"Defy You" is a track The Offspring recorded for the movie "Orange County"* in 2001. The song was released after the band had released their most album "Conspiracy of One" the previous year, and so it was only available on its single release until 2005 when it appeared as the twelfth track on the band's greatest hits compilation. It is also their last single featuring original drummer Ron Welty, who coincidentally is focused on a lot in the song's video.
The track differs a lot in attitude compared to the band's other singles. I had heard "Original Prankster", "Hit That", "Job" and obviously "Pretty Fly" which, when you look at the lyrics for those particular examples, are quite funny songs which aren't really meant to be thought upon that much. But "Defy You's" message of never giving up and standing up for what you believe was something that I did not expect and struck me when I first saw it on the TV. This was a serious Offspring single I was listening to.
I like their 'jokey' singles, but "Defy You" is one that does not pull any punches. There are no "uh-huh, uh-huhs" or references to popular culture - only a heavy performance and a great vocal by Dexter Holland. It is possibly the coolest track the band have ever done.
Skip to about 1:12 in the video, that's when the song actually starts.
The Offspring's seventh album "Splinter" from 2003 contains "Da Hui", a tribute to surfer group of the same name based in Hawaii.
In the track, Dexter Holland tells us that he won't fuck with Da Hui because they will fuck with him. He won't park next to a member of Da Hui, as he will not feel comfortable. He then finally warns us not to fuck with Da Hui, because eventually they will fuck with us. The video for this song gives an example of what Da Hui can do.
Lyrically, it's very dumb. Very repetitive. Simple. I did listen to this track for the first time when I was eight/nine so being the crazy, hyped-up child I was I probably didn't care at the time. In fact, those are probably what drew me to liking the song more.
Musically, it's a beast. Very very quick. Booming drums, especially those tom-toms near the end of the track and a cool guitar solo.
Short and sharp stuff. Under two minutes, so appreciate it before it ends.
I was born a year after "Smash", The Offspring's breakthrough album came out. I first heard "Come Out and Play" when its video played on MTV2.
One main thing went through my head whilst watching it. That was why Dexter Holland thought that having dreadlocks was a good look. All the time I saw an Offspring video, he had spiked up hair and to see the previous hairstyle he had before was a bit strange.
Apart from that the song was much different to any Offspring song I had heard before. I was a big fan of songs like "Pretty Fly", "Hit That" and "Original Prankster" to name a few, and they were all songs with quite comedic and sarcastic subject matter.
"Come Out and Play" is more menacing in tone, but is made cooler by the Arabian-sounding guitar that plays during the instrumental break. The song is simply about gang culture, I can't say anymore on that. It is a song of a very serious matter, no matter how engaging the song's title is.
"Can't Repeat" was the new song recorded for the band's compilation released in 2005. The days were counting down to the end of my final year of primary school, and this song hit me hard during that time. Lots of references about time, and getting older and looking onwards to tomorrow did not help. I didn't want to go to secondary school.... but I had to. So this taught me to make the most of every minute of the present, something I still try and live by to this day.
There's not much I can say about "Head Around You". I remember trying to watch the video on Windows Media Player from the band's official website circa 2004. It was in terrible quality, which made the multi-camera concept much worse.
It's a short but sharp song - only two and a bit minutes long - but it always feels a lot longer when I listen to it. I don't know what it is about it that makes me feel that way. It's probably the riff, it virtually plays throughout the whole thing bar two times. It is a simple punk rock song, that's what it is.
I do also like the wah-wah effect during the instrumental break, that gets a special mention.
The song was released as the second single from the band's 2003 album "Splinter".
'Americana' is a good place to start if you're just getting into The Offspring. A few of their most popular songs are on it, and the hard punk rock sound that they had had for many years was still present but it was also with this album that they started to explore punk with a bit of pop on the side.
The song is sandwiched in between the light, hey-hey-hey, na-na-na-nanah, upbeat song of 'Why Don't You Get a Job?' and the trippy and eventually epic climax 'Pay the Man', and is the real last short and sharp burst of music that you hear by the band before the final song starts. The introduction takes up one minute of the song. Little by little, the instruments build up. First you hear a simple 4/4 bass kick, then some toms, a killer riff is then overdubbed, the rhythm section joins in with the background vocals, (Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.), on and on it continues like a tribal chant. Until Dexter barges in with the first line, 'NOW I'D LIKE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT MY DREAM, IT'S A PLACE.'
Then the song really kicks in. It's energetic, it's strong, the word 'fuck' is mentioned about five times on here. I have no idea what the song is about but seeing as it is the one the album is named after I would say that it is probably the centerpiece of the running theme of American society that is common throughout. I think the narrator is frustrated by what he lives in, what he is surrounded by and how he is defined.
'My future's determined by thieves, thugs, and vermin It's quite an excursion but it's okay
Everything's backwards in Americana my way'
How the narrator is brought up is only because 'Americana' made him that way, and this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. HE HAS BECOME ONE OF THEM. 'Woh oh oh, woh oh oh, woh oh oh
My nightmare has come true.' That's just my interpretation anyway.
Then there's a key change which would not be expected, but it's pretty cool to hear. It adds a bit of something extra to the song. Otherwise it could have been a bit to repetitive.
This song's a really good one. It's one of my favourites of the album. It hits you hard after listening to the previous song.
So I'm watching standard TV one day, I change it to MTV2 and then suddenly "ALL I WAAAAAAAAAAAANT YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH" and a guy falls into a pit of mud and the video ends.
Wh-what.
I should probably start from the very beginning. Everyone knows 'Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)' right? If you have heard this song, even a clip of it in the shop or an advert or what not, this is the band who made that song.
I probably knew that song when I was, like 4. It got to number one in the UK for about a week, and I think I liked it and I remember my sister singing it too. Of course then I didn't know who it was by, but the counting in Spanish and 'Give it to me baby, UH-HUH UH-HUHs' were too catchy. I barely like it anymore, it's really cheesy for me anyway. I haven't got it on my iPod.
My cousin bought me The Offspring's Greatest Hits compilation for Christmas 2005, but that was because I knew that songs like 'Hit That', 'Original Prankster' and 'Can't Repeat' were on there, so I didn't pay as much attention to 'All I Want'.
I would probably talk more about how I got to like The Offspring. But that will probably in the blog for 'Hit That' when I come to it. Maybe next year. Or 2015.
In regards to 'All I Want', that split second of the ending of the video left me really puzzled. I never listened to 'All I Want' before so I went onto YouTube. The comments below were mostly along the lines of 'Yeah, this song rocks' to 'Yeah, Crazy Taxi' to which I thought, 'OK... back to the video.'
The song is very quick. It's on their album 'Ixnay on the Hombre' released in 1997 and was released as the first single from it. It's a fast, punchy, all-up-in-your-face punk song about breaking free, fuck the system, 'I DON'T WANNA BE CONTROLLED, 'SALL I WAAAAAAAANNT.'
Dexter Holland singing 'Want' in the chorus probably takes up half the song, but it's a hell of a chorus. You just feel like running down a corridor screaming that shit.
The video is something else too. It's pretty funny, you get the band performing the song in a house with different colour effects, a guy pushing women over, stepping in some weird shit on the ground, running past policemen on pogo sticks and random clips of a guy with sunglasses and a mask over his face whilst playing the piano. It's crazy. It's cool. IT'S ALLLLL I WAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNT. YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH.
