The 11 Best Songs By The Offspring

I have a theory that musical trends always come in twos.  Grunge had Pearl Jam and Nirvana.  Heavy metal had Guns N Roses and Metallica.  Glam metal had Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.  Nu Metal had Limp Bizkit and Korn.  Boy Bands had Backstreet Boys and *Nsynce.  Girl pop had Britney and Christina.  The duo trend goes on and on...Tupac and Biggie, The Beatles and the Stones, Michael Jackson and Prince, Boston and Journey, The Beastie Boys and Run DMC, Skrillex and Deadmau5, U2 and R.E.M., Depeche Mode and the Cure, Katy Pery and Lady Gaga, the White Stripes and the Black Keys.  Sure there are a lot of other grand bands that fill out the rest of a musical trend...but it always comes down to two who lead the pack...and it always split the fans.

In 1994, it was Green Day and The Offspring, when these two bands broke out into the mainstream with their albums Dookie and Smash.  It was a pop punk revolution that quickly silenced the grunge.  Loyalties split...you either liked Green Day or The Offspring.  You couldn't like both or people would think you had no taste in music.  Green Day was seen as the Berkeley stoner punks who had one shtick in their arsenal...and that was to sound as much like the Clash and the Ramones as possible (note: another duo).  The Offspring were a bunch of white Orange County slackers who sang songs about the perks of being ghetto trash (ironically, the lead singer was a PHD candidate in molecular biology at USC).  Picking between these two bands said a lot about who you were personally.  Were you an earthy pothead or a surf dude looking for a fight?

Neither band was really given too much respect.  Though they exploded on the mainstream...both bands were viewed as being moderately talented and lacked range to sustain a real career.  Both bands have now been making music for twenty years consistently.  And to be even more impressive...both bands are as equally trendy and popular among fans as they were when they came out.  To survive twenty years in the music industry and still be trendy is an incredibly hard feat.  Most of the bands in the rock n roll hall of fame couldn't even do that.  As cheesy and ridiculous as some of the Offspring's songs are...maybe it's time we start giving them a little respect.

Here are the 11 Best songs By The Offspring:

1. The Kids Aren't Alright (Americana)
2. Self-Esteem (Smash)
3. Gone Away (Ixnay on the Hombre)
4. Forever And A Day (Ignition)
5. All I Want (Ixnay on the Hombre)
6. Bad Habit (Smash)
7. Vultures (Conspiracy of One)
8. Totalimmortal (Me, Myself, and Irene)
9. A Lot Like Me (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)
10. Smash It Up (Batman Forever)
11. Session (Ignition)

Buy the Offspring's new album, Days Go By...now!!!

The 11 Most Anticipated Summer Albums of 2012

As we move into a new year, one of the strangest pieces of news has been revealed.  Album sales in 2011 actually went up for the first time in almost a decade.  Granted it was mostly due to Adele's incredibly popular album...that still proves that the album as a musical format is still very viable.  And while all the news articles still like to pronounce the death of rock and how pop has taken over...there were still more rock albums in the Billboard 200 than any other genre.  This year, there were 47 rock albums on the list.  Second place went to country with 39 albums.  Pop comes up third with 35 albums.  (I still think Bruno Mars is really rock...but I put him in pop).  Hip-hop/rap is fourth with 26.  What's also interesting to note...rock music is comprised of a lot of different bands while the pop albums were all made by the same handful of artists (Bieber, Swift, Adele, Gaga, Kesha, Selena Gomez).  Good for those artists but you take them out of the equation...and pop doesn't have much going on.

Let's see what 2012 brings....

Here are the 11 most anticipate albums of summer 2012:

1.  Soundgarden - TBA (Sept)
2.  MGMT - MGMT (Sept.)
3.  Animal Collective - TBA (Sept)
4.  Grizzly Bear - TBA (August)
5.  Mumford and Sons - TBA (August)
6.  How To Destroy Angels - TBA (July)
7.  Sigur Ros - TBA (July)
8.  The Offspring - Apocalyptic Guides and Inferno Themes about Nothing (July)
9.  Public Enemy - Most of My Heros Don't Appear on Stamps/Evil Empire of Everything (August)
10.  Regina Spektor - What We Saw From the Cheap Seats (July)
11.  Skrillex - Voltage (July)

The 11 Best Offspring Songs:

We are on the verge of $5.00 gas. When less than 3 years ago, we just broke the $2.00 per gallon barrier. Why the sudden surge in price? Well...let's look at why prices go up in the first place. In any free market, there are two entities that decide the price: the supply and the demand. Of course, it's slightly more complicated than that...but these are the two major factors that control price in any situation. So, how is the supply of oil? Currently, it's normal. And if anything, it's more plentiful than ever. So, the supply is not the problem...which would mean the demand is the problem. Well, interesting enough, volume is down. People are actually buying less gas. We're turning in our SUVs for sedans...and sedans for hybrids. So why is the price so high? Well, like any inflated market...it's hype. Gas was going to go up...and those who knew anything about the industry knew this years ago and began buying oil futures. But recently, oil futures have become the hot commodity. People who know nothing about the industry see the escalating prices at the pump and are dumping money into oil futures, falsely inflating the price. Also, middle men are beginning to stockpile the oil believing that there will always be a need. But let's take a look at history...what happens when there's too much supply...not enough demand...and over-inflated items. That's right: crash. Well, with an oil man in the White House, it'll never crash...but it will go down. Also, the oil companies should be the ones panicking. What happens when a product becomes too overpriced for consumers...the consumers find another way. (Remember Napster?)

Here are the 11 Best Offspring Songs:

1. Self-Esteem (Smash)
2. The Kids Aren't Alright (Americana)
3. Gone Away (Ixnay on the Hombre)
4. Have You Ever (Americana)
5. The Meaning Of Life (Ixnay on the Hombre)
6. Can't Repeat (Greatest Hits)
7. Vultures (Conspiracy of One)
8. Million Miles Away (Conspiracy of One)
9. Smash It Up (Batman Forever)
10. Dirty Magic (Ignition)
11. Bad Habit (Smash)

Buy the new Offspring album, Rise and Fall, Age and Grace. TODAY!