bloodhound gang

The Bloodhound Gang is an American rock/hip-hop band with a punk-influenced sound. They are originally from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. The group formed in 1992.^[1]

History

The Bloodhound Gang first started out as a small alternative band in 1992 called Bang Chamber 8. The band consisted of Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs. They released one known tape, which was self titled. Soon they changed their name to the Bloodhound Gang, and changed their musical style. Their new name referred to the PBS kid's show 3-2-1 Contact! in the 80's. This show was about 3 kids who were detectives, solving mysteries and fighting crime. Unable to get booked at any clubs, The Bloodhound Gang first performed in the extra room at Evil Jared Hasselhoff's house, in exchange for Schlitz, Marlboros, and a chance to hand out their first demo tape, entitled Just Another Demo. When the floor caved in one night, they began performing every month at CBGBs in New York City.^[1]

In April 1994, the band released their second demo tape, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Hitler's Handicapped Helpers. This landed them a record deal with Cheese Factory Records. In November 1994, they finally released their first EP, Dingleberry Haze.^[1]

In the summer of 1994, Jimmy Pop had a small role in the short independent film The Chick That Was Naked by independent filmmaker Kurt Fitzpatrick. Also, one song by the band was used on the soundtrack.^[2]

In March 1995 The Bloodhound Gang signed a record deal with Columbia Records. They put out their first full-length album, titled Use Your Fingers. They began touring around the United States. At this time Daddy Long Legs and M.S.G., angry with Columbia Records, left the band to to form another rap group, Wolfpac. Evil Jared Hasselhoff and Tard-E-Tard joined the group as replacements. When the tour ended, the deal with Columbia Records was dropped and band member Skip O'Pot2Mus left to pursue a career in the insurance industry.^[1]

In March 1996, the band, complete with a new line-up, recorded their second full-length album, One Fierce Beer Coaster, released on Geffen Records. They embarked on their first "real tour" of the United States and Europe (they are quoted as saying this was "the first tour where nobody's parents had to drive out and pick up the band after the van broke down"). In 1999, they released their third album, Hooray for Boobies. Powered by hit single, "The Bad Touch", they embarked on two more tours of Europe, where they had begun to get quite popular ("The Bad Touch" and Hooray for Boobies reached #1 in Germany, where "Along Comes Mary" was also a Top 10 hit). They returned after selling over five million albums.^[1] In the summer of 1996 Jimmy Pop Ali had a supporting role in the independent film Kin by director Kurt Fitzpatrick and starring Fitzpatrick, Marie Hans and Ben McVoy. Several Bloodhound Gang songs were used for the soundtrack for the film.

Perhaps the bands most well-known song is "The Bad Touch" off of their album Hooray for Boobies. The video for the song shows the band members running around Paris in Monkey suits and harassing various people. Another well-known song is "Fire Water Burn." The song was featured in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 as a song that is popular among US troops in Iraq.

Recent history

In 2003, the band released a DVD entitled One Fierce Beer Run, which chronicles their One Fierce Beer Coaster tour of 1997.^[1]

The band's newest album, Hefty Fine, was released on September 27, 2005. The title comes from a phone conversation in which Lupus told Jimmy Pop he would have to pay a "hefty fine" if he did not speed along work on the album. Its original title, Heavy Flow, was scrapped when it was noticed that fellow musician Moby had a song with the same name. The first single, "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo," has already gained heavy rotation on music video channels. Although the track "No Hard Feelings" recently broke into the Modern Rock Top 50, their second single is "Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss" (which is featured in a Blaupunkt ad), and it has recently started radio circulation with a music video underway. Another song from the new album is part of a campaign by the Bloodhound Gang to change the Pennsylvania state anthem into their appropriately titled "Pennsylvania."^[1]

A new album is already in the works and is expected to be released within a year; it is rumored they will record it in Germany.

Drummer Willie the New Guy was recently released from his position. The band and Willie agreed on him leaving. He was replaced by Adam Perry (The Yin) from A on their recent tour.^[3]

Members

Current line-up

• Jimmy Pop - vocals, guitar, programming
• Lüpüs Thünder - guitars, backing vocals
• Evil Jared Hasselhoff - bass, backing vocals
• DJ Q-Ball - turntables, vocals
• Adam 'The Yin' Perry - drums

Former members

• Bubba K Love
• Blue
• Byron
• Daddy Long Legs - vocals
• Foof
• Lazy I
• M.S.G.
• Piddly B
• David Ferguson
• Skip O'Pot2Mus
• Slave One
• Spanky G - drums
• Tard-E-Tard
• White Steve
• Mr. Stinky Boots
• Willie The New Guy - drums
• Dick "Fat Ass" Thomson - turntable

Infamy

Known for their humorous, obscene, and often offensive lyrics, the Bloodhound Gang is not afraid to make quips about taboo subjects such as ethnicities, child abductions and incest in bizarre, stream-of-consciousness, hip-hop influenced lyrics. A common theme in the band's lyrics are elaborate pop culture references, metaphors, similes, and puns such as:

• Use Your Fingers
  • "Daddy's gonna get some, probably underage and dumb, and everybody knows that the daddy eats his young" ("You're Pretty When Im Drunk")

• One Fierce Beer Coaster
  • "You came twice last year like a Sears catalog" ("Kiss Me Where it Smells Funny")
  • "The only smoked meat, the only sausage I would eat is made by Jimmy Dean" ("I Wish I Was Queer (So I Could Get Chicks)")
  • "I'm not a roll of Charmin, so don't give me no crap!" ("Shut Up")
  • "Like the Jim Jones cult, I'll take you out with one punch" ("Boom")

• Hooray for Boobies
  • "Like my scrotum here it is in a nutshell." ("The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope")
  • "Put your hands down my pants and I bet you'll feel nuts." ("The Bad Touch")
  • "Please turn me on I'm Mister Coffee with an automatic drip." ("The Bad Touch")
  • "You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel" ("The Bad Touch")
  • "Times New Roman, you know the type" ("Right Turn Clyde")
  • "If I wanted to see stars, I'd watch the Academy Awards" ("Right Turn Clyde")
  • "I was lonelier than Kunta Kinte at a Merle Haggard concert." ("A Lap Dance is So Much Better (When The Stripper is Crying)")
  • "Thou shall make fun of Hindus" ("Hell Yeah")
  • "Would you fuck me for blow?" ("The Ballad of Chasey Lain")

• Hefty Fine
  • "I Brazilian wax poetic ... I don't want to beat around the bush." ("Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo")
  • "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" ("Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo")
  • "If I want to be repeatedly shit on I'll go make Dutch porn" ("No Hard Feelings")
  • "I'm missing you like a hijacked flight on September 11" ("No Hard Feelings")

The group's hit single The Bad Touch is a song made up of sexual euphemisms that also happen to be pop culture references. It became a staple on MTV's Total Request Live and propelled the album Hooray for Boobies to platinum sales status. The band is also known for the single "Fire Water Burn" which is featured on their album, One Fierce Beer Coaster which contains the chorus of "The roof/The roof/The roof is on fire/We don't need no water/Let the motherfucker burn/Burn motherfucker burn." (This lyric was borrowed from the 1985 hit "The Roof is On Fire" by Rock Master Scott and the Dynamic Three.) In 2004, it was featured in the film Fahrenheit 9/11, playing while showing a Bradley Fighting Vehicle firing stingers on a city.

The band has also made several appearances on the MTV shows Jackass and Viva La Bam, as well as CKY4.

Bass player and nude enthusiast Evil Jared Hasselhoff recently stripped nude on a live German television appearance on the show TV Total on Pro7.

"Yellow Fever"

The band has been accused of racism in the US and UK.^[4][5] Geffen Records refused to release the song "Yellow Fever" due to its lyrical content about Asian women.^[6] Examples of the lyrics from "Yellow Fever" include "She's like an oriental rug 'cause I lay her where I please, then I blindfold her with dental floss and get down on her knees" and "Oh me chinky shes so kinky got me hot like nagasaki burnin' up like napalm burstin' like an a-bomb."

In response, Jimmy Pop told Yahoo! Launch that the Gang's lyrical matter was not meant to be taken seriously

"I think on the first record there's stuff that [offended people]… Really we're not trying to shock anybody, we're just saying things that we laugh at," he explained. "That was always the idea. The same things that we talk about on the bus are the same things we put on our records. On the first record we had lyrics like, 'There's little children unattended, let me get some poison candy,' which to me, that isn't very good."^[4]

Discography

• Bang Chamber 8 (Pre-BHG Project Done By Jimmy Pop & Daddy Long Legs) (1992)
• Just Another Demo (Demo Tape) (1992)
• The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Hitler's Handicapped Helpers (Demo) (1994)
• Dingleberry Haze (1994)
• Use Your Fingers (1995)
• One Fierce Beer Coaster (1996) US #57, Germany #14 (1999 re-release)
• Hooray for Boobies (Europe: 1999, US: 2000) US #14, UK #37, Germany #1
• Hefty Fine (2005) US #24, Germany #7

References

See also

• One fierce beer run

External links

• The Bloodhound Gang's official site
• The Bloodhound Gang's official myspace
• the lyrics of select The Bloodhound Gang's songs at BloodhoundGang.com
• The Bloodhound Gang at All Music Guide
• Daddy Long Leg's new band's web site