For four long years the radio has been desperately in need of quality songs about boobs, butts and blow jobs. Thank heaven then that Philadelphia's Bloodhound Gang have finally returned with a new collection of rockin' hip-hop blasphemy, the aptly titled salute to all things mammary, Hooray for Boobies.

By now you're well acquainted with the chorus to the record's first single "The Bad Touch." "You and me, baby," deadpans singer/BHG CEO Jimmy Pop Ali atop a thumping dance beat, "ain't nothin' but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel." The accompanying clip for the single has drawn fire from all manner of activists, most notably the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which took umbrage with some since-deleted scenes of two hand-holding sailors being beaten by a baguette.

Since the Gang's second album One Fierce Beer Coaster and breakthrough single "Fire Water Burn" hit in 1996, they've been whoring themselves out across Europe and Down Under, building a rabid fan base of Backstreet Boys proportions. Now, with "The Bad Touch" and Hooray, it looks like stardom might finally find them in their native land.

However, Ali says this growth won't bring about evolution.

Would you like to take this opportunity to dispel the myth that the Bloodhound Gang are a Christian rock band?

Sure. While we are down with Jesus, the Devil just has better drugs.

Do you think the censoring of the "Bad Touch" video sends a confusing message, that only heterosexuals can get beat up with bread in videos?

It's ridiculous that anyone had such a problem with that. You know there's like five or ten people that really give a shit about it. The rest of the gays and lesbians could care less. We were hitting the guy with a baguette! How could that be misconstrued as gay bashing? Baguette happens to rhyme with faggot and I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I can't find it. I wanted to give a statement to GLAAD. I wanted to send them an e-mail that was like, "It was not our intention to trivialize violence against minority groups. But enough about the midgets already." [MTV] could have had me do a little intro monologue like that overrated black bass woman [Me'shell Ndege Ocello] did for "Leviticus: Faggot."

It's funny, what offends people in different countries. In Sweden, of all places, they took the video off the air because they didn't like the monkeys fucking. In our defense, a bunch of naturalists came out and protested. It made the front page of the Afemblagem Snorgenflugen.

What took you guys so long to get this record out?

We toured for over a year for our last record. We took a few months off and then started working on this record. When we were finally done, we were gonna get sued by Pink Floyd. We had already printed up 300,000 copies for America with the Floyd reference on it without permission ["Right Turn Clyde" borrows the melody for "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)": "All in all you're just another dick with no balls"] so we had to destroy all of them. Two days after they were destroyed, we got permission. Floyd's lawyer disapproved, but then Roger Waters gave the thumbs up.

Has the Discovery Channel contacted you at all?

It's all been very casual. They've been coming to our shows in every city, regional employees and such. I've been putting them on the list.

Is there anything you personally find offensive?

People that are ignorant. Any kind of ignorance. People who truly have no tolerance. Guys that are proud to be from Brooklyn.

You must face the same issue that plagues Howard Stern or the South Park guys -- that your audience is sometimes too dumb to know you're just kidding, that it's parody. Are you scared by what some people must think of you, that you're a misogynistic meathead?

I'm scared by people on the left and right. People like GLAAD who can't have a sense of humor and dumb people that are laughing for the wrong reasons.

We played a show in Leeds, England, about a month and half ago. Two nights before we played these two star players from the Leeds soccer team went out to a bar and beat the shit out of a Turkish guy. I think they almost killed him. The record company gave us all Leeds soccer jerseys with our names on them to wear onstage. When we were onstage I said, "Hey, Lnpns [Thnnder, guitarist] has his Leeds jersey on so if anyone wants to go beat up some Turkish people after the show, he's up for it." People in the crowd were so excited we had the jerseys on. They were like, "Yeah, let's go beat up some Turks!" I had to explain to them what morons they were.

Is there anything you've written that in retrospect you think went too far, that you regret?

No. When someone gets hurt at one of our shows I get depressed, so sometimes I regret not knowing how weak security is at a given show. But, no, I've never regretted anything I've said or done. Basically what we do in this band is just ourselves exaggerated. I've been into doodie jokes since I was in kindergarten.It's me living my own life. I know that I'm not trying to be hurtful.

With confessional songwriting being so rare these days, it was nice to see that you were willing to look inward in this album. When you sing, "I'm not the smartest peanut in the turd" [from "Three Point One Four"], are you voicing your own insecurities?

Sure. We just won a German Grammy. I think it was for best international band.Enrique Iglesias and Cher and Madonna were there, and there I was, hanging out with them, shocked that not everyone is down to earth because I still have such low self-esteem. I just always wonder how other people get that "my ass doesn't stink" attitude. All it takes is for one German guy to correct my English and I just think I'm the dumbest guy around.

Do you have a secret cache of love songs and nostalgic laments on fading youth?

No, not really. I've never had the ability to write that kind of stuff. It's funny 'cause all my favorite music when I was growing up is the worst offenders in that kind of stuff, like Depeche Mode.

Do you worry that this kind of parody rock has a limited life, that eventually if you don't change your shtick, the joke won't be funny anymore?

You could take a song off this record and put it on our first or second record and it would not sound out of place. I don't think there's been any kind of evolution. We just make records for people to put on, drink a bunch of Jagermeister and have a good time. Our goal has always been to make fun records. I would say that maybe at the most we can make two more records like this and then we'll be done. By that time we'll all be about thirty, and that's a good quitting time. If we keep going, we'll end up wanting to free Tibet or something.

GREG HELLER
(March 22, 2000)