By Sarah Monson
Daily Bruin Contributor
While strolling through Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, you turn a
corner and find him beating the crap out of the mailman. Then you
wake one morning to find yourself wearing a wedding dress, bound
and gagged, with a prison inmate as your best man, only after
taking your mom to the prom and getting lucky
It may be hard to stomach, but you have just entered the
notoriously crass yet wickedly amusing world of The Bloodhound
Gang. This surge of tasteless, juvenile, poopy talk is infecting
our airwaves, offending some listeners but entertaining others.
With graphic, hardcore, sexually-explicit lyrics, this band is
spreading like, well, you know what they’d say.
And they aren’t apologizing.
In reference to Billboard Japan’s objection to
“Yellow Fever,” a song so offensive that it was taken
off the band’s third album, “One Fierce Beer
Coaster,” bassist Evil Jared responded in a recent phone
interview, “I want to tell them to go fuck
themselves.”
But songs like “I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get
Chicks” and “Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny” were
deemed appropriate for distribution by the record label. The band
has since distanced itself from “Yellow Fever,” calling
it “poorly-written” in a Rolling Stone interview.
UCLA’s Pacific Ties magazine noted that students are
uprising against the racially charged and sexually explicit lyrics.
One group, the University of Maryland’s Asian American
Student Association, has been notifying college campuses nationwide
of what they deem racist and homophobic overtones in their
music.
The protests are in line with similar protests against
shock-value programs like “South Park” and “The
Howard Stern Show.” In response, the band has included
warning stickers on its albums, saying “If you find the
content of these lyrics offensive, you’re not cool.”
This tongue-in-cheek response has not satisfied those who take
issue with the band’s confrontational content.
Frontman Jimmy Pop Ali said in an interview with Rewind
Magazine, “Well, that’s my sense of humor, and it just
so happens that some people find it offensive. I didn’t set
out to offend anyone, I just like poopy humor. That’s the
pinnacle for me. That’s why we put that warning there.
Despite this wave of opposition, MTV and local radio stations
continue to play Bloodhound’s music.
With songs like “I Hope You Die” and “A Lap
Dance Is So Much Better When The Stripper Is Crying” included
on the new album “Hooray for Boobies,” which has landed
singles in the Top 40, this Philadelphia based band is ruder,
sicker and more popular than ever.
And busy as hell.
At a recent shoot last week in a hangar at the Santa Monica
Airport for the band’s new video “Mope,” Jimmy,
Jared, guitarist Lüpüs Thünder, drummer Willie the
New Guy and D.J.Q-Ball were running on empty, but still had time to
answer questions.
“We haven’t slept in 33 hours,” said Jared
between takes of lobbing purple balls at Ali. “I’m
delirious and everything looks like spaghetti.”
This delirium, though, didn’t stop Jared and
Lüpüs from mingling and signing autographs with fans who
came to be extras in the video. Despite the quintet’s bad boy
reputation, in person these guys went to great lengths to make
their fans know they appreciate their support.
Lupus meandered around videotaping fans with his Web cam. Ali
and Q-Ball spent the afternoon sporting matching red Adidas running
suits getting purple balls lobbed at them while go-go dancers
wearing men’s tighty-whities danced behind them.
This entire scene is a glaring contrast to their humble
beginnings in Pennsylvania when the only gig they could get was at
Jared’s rented farmhouse.
Prior to joining the band, Jared recalls the first time he saw
Ali perform, “I thought they sucked. It was, like, two guys
and a tape recorder.”
After floundering success in the early years, releasing homemade
demos in 1990, Ali and Lüpüs (the two original members)
recruited Jared, Q-Ball and Spanky G into the band (who has
recently been replaced by Willie, hence his title of “˜The New
Guy’). They have since made two albums together and toured
nonstop all over the world.
With all toilet talk aside, these guys sport college degrees.
Ali and Jared both graduated from Temple University, with a degree
in communications and business management, respectively.
“I wanted to be a Donald Trump-type guy. The way to that
is going to school,” said Jared. “But it basically
leaves you prepared to sell Ritz crackers at Wal-Mart.”
Now Jared is a polar opposite of those enlightened ambitions.
“I have a 56K modem and it totally, 100 percent,
blows,” said Jared, “It takes me all day to download
porn.”
This attitude may be brash, but it nonetheless attracts
dedicated fans, who will go to extremes for a glimpse at Jimmy Pop
and his gang.
“We travel around on this big bus driving up to 10 hours a
night,” mused Jared. “After a month it’s totally
covered in road crap. We had this guy lick his name in the back of
the bus. It was a most disturbing turn of events."
Fans have run naked down a street in 10 degree weather, eaten
jars of mayonnaise, and downed a 12-pack case of warm Dr Pepper,
all in the name of The Bloodhound Gang.
And that’s just in America, where they are steadily
gaining fame. In Europe they’re considered bona fide rock
stars, with “Boobies” going platinum in Austria and
Germany and past albums also garnering sizable sales.
“If you don’t understand our stupid lyrics
you’ll like it more,” said Jared when asked why
Europeans are so receptive to their music.
With all this overseas success, do these cornfed boys prefer
foreign soil to their native land?
“Hell no,” replied Jared, “America’s so
cool. They have Waffle House and Wal-Mart, and 800 channels on
satellite TV, instead of four channels on British TV.”
Finishing off the American leg of their tour in the next two
weeks, what can one expect from a Bloodhound Gang show?
At a concert in Chicago last Saturday, with a mere half hour to
play, the Gang invited no less than 50 screaming fans, two dancing
monkeys, and one life size Pac-Man on stage, and closed the show
with an *N Sync parody.
But even with all of their success, self-deprecation prevails.
Regarding a typical Bloodhound Gang show, Jared had this to
say.
“It’s gonna suck. You can expect a lot of puerile
behavior and stupid hijinks to make up for the fact that
we’re really poor musicians.”
Apparently, in spite of all the controversy, that formula has
worked thus far.