Blink Soundtrack

It can't be a bad life being a member of the band Blink 182. If their "Urethra Chronicles" video is to be believed, their job involves mainly traveling around the world, being extremely childish, and playing hugely enjoyable punk pop for the masses. Basically a fly-on-the-wall look into that life, the Urethra Chronicles DVD gives little insight into the three Blinks aside from their love of toilet humor and seeming obsession with homosexuality. The music is given frustratingly short shrift aside from the odd snippet of live performance, but you don't have to be a teenage boy and/or a fan to find some of this very funny. Much, however, will leave the casual observer feeling left out on a series of inside jokes. When they place their humor in the context of the music, though--as with the four promo videos also included--the result is fantastic. The Backstreet Boys pastiche "All the Small Things" not only is the pinnacle both musically and visually but also demonstrates the great Blink 182 irony--that behind the smirking, childish exterior lurk three sensitive souls, just as keen to use their video to pay tribute to their girlfriends as they are to drop their trousers. --Phil Udell