Americana

11/17/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Wendy Hermanson

The Offspring receive far less acclaim than they deserve. Although the Orange County band singlehandedly (or song-edly) built a flavor-of-the-month empire out of indie label Epitaph Records, they have been repeatedly snubbed by the California Punk Hierarchy in favor of "more valid" punksters such as NOFX and Rancid. Even label mogul Brett Gurewitz reportedly treated his No. 1 Manna-winners with a certain contempt, causing frontman Bryan (Dexter) Holland and Co. to pack their bags for major label Columbia--which, truth be told, is a far "punker" move than Rancid's much-extolled choice to avoid the Sony Machine at all cost. The bottom rule of punk, after all, is the conscious decision not to kiss anyone's keister, ain't it?

Civil rights aside, the Offspring's second album for The Man is not exactly anything new on the punk frontier, but proves the band is wise enough to stick with what has worked for them in the past. Firm students of the novelty single school, Offspring are particularly fond of injecting a lone Hispanic-tinged voice into at least one song per album (the celebrated "Come Out And Play," Ixnay On The Hombre's "Mota"). No surprise, they did it again, with the hysterically/hideously campy "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)," a tune which apes "Come Out And Play"'s structure to an outrageous tee. Despite the fact that this particular song seems to drive many listeners to actual screaming fits (personal observation), it's still a very funny parody of all things Offspring--namely, hooks, humor, hit singles.

The rest of Americana suffers from a bit of a dated feel (game attempts at the rollicking double-time punk beat; giving in to the inexplicable but obligatory Me First And The Gimme Gimmes syndrome, in which a punk band covers a classic AC tune--in this case, it's Morris Albert's "Feelings," and it's not that amusing anymore), but, as stated before, the band deserves kudos. How many bands since David Lee Roth-era Van Halen have been able to successfully parody themselves?