The last time Wisconsin party-punk/skacore band Offend Your Friends released a full-length album George W. Bush was president. Pluto was on the cusp of planetary demotion, Children Of Men was in theaters divining the future, and the members of Offend Your Friends were teenagers. The group’s 2006 album was called We Suck At Life, and the cover depicted four of the Friends pissing on the passed-out fifth. Simpler times.
But now it’s 2026, and things are both the same as they ever were and much, much worse. So what better time to enjoy a brand new Offend Your Friends song from a brand new Offend Your Friends album! Enter the rowdy and rousing “Light A Spark.” It’s from the appropriately titled (more on that in a minute) Almost Didn’t Make It, due March 27. Fans of fist-pumping party-rock in the vein of Andrew W.K. take note.
Offend Your Friends is Kev Zettler on vocals, Devin King and Wes Reinke on guitars, Luke Reinke on bass, Caleb Westphal on sax, and Dan Wolff on drums. (Milwaukeeans will know Wolff from Dead Horses, and Westphal from Devils Teeth and this site’s long-running Enjoy Every Fish Fry column. King comes out of Rockford, Illinois metalcore band The Color Morale.) The band says Almost Didn’t Make It “is the result of a pandemic-inspired rekindling of sometimes fractured, but never broken, lifelong friendships. After something like six months of weekly quarantine video chats, it dawned on someone, ‘We’re just getting drunk! Maybe we should record an album!'”
Good idea! Demos were recorded, vocals were laid down, an initial title was agreed upon (Landlord Party Closet), and then, well, “the laptop holding most of the album was stolen.” But Offend Your Friends pressed on, recording new material with Colton Jean at Jean Pump Recording in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Wolff at Wolffhouse Recording in Milwaukee. Final mastering of the 12-track record was handled by Justin Perkins at Milwaukee’s Mystery Room Mastering. Almost Didn’t Make It, indeed.
Offend Your Friends will celebrate the release of their new record Saturday, March 28 at The Passenger Lounge in Fond du Lac. Scissor Kicks and Walt Hamburger & The Appleton Shadowband will play in support. In the meantime, enjoy “Light A Spark,” buckle up for more singles in the upcoming weeks (we’re looking forward to “Skatt Stapp”), and, in the words of the band: “Tap the keg. Offend Your Friends is back with a musical vengeance.”
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