Though its been four years since its last album—and over 20 since the release of its multi-platinum breakout, Smash—The Offspring are proving just how lucrative its catalog remains. Billboard reports that, earlier this week, Round Hill Music has acquired the masters to the band’s catalog for a whopping $35 million. “We have some masters like the Bush… but we wanted more exposure and you won’t get a more high-quality catalog than The Offspring,” says Round Hill Music Chairman and CEO Josh Gruss, apparently with a straight face.
That ”high-quality catalog” features songs such as “Come Out And Play,” ”Why Don’t You Get A Job,” and “Cruising California (Bumpin’ In My Trunk)” which sees Offspring vocalist—and molecular-biology graduate student—Dexter Holland offer lines such as, “And the girl that you want / Is directly out in front / And she’s waving her caboose at you / You sneeze, ‘Achoo’ / She calls you out, ‘Woo hoo.’” He is 50.
This is a nice chunk of change for the band, and will only serve to make Holland’s Wikipedia page increasingly more absurd. But it will also prove profitable for Round Hill Music. Though it’s their most costly acquisition to date, Billboard claims, “the catalog produced $3.1 million in net publisher or net label revenue,” meaning that Round Hill Music stands a good chance of returning on its investment. Sometimes it pays to be an original prankster.