Category Archives: the offspring

Oh, that was supposed to be a secret!

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I learned recently that Dwight Howard, center and power forward for the Orlando Magic, sings Beyonce songs while he’s at the free throw line. It’s funny that this giant man pumps himself up and gets focused signing Beyonce, but well…let him explain it (From ESPN’s PTI):

“Ya’ all heard about that? Oh, that was supposed to be a secret!” Howard said. “Like when I’m at the free throw line I try to keep my mind off everything and I might just up there and start singing like …”

(singing) ‘I’m a single lady, I’m a single lady’ … And sometimes I might make it! It happens. I get up there and I might sing Beyonce. I don’t know why, out of all the artists, I’m supposed to be like, (makes menacing noises), like Jay-Z, or Kanye or Lil Wayne, or someone towards those lines, but I’m singing Beyonce … If I have to sing Beyonce to make a couple of free throws, I’m gonna keep doing it.”

Love it!

What would you sing if you were at the free throw line and needed to get focused? My choice would be any song off the Ignition album put out by The Offspring around October 1992.

Why? The music is fast and edgy. I tend to get more focused with a little anger.

Just listening to it gets my heart beating faster. I was telling someone recently that this album makes me wanna drive very fast. Listen to the song Session and imagine you gotta get across town, weaving in and out of cars on the road. /shiver YES!

[The Offspring – Session]

The Offspring have a booty load of albums, all worth picking up. But Ignition is the best. CASE CLOSED.

BUY SOME OFFSPRING RIGHT FUCKING NOW

Best of 2008: I feel a million miles away

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2007 was a damn good year for new music. It was propelled forward by some sort of momentous occasion in 2006 that seemed to save all of the genres. 2008 blew by quickly, though, and the albums put out were still burning the energy radiating from the year before. I don’t know that many albums could argue they were radiating their own light. I have actually had a hell of a time putting together a Top Ten.

A few of my favorites put out new albums this year, but those didn’t change the scene, they didn’t change music, and they didn’t top what they’d done previously… So, despite how many spins they got on my iPod, they still didn’t make my list.

3OH!3 Want was one of the best, and most consequential, albums of the year. We claimed it resurrected Hip Hop. These boys are so damn adorable they resurrected something.

The Matches A Band in Hope was a) better than their last album which was already damn good, b) better than anything else in their genre all year long, and 3) enough to make a giant hunk of thugness get jiggy while driving his SUV. That’s a good album.

Colour Revolt’s Plunder, Beg, and Curse, The Bravery’s The Sun and the Moon Complete, and Murder By Death’s Red of Tooth and Claw were also some of the best albums of the year. These albums contributed to rock music in their own ways, whether it was proving that rock can translate to techno in an organic way and not just in the popular way club dj’s are doing it… proving that beards and southern rock are just barely getting started with their comebacks… or proving that three guitars and a drumset are not the only formula for a breathtaking live show. 2008 is better off for having these albums and these bands around.


Fasciination by The Faint was lauded by inAllcaps as “amazing” and “mind-blowing”. Thrice once again melted minds and limbs with the next installment in
The Alchemy Index, titled III and IV Air and Earth. And Death Cab for Cutie quietly and stealthily syncopated rhyme, rhythm, and reason with Narrow Stairs.

The Offspring, always one of my favorites, surpassed any of their previous albums combined in the ability to deliver that guitar that just makes my soul sing. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace showed that they improve year by year and even though Splinter from 2003 was hard, smooth, and fuckyeah (yes it’s an adjective), RaF,RaG was light years better. THANK YOU OFFSPRING. I fucking love you.

But the best album of 2008 was Nine Inch Nail’s The Slip. How could it not be?

[Nine Inch Nails – 1,000,000]

Everything Trent Reznor puts out is impeccable. That is a lot to live up to. And there have been eight albums at my last count. He hasn’t slipped once. He has never failed to take on new challenges or rise beyond them. The Slip was even made available for digital download, free of charge.

“Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years — this one’s on me.”

Thank YOU, Trent. It. Kicks. Ass.

The official list from inALLcaps:

1. Nine Inch Nails: The Slip
2. 3OH!3: Want
3. Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs
4. Thrice: The Alchemy Index Vols III and IV Air and Earth
5. The Offspring: Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
6. Colour Revolt: Plunder, Beg and Curse
7. The Matches: A Band in Hope
8. Murder by Death: Red of Tooth and Claw
9. The Faint: Fasciination
10.The Bravery: The Sun and Moon Complete

Dare to be STUPID! (Part 1)

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So…I assigned homework to the staff. Find a song that sums up the last eight years with George W. Bush, and come up with 2 or 3 sentences/paragraphs to explain the choice in song. I joined in the fun too. Problem is, we couldn’t keep it short…so it’s going to be a three part series. HERE IS PART ONE!

THE LITTLE ONE:
“We got him.”

Wow, we were impressed! That was comparatively swift and skillful! I guess military action in response to 9/11 was the right move. Go, U-S—what? We got who?

George Bush’s tenure in the oval office cemented for all of us that the Hollywood story of Wag the Dog was entirely possible and probable. We all began wondering which of the discredited conspiracy theories over the years should be revisited.

Ordinary citizens who believed in equality and justice, who believed that the intentions of their great country were inherently good, were thrust into the reality that political egos had hit a record high and were in desperate need of being reigned in.

When will the world listen to reason? I have a feeling it will be a long time.
When will the truth come into season? I have a feeling it will be a long time.

This was not the first time in history that Americans had been lied to by their President, or felt as if they had been. But I would argue that this was the first time that the majority of Americans became convinced that an entire administration was diabolical in their intent to mislead the citizens and the other branches of government.

Egos will feed, while citizens bleed. That’s always the way it goes.

It’s not difficult to begin to wonder whether there were domestic motives behind the vicious attacks on September 11. And that is the most disgusting legacy that George W. Bush leaves behind. When the proud face of a son who has completed his father’s mission is broadcast to a confused nation, we are forced to wonder who and what this was all for?

Americans need to have their faith and pride restored. Americans need to understand that nationalism and patriotism are not four-letter-words. In 2008 I truly believe that it is the Democratic Party that has put forth the face and the name that has the only chance of getting us there. Without that hope that a regime change will bring, I truly fear for our future.


Think you can do better? pick a song and write up a few words to explain why, and maybe you will get published on our blog! send your drafts to: inallcapsATgmailDOTcom (replace “AT” with “@” and “DOT” with “.”)