Not going quietly into the sunset

The Los Angeles Times has a nice little profile on The Offspring's lead singer, Dexter Holland, that discusses the band as well. It's true that the band's mass-market appeal from the days of Americana and to a lesser extent, Ixnay on the Hombre and Conspiracy of One are long gone. In a sense, though, as Holland points out, that's not a bad thing:

One inevitable question is about career plans, the long-term variety. He says he has no flight plan to share. "We're making music now really only because we want to and it's the music that we want to play and hear. We're not doing this for the money anymore, we're doing this because we're friends and we love it. The challenges come from inside the band now."

That's nice to hear, as I always got the sense after the infamous 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)', The Offspring were always trying to hit the jackpot again (just listen to 'Original Prankster' or 'Hit That'). But I get the sense that on Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, the band just put out an album that they wanted to make. Although fan reception, at least as far as I can tell on the Internet, has been overwhelmingly positive (many say it's the best album since Ixnay or Americana), it's not really because the album is The Offspring's tried-and-true punk rock formula (although in some songs, it is) but because it really feels like they tried on this album. There's not much filler, if any at all, and it's just a pleasure to listen to. Holland had said the band was going to hang it up once they hit 40 (he's now 43), so this is just a happy bonus.