A co-worker loaned me The Offspring’s latest album “Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace” – and it is very good.   I might have to pick up a copy myself…or at the very least, download a few songs.

For those you who don’t know who The Offspring are, they are a puck rock band from California. They have been around since 1984 – mostly as an independent rock group. They had their biggest hit in 1998 with the album “Americana”.

But I digress – “Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace”… that is the album I’m talking about.

There are some sweet songs on it. My favorite are:

• “Stuff Is Messed Up”
• “Fix You”
• “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?”
• "Nothingtown"

As you might of guessed from the song titles, these are not songs-from-a-can like 95% of the songs on the radio are. These are songs about real life, real people in real situations. It's not EMO stuff. It's just real people singing real songs. 

And then there's the great bass and the smooth electric guitar coming through like a knife through butter. Life is good.