Adults in Ink--but Adolescent in a Blink(-182)

The members of San Diego punk-rock trio blink-182 have fairly simple career goals: enjoying themselves and avoiding work.

“There’s a place for bands with a serious message,” said bassist Mark Hoppus. “I mean, we listen to bands like Bad Religion and Pennywise. But I think there’s also room for bands like us that don’t take life so seriously.”

The band’s attitude is instantly apparent in songs that celebrate raging hormones, candy cravings and the various basic functions of the human body.

“We take some shots for refusing to grow up,” Hoppus, 24, said, “but we’re young, and so are our fans. What it’s all about is connecting with the kids and keeping things real and down to earth.”

Besides, he added, “what’s wrong with having fun with your friends and goofing off for as long as you can? We just want to be successful enough to avoid getting regular jobs.”

The band’s prospects on that point look good now that it’s been signed to a multi-album deal for a subsidiary of MCA Records.

Having released its 1994 debut album, “Cheshire Cat,” for Cargo Records, a small San Diego independent label, blink-182 will release its next album, “Dude Ranch,” in May under a deal that teams Cargo with Sunset Beach-based Way Cool Music.

Way Cool Music is the label run by Huntington Beach resident Mike Jacobs, a veteran of the O.C.-L.A. music scene who had a hand in the successes of the Offspring, Green Day and Rancid.

“Blink-182 is fun--they’re the punk-rock version of the Smothers Brothers,” Jacobs said in a separate phone interview. “And they can play. I just heard a rough tape of their new album. . . . ‘Dude Ranch’ will definitely take them up to the next level.”

Having the major-label distribution through MCA should help. “At the same time, we get to keep Cargo involved,” said Hoppus by phone from his San Diego residence. “They had faith in us from the beginning when nobody else did, and that means a lot to us.

“Mike [Jacobs] is very into all of us working together as a label and a band . . . to work things out so the label isn’t pushing us in a direction we don’t want to go. We believe Way Cool has the power to take us as far as we’re willing to go.”

Hoppus also sees the new label as a vehicle to attract parts of the mainstream audience that blink-182 has yet to reach.

“We don’t adhere to the policy that punk is only for the few people who are hip, [who are] part of some underground thing,” Hoppus said. “We just listen to music that we like, regardless of scenes and trends and all that stupid stuff. The politicizing of punk isn’t our thing.”

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Blink-182’s thing revolves largely around trashy humor and tales of getting girls set to high-octane punk.

That formula won’t change much on “Dude Ranch,” Hoppus said. Among the songs will be one (“Voyeur”) about a Peeping Tom, and another (“A New Hope”) that espouses Hoppus’ infatuation with Princess Leia of “Star Wars.”

The band will flesh things out musically with more two- and three-part harmonies and its first acoustic ballad, untitled.

“We played like 180 shows last year, and I think our playing is sharper now,” Hoppus said. “On ‘Dude Ranch,’ we’ve taken the next step without completely going off the wall. We practice and do try as hard as we can to improve our sound.”

* Blink-182 and Unwritten Law perform Friday at Old World Hall, 7561 Center Ave., Huntington Beach. 7 p.m. $11. (714) 991-2055.