It looks like Southern California punk act the Offspring will soon break with indie label Epitaph and sign to Sony affiliate Columbia Records. According to sources at Epitaph, the two labels are close to a deal that will allow Epitaph to release the follow-up to the Offspring's multiplatinum LP Smash this summer. Columbia would then shell out for additional promotion on the album and release the group's future efforts. Although terms of the agreement haven't been disclosed, sources close to the deal claim that Columbia's contract isn't nearly as lucrative as the "millions of dollars" offered by Epitaph.

"I have no idea why the band wants to leave the label," says Epitaph president (and former Bad Religion guitarist) Brett Gurewitz, who signed the band in 1992. "There have never been any hard feelings between us. I think the group has been seriously misguided by its advisers, management, and attorneys, who are entrenched in the corporate establishment."

The Offspring made its intentions clear in a letter sent to Epitaph earlier this year that said the band members "felt [their] careers could be better served elsewhere," and claimed that the label had "breached its contract." A source close to the both sides says the Offspring had no problem with the financial relationship between the group and the label but felt dissed by Gurewitz, who seemed to favor labelmates Rancid. Gurewitz routinely flies around the country to check out Rancid's gigs, but rarely attended the Offspring's shows (even though the band sold more than five million albums on Epitaph) and also sports a Rancid tattoo on his arm. Furthermore, the Offspring, whose decidedly anticorporate stance has been well-documented in its songs' lyrics, suspected Gurewitz of trying to sell off part of Epitaph to a major label.

While Gurewitz admits that he met with Interscope copresident Jimmy Iovine last year- after Iovine's label was dropped by Warner Brothers but before it was picked up by MCA- to discuss an independent merger, he flatly denies any accusations that he tried to peddle Epitaph to a major. "Major labels have resorted to poaching my artists and smearing my reputation," says Gurewitz. "Last year, everyone was saying we were about to lose Rancid to Epic. It's not over till it's over."

Epitaph, which is still owed one more album, recently filed a lawsuit against the Offspring and is currently holding its royalties in escrow until the final album is delivered.