Classic
the bigger they come, the harder they fall. a little ironic foreshadowing from everybody’s second favourite punk rock biology doctorate…
yeah, well, there’s a reason they don’t advertise dexter holland as a phd student anymore. the whole thing is rather depressing, really. however, none of that is remotely contextual at the moment because you’ve walked through a time machine back to 1992, when the offspring were signed to the highly seminal epitaph records. note that epitaph was still a punk rock label at this time. we’re in a sort of a weird vacuum here, in the period between nirvana’s nevermind and two records that had a far more pervasive and wide reaching influence on mainstream rock music, namely dookie by green day and smash by the offspring themselves. further, refused are not dead yet, so punk hasn’t yet been taken over by dumb marxist crunk/metal hipsters who see themselves as some kind of intellectual vanguard that needs to dictate terms to the proletariat (lol); it’s still about maximizing propaganda potential and mobilizing the masses through producing choruses that can be sung along to. ignition exists within the genesis of what would later be called pop-punk and was released in it’s most formative period.
yet, it also exists at the very end of socal punk as a serious social and musical idea. i’ve retained a soft spot for early green day that i’ll probably never let go of, but it has been clear for many years that the only truly substantial thing to come out of the pop punk trend (besides nevermind itself) was the offspring. they were always different than the others in three substantial ways. first, they leaned harder towards the straight-edge tradition than the other acts in the pop-punk mould did. second, they leaned more towards the political side of hardcore than the others did. to an extent, the offspring were guilty of accusations of ripping off the dead kennedys in their early days; jello biafra even did a spoken word introduction for their fourth record. third, they actually had a harder edged, more complex and sometimes thrash-influenced sound. that is to say that they were initially the most intelligent, the most interesting and the most musical of the pop punk acts – in the beginning, this was a legitimately interesting band with compelling perspectives and musical talent.
alas…
it’s 1992, though, and you don’t care about any of this. you’re just an alright kid skating through orange county listening to the new epitaph band and thinking to yourself how tight they are. then, you see an ad for a job you’re interested in and stop to write it down. laaaaaa la la la life goes on….
the record absolutely nails the pre-refused punk rock ideal of merging extremely catchy music with politically challenging subject matter and for that reason alone deserves a classic rating. what’s remarkable is that they were able to one-up it on smash, which is a really perfect punk disc by the aforementioned traditional punk criteria. the flaws in ignition are mild, but worth noting.
first, you have to consider that the track lapd was horrifically misinterpreted by a lot of complete fucking idiots who just heard the word “nigger” and instantly assumed they were listening to white supremacist music. i’ve often found myself turning the volume down when it comes on or skipping the track because i don’t want that confusion thrown out there or spread around. it isn’t that there is anything particularly wrong with the track, it is just that the attempt to shock people with language was so successful that it is difficult to play publicly…
second.
