THE OFFSPRING Announces 'Let The Bad Times Roll' Album, Drops Title Track

Southern California rockers THE OFFSPRING will release their tenth studio album, "Let The Bad Times Roll", on April 16 via Concord Records. The follow-up to 2012's "Days Go By" was once again produced by Bob Rock, who also worked on the band's last two LPs.

Singer Bryan "Dexter" Holland, guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, drummer Pete Parada and new bassist Todd Morse wrote and recorded "Let The Bad Times Roll" in the last few years at various locations, including the band's studio in Huntington Beach, California.

The official lyric video for the "Let The Bad Times Roll" title track can be seen below.

Written in late 2019, the song is said to reflect the "ongoing challenges" facing the U.S.

Holland said: "I feel like we're in a unique period in history where instead of our world leaders saying 'we're doing our best,' it's more like they're saying 'fuck it,' and it's really scary."

Dexter added: "Folks are saying, if it's all going to hell, we might as well make the most out of it, or at least go out swinging. 'Let The Bad Times Roll'!"

"Let The Bad Times Roll" track listing:

01. This Is Not Utopia (2:38)
02. Let The Bad Times Roll (3:18)
03. Behind Your Walls (3:21)
04. Army Of One (3:11)
05. Breaking These Bones (2:46)
06. Coming For You (3:48 )
07. We Never Have Sex Anymore (3:30)
08. In The Hall Of The Mountain King (1:00)
09. The Opioid Diaries (3:01)
10. Hassan Chop (2:20)
11. Gone Away (3:16)
12. Lullaby (1:12)

In the summer of 2019, Noodles talked to Finland's Kaaos TV about the musical direction of the new OFFSPRING material. He said: "It's definitely an OFFSPRING record. There's songs that you're gonna hear that are gonna be easily recognizable as vintage-sounding OFFSPRING, for sure. One of the songs on there is gonna be 'Coming For You', which we released [in 2015], and that song is a good indication."

Speaking about THE OFFSPRING's working relationship with Rock, Noodles said: "We hit it off with him immediately. It's been a real comfortable relationship. He makes us work and he makes us try harder to be as best as we can, but he does it in a way that's cool — he's not being a dick about it. He makes us feel like we can do it. Rather than making us feel like, 'Oh, man, we're not playing good enough,' or whatever, or, 'We're not coming up with the best parts for this,' he makes us feel like we've got more in us and we can bring more to the table. So it's great working with Bob. We love that guy."

THE OFFSPRING's last single, the aforementioned "Coming For You", dropped in January 2015.

In December, THE OFFSPRING released the official music video for its Rock-produced cover version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", a rock song originally sung by Darlene Love and included on the 1963 seasonal compilation album "A Christmas Gift For You" from Phil Spector.

Last April, THE OFFSPRING jumped on the "Tiger King" bandwagon by recording a cover version of THE CLINTON JOHNSON BAND's "Here Kitty Kitty", a song made popular by Joe Schreibvogel — better known as Joe Exotic, the "Tiger King" — through the Netflix docuseries.

Two years ago, bassist Gregory "Greg K." Kriesel, who hasn't performed with THE OFFSPRING since 2018, filed a federal lawsuit against Noodles and Dexter alleging trademark infringement and breach of partnership agreement over the rights to THE OFFSPRING name. In response, Holland and Wasserman filed a cross-complaint, denying basically everything Kriesel alleged and asking the court to appoint "three disinterested appraisers to appraise the fair value" of Kriesel's shares of THE OFFSPRING.

Photo credit: Daveed Benito