With a title like Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, which must be said aloud to be fully appreciated, it’s only appropriate for Blink-182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge to describe his band’s fourth full-length album as hard and fast.
“This record is the hardest, fastest record that we’ve done,” DeLonge said from a San Diego studio where the band recently wrapped up recording. “It’s way more punk-rock than our previous records, and we’re excited about it.”
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, due June 12, follows 1999’s multiplatinum Enema of the State and last year’s successful live album, The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back).
Though the pop-punk trio issued their debut LP, Cheshire Cat, in 1995, it was only within the last three years that DeLonge, bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker reached rock-star status. And as Hoppus tells it, success certainly has its setbacks.
“Spending so much time on the road … I [get to] fart all the time,” the gaseous bassist explained. “And then when it’s, like, Thanksgiving dinner, and [I’m] sitting down with [my] grandmother and parents and everything, I can’t fart for like two hours. It gets really uncomfortable.”
Fans can hear some of the new material – and likely some of Hoppus’ gas – when the band hits the road April 30 in Seattle for the first leg of the Honda-sponsored Civic Tour 2001. However, they shouldn’t plan on hearing any virtuoso performances.
“We expect to be even worse than we were last tour,” DeLonge explained. “We want to be, like, so bad that kids come and go, ‘Ha ha to you guys.'”
“We haven’t practiced at all,” Hoppus elaborated. “And we haven’t even learned the words to the new songs or anything, so it should be good. We’re trying to scale it back from last time. Last time we played a few songs really well, and we don’t want that this tour. We want it to be a lot more sloppy, a lot less musicianly.”
In other Blink-182 news, the book about the band’s early days, written by Hoppus’ younger sister, Anne, now carries a title, “Tales From Beneath Your Mom.” It’s scheduled to hit bookstores in mid-September, according to the band’s management company.
Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’s Track Listing, According To The Band’s Publicist:
- “Happy Holidays, You Bastard”
- “Story of a Lonely Guy”
- “Give Me One Good Reason”
- “Please Take Me Home”
- “Time To Break Up”
- “Online Song”
- “Anthem Pt. 2”
- “Shut Up”
- “Reckless Abandon”
- “Roller Coaster”
- “Don’t Tell Me It’s Over”
- “First Date”
- “The Rock Show”
- “Everytime I Look for You”
- “Stay Together for the Kids”