“Then it’s like, how long will it take until love conquers hate. “It kind of addresses, you know, how it might be that things got this way, why are we so alienated,” Noodles expresses. The song itself tackles the idea of promises broken with what we were promised as “the American dream” and future of this country, as a whole. When talking to me about the song, Noodles jokingly describes it as “I want to talk to a manager” vibe - in regards to lyrical content. If you wanted an angry, classic, punk-sounding track from The Offspring, this one will hook you nearly immediately. It doesn’t take long for the record to kick into high-gear, as album opener “This Is Not Utopia” kicks off the record full-speed ahead. We did that with this record, there’s certainly a song or two that sound different from anything we’ve done before.” Fortunately, we’ve never had that intention either, but we always do mix it up with a song or two on any given record. “We didn’t want to reinvent ourselves now and come out as a completely different band. “Our intention was definitely to come out with an Offspring record, because it had been a while.
There’s a song with horns on it, an acoustic song, and of course, the piano version of “Gone Away” makes a long-awaited appearance. I bring this up to Noodles, who agrees that the early feedback they heard called it “the most Offspring sounding Offspring record” they’ve released in a while.ĭespite the overall sound however, Let the Bad Times Roll is not without it’s surprises along the way. Most of the record was recorded over the last like 2 or 3 years,” he says.įans of The Offspring are likely pleased with Let the Bad Times Roll, as it perhaps more definitively sounds like an Offspring record that Days Go By, which leaned more into an alt/rock type sound than the classic punk-rock one that fans are accustomed to.
“About 2 years ago, we really started having a super creative period. It’s around this time, Noodles says, that they kicked it up a notch with working on Let the Bad Times Roll. But, days really do go by quicker than you think and suddenly you’re six years removed from your last record. He notes the long gap and the aforementioned reason, explicitly pointing out how much harder they tour when a new record comes out. Then we go off on our own ways, come back in and give it a listen with fresh ears and either work on a song we’ve been working on or start something new.” He’d usually come out for a couple of weeks. “Whenever Bob had time to be with us, he’d fly in and we’d meet here in the studio in Huntington Beach and focus on a song or two. “Immediately,” he tells me in regards to when they began work on the new record after they released Days Go By. In fact, when long-time guitarist Noodles and I are chatting on zoom last week, this is exactly what he tells me. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been actively thinking about it and working on it since Days Go By came out. There’s a few reasons behind the long gap, everything from the label change, to lineup changes, their constant touring, and lead vocalist/guitarist Dexter Holland his PhD in molecular biology in 2017. The nine year gap marks the longest in the band’s career, nearly doubling the gap between 2003’s Splinter and 2008’s Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, which was nearly four and a half years itself. It comes nearly nine years after they released 2012’s Days Go By, their last via long-time label Columbia Records.
Their new record, Let the bad Times Roll, was released this past Friday, April 16th via their new label home, Concord Records.
All the while the band continues to tour (pre and post COVID, of course) and release new music - even if it takes a little longer than it used to. You cannot think of 90’s punk rock and it’s revitalization without The Offspring, and their legacy in punk-rock is truly unrivaled. Multiple platinum and multi-platinum records. The Offspring is a band that doesn’t need an introduction.