"Self Esteem" is essentially the same groove/setup as "Little Things" by Bush with one chord difference.
I knew Days Go By was riffing on Times Like These and Rise and Fall is American Idiot Think someone once told me Turning Into You is Rise Against's Ready To Fall but not sure I believe that one
A Lot Like Me always gave me Linkin Park vibes. releasing a ballad called Fix You mere years after Coldplay
You know, I never would have connected these dots but these comparisons are 100% spot-on! You know, this touches on something I've felt for a long time but could never properly articulate. I've always had issues with the way Smash was positioned in the culture. Not that I didn't love it as a kid, and not that I don't enjoy most of it still now, but rather that... It's not really a great skate/pop/whatever punk record. It's an amazing EP of skate-punk songs (~5-6) with three singles that were really only successful because they were effectively grunge songs (great songs, no-less). The rest is a cover and novelty songs. Clearly it fit the moment and was packed in a way that worked. But in hindsight, viewing it as some sort of amazing achievement feels real weird to me. This is pedantic as hell and it's not something I hold against anybody. But it sure is a thought that somebody referencing Bush and the Offspring as sounding alike definitely shook loose. LOL Thank you for coming to my Dexter Talk.
I've said the same thing for a while. The Offspring was, at least at the point, often a grunge band trying to convince us all they were punk. "Gone Away", "Amazed", "Self Esteem", "Gotta Get Away", all excellent grunge songs in my opinion. I think that was honestly what made them stand out in that they varied the tempos throughout their records as more often than not, the slower songs were the radio hits.
This is the one. Was so obvious right from the get go, one of the more egregious ones in music history IMO
There's a video of Fat Mike joining them on stage and singing the Beatles lyrics to it. Even at one point goes "This is a Beatles song!"
Not really sure what this means. It seems pretty clear from a historical perspective that Smash, along with Dookie, were the albums that really got labels scrambling to sign punk bands of that generation and opened the doors for them. If you're just trying to say they Trojan horsed it, that's a valid take, but I think the achievement part of it should be obvious.
Oh yeah, there's no denying their influence in that regard. It was 100% them and Green Day. Saying they "Trojan horsed it" is exactly what I was trying to say. The album sold, not because it was a great "punk" record, but because they slotted in some songs that radio would have been willing to play anyway. Same thing with Americana. Some great punk rock tunes on there but broadly speaking, the reason that album sold the way it did had more to do with the novelty songs than anything.
To be fair, an album coming out on Epitath in 1994 pre-Dookie explosion wouldn't have necessarily had this line of thinking. Maybe subconsciously Dexter was taking in the grunge influence that was on KROQ at the time along with his punk background to meld the two together but bands on this label were NOT thinking about airplay at the time. The fact that Smash became this global success on Epitath was definitely unprecedented at the time.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why "Staring At The Sun" is on every setlist, even as it was never released as a single. Must be one of Dexter's personal favorites or something.
I definitely wasn't trying to imply any nefarious intent in terms of the songs they wrote. And the whole "mid-tempo song for the single" vibe is something that was done before that album too (Bad Religion, Social D). I mostly just wince when people talk about the album as if it's a great punk album and that's why it was successful. It's an okay punk album that came around at the right time with songs the radio was primed to play, anyway. The fact that the band could get "packaged" in the press alongside other bands popping at the time was a huge bonus and likely added to the whole thing. Great album so I'm admittedly being super pedantic about something I like but that's also the fun of being a music nerd? LOL One thing I'm fully confident in is that Mr. Brett heard those songs and said "these are the ones." They were 100% shooting for radio airplay with it. Perhaps not expecting it and certainly not to the extent that they got it... But it was for sure on the labels mind.
Haha, totally true and, as a guy who almost begrudgingly celebrates their entire catalog, I actually think Ixnay is song-for-song their best. I think it's a great punk album and great album but I can imagine some of purists were a bit turned off at the time given the slower songs. I don't know that they were shooting for airplay when recording it so to speak but I do know that once Brett heard the mixes, he came back home and said to his then wife "Honey, I think we're gonna be rich."
I am a big fan of Smash, like maybe in my top 30 albums ever but struggle with much else of their discography, but I fail to understand the logic of these points. It sold 6 million as an independent album, worldwide is 10m? The highest-selling independent album of all time. That's an achievement whichever way you put it. Which songs on it do you class as novelty? Come Out and Play has the brief jokey voice I suppose but little else novelty. What Happened To You? Kinda silly but I would rank it as novelty. No more than a bunch of stuff say Blink have stuff on albums. You are, I perceive, negating its success because of how it was marketed and the wider cultural context at the time of it's release. Most successful albums are such due to marketing and the tastes of the public at that time.
I wouldn't say I "celebrate" the entire catalog but I usually find at least 2-3 songs on each record worth returning to a couple times. Sometimes more. The one you highlighted is actually my favorite off that record and seeing that it's basically just a Bad Religion song explains why. LOL That said, I'm with you on Ixnay. It's hands down my favorite of theirs and really the only one I still listen to front-to-back at this point. They really nailed the mid-tempo songs on that one. To be absolutely clear, though, I'm not saying Smash was some pre-planned move to "get huge." I honestly think it was an accident. But I also don't think they're doing anything superior to what, say, Bad Religion or Pennywise were doing at the time. They were just the band to lean into stuff that could really land with radio and MTV people at the time. I'm really not trying to say anything other than that. I find it interesting that an album that's like 50% good punk rock, 25% decent alt-rock songs, and 25% filler/novelty gets hailed as some epic achievement. But I do firmly believe (to your point) that Brett 100% knew what he had and he could do with it once the band turned the record in.