California Wurld, fine. What really grosses me out is the thought that this is satire. No one needs to be reminded how bad this stuff is, or how easy it is to create, and watching Holland and the gang drown in something they're trying to make fun of is just depressing. Years ago, the Offspring caustically took razors to punk conformity, alternative angst and a nation of wiggers, but this time the joke's on them.
In remembrance of things past:
I'll stick up for the Offspring as one of the best mainstream rock bands in the '90s. Purists will still cry about the Orange County quartet watering down punk rock for MTV, but more so was the Woodstock '94 crowd catching up with punk. If Smash was on Alternative Tentacles, it'd be on all your punk bar jukeboxes.
Like their peers in Green Day and No Doubt, the Offspring's punk roots have been dissolving, but still apparent, over the past 15 years. That was until now, with their screamingly-awful new song and video, "Cruising California (Bumpin' in My Trunk)."
If the Offspring's muse is taking them towards Katy.I.Am's California Wurld, fine. What really grosses me out is the thought that this is satire. No one needs to be reminded how bad this stuff is, or how easy it is to create, and watching Holland and the gang drown in something they're trying to make fun of is just depressing. Years ago, the Offspring caustically took razors to punk conformity, alternative angst and a nation of wiggers, but this time the joke's on them.
In remembrance of things past:
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