Blink-182
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (MCA)
by Scott Hefflon
When I hear people griping that Blink-182 are poser sell-out posterboy pussies and all that, I usually chalk it up to knee-jerk reactionism and AlternaNation’s fear of success. Slackers are cool and being good at anything makes you a sell-out. Yeah? Get evicted from a buncha places cuz your loser-ass “friends” can’t hold jobs where their biggest responsibility is showing up and tell me lazy is cool. Blink-182, hell, they’re like the class clowns in high school – kinda crazy, irreverent, on-your-side, but generally good-natured. And an important distinction is that, unlike the mean-spirited dicks who need to pick on someone (have a butt to their joke), the clowns want to rally the class to join in the fun. Meaning they’re all-inclusive, us vs. them, dig? Blink-182 are accessible, sure, and they take pretty safe chances and wag their privates at The Establishment, who’re pretty used to having punks waving their privates at them cuz they’re uptight squares and fuckin’ know it (and are hopefully in expensive counseling, wondering how they became such soulless, corporate cocksuckers and what they thought they were going to get in exchange).
Lyrically pretty hard-jabbing and punctuated by swearing (yeah, it sounds a little deliberate), musically, it’s the mainstream version of hard-strumming pop-punk, but none of this is news to anyone with a clue. Blink-182, honestly, is not to blame. It’s the hype machine that makes them out to be pioneers (of the obvious) and ill-informed, anti-mainstream sentiment that reacts so harshly against them. It’s got nothing to do with the band, who close out Take Off Your Pants and Jacket with an acoustic hidden track probably called “Mother’s Day” with a bombastic repetition of “Fuckin’ and suckin’ and touchin'” countered by the sweet Simon & Garfunkle-ish ooze of the chorus.
These guys seem like the type you’d holler “Wazzup?!?” to across a loud party and be glad they showed up. And unlike clueless little turds like Sum 41 (who’s music I almost kinda dig, but whose attitude exemplifies everything that’s wrong with dumb, disrespectful little pukes who think they’re hot shit, but don’t get the context of the joke, thus they are the joke), Blink-182 cross lines and want ALL of us to streak and dress funny and make faces at old people and generally let “them” be all serious and constipated. We’re here to work hard, play hard, and stay hard all night long.
