Eager Blink-182 fans have not one, but four new albums to look forward to. Well, sort of. The Southern California punksters’ forthcoming album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (due June 12th), will be pressed in four different versions, with three containing a different bonus track and the fourth being a “clean” version without a bonus track.
The bonus-track discs will be emblazoned with one of three different symbols: an airplane (signifying “take off”), a pair of pants, and a jacket. Each symbol will correspond to a different bonus track.
As originally planned, the three tunes were to be “Fuck a Dog in the Ass,” “Mother’s Day,” and “When You Fucked Hitler” (suffice it to say, the bonus-track versions of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket will come with a parental advisory sticker). Blink have now nixed the “Hitler” tune, and, according to the band’s label, they are still deciding on the others.
The outside of the bonus discs will be identical – meaning it’s a crapshoot for which version you’re buying – a move that should discourage all but the wealthiest, most eager Blinkheads (and anyone with a firm grasp on probability and statistics) from swiping up multiple copies.
Meanwhile, the band has just wrapped shooting in Los Angeles for the album’s first single, “The Rock Show.” The clip, directed by the brotherly team of Emmit and Brendan Malloy ( Vertical Horizon, Foo Fighters), should be a visual feast. Over the past few days of production, the Blink boys and their film crew have dropped a Mazda Miata from a forty-feet-tall crane, smashed a load of televisions, taken area homeless folk to a day spa and sent skateboarders hurtling over vans. Performance footage of the band was shot in a downtown bank, adorned with colorful banners promising, “1.82% Interest Rates.”
