Punk band The Offspring releases new album “Supercharged” and settles scores with Donald Trump

The Californian punk-pop group is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with an eleventh album full of energy. And Noodles, the band’s guitarist, declares himself “super disgusted” by Donald Trump, the former American president.

“Face what the world has in store for us”, notably “Donald Trump, who sows distrust in democratic institutions”: this is how “Noodles”, pillar of the cult punk band The Offspring, presents the new album Supercharged. We can translate by “Supercharged”power supply level. The admittedly bad taste cover of this album, scheduled for Friday October 11, also features a luminescent skeleton crossed by lightning. The current still flows from the guitars of the American band, who have never lowered their tone since the successful album Smash, released thirty years ago.

It was Noodles – Kevin Wasserman for civil status, 61 years old – who shaped the riffs of the hits of the time, Self Esteem Or Come Out and Play. Always effective at festivals, source of pogos for example at Rock en Seine on the outskirts of Paris at the end of August. “Rock en Seine has become Rock Insane (crazy rock)“ singer Dexter Holland, another mastermind of the group, laughed at the microphone.

And the tension increases as soon as we ask Noodles, guitarist, why such a title for this new record. “We called it that because there’s always crazy political bullshit, wars, the rise of nationalism, the far right,” he begins.

“So let’s get on with life, let’s get out there, deal with this shit, that’s what Joe Strummer would want us to do, I think.” Strummer, who died in 2002, was the leader of The Clash, a legendary British punk group of the 1970s and 1980s, bristling with capitalism and far-right movements. When we invite Noodles to elaborate on politics, with the prospect of the American presidential election on November 5, his response bursts out.

“I thought democracy and democratic principles would always remain strong in our country, but take someone like Donald Trump, who is sowing distrust in our country’s democratic institutions…”

Noodles, musician

to AFP

And to remember the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, the sanctuary of American democracy in Washington, by white-hot Trump supporters. “It wasn’t a science fiction movie, but it was reality. I thought it was the stupidest coup attempt ever.” “They must have known, however, that the election (by Joe Biden) was not stolen. There is no proof, but they wanted to believe it. Either they don’t want to be informed, or they believe Donald Trump.”

“I was still on Twitter at the time and said stay away from the Capitol: stay away, it’s going to get violent, it’s going to be stupid and you don’t want to be part of it.”

A social network that he left. “Once Elon Musk took control, it became X” and he saw a surge of “flatists (who think the earth is flat), racists and bigots.” “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Noodles now favors Instagram for “surfing videos, guitar videos, comedians telling jokes.” But behind this apparent relaxation on the chorus of “what’s the point?” the man with two-tone hair keeps himself informed, peppering the interview with references to European political life, particularly French legislative elections.

A complexity that we find in the singer and other guardian of the Offspring temple, Dexter Holland. The almost sixty-year-old, who still sings like a bravado high school student (as on Light It Up on the new album), continued his studies in parallel with the rock’n’roll circus, until obtaining a doctorate in molecular biology.

With him and Noodles, The Offspring’s DNA is preserved. The Fall Guy, new title, could very well have found its place in the opus Americana of 1998, that of the hits The Kids Aren’t Alright or even Pretty Fly.