Hefty Fine is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Bloodhound Gang, released on September 27, 2005. Produced by band frontman Jimmy Pop, it was Bloodhound Gang's third release on Geffen Records following the band's smash hit Hooray for Boobies which managed to sell over one million copies in the United States and Europe. It was also the band's last album with former guitarist Lüpüs Thünder and the only album with drummer Willie the New Guy—they were replaced in 2008 and 2006 by A members Daniel P. Carter and Adam Perry, respectively. The album contains electronic instruments and heavy emphasis on scatological humor.

Hefty Fine
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 27, 2005
RecordedDecember 2004–March 2005
Genre
Length40:07
LabelGeffen
ProducerJimmy Pop
Bloodhound Gang chronology
Hooray for Boobies
(1999)
Hefty Fine
(2005)
Show Us Your Hits
(2010)
Singles from Hefty Fine
  1. "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo"
    Released: August 1, 2005[2]
  2. "Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss"
    Released: November 25, 2005[3]
  3. "No Hard Feelings"
    Released: April 26, 2006

The album received poor reviews and holds the dubious accolade of having received the second-worst review on review aggregator website Metacritic. Despite the critical backlash, the album sold well, particularly in Europe, where it debuted in the top ten in Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany. In the US, the album peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200.

Three singles were released from the album including "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo", "Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss", and "No Hard Feelings". The album's first two singles were minor hits, the former charting on six charts, and the latter charting on four.

Music

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"Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" was inspired by a joke between Jimmy Pop and "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff.[4] Originally, the two had sent each other euphemisms for sexual intercourse via email.[4] The joke later evolved into the song.[4] According to Jimmy Pop, "Ralph Wiggum" took the longest to write because it required the band to sift through several scripts of The Simpsons.[4] "Something Diabolical" features vocals from Finnish band HIM's lead singer, Ville Valo, who makes reference to the band in the lyric "Tonight belongs to H.I.M." HIM and Bloodhound Gang toured with each other in the 1990s.[4] Eventually, the groups became close and Jimmy Pop offered to distribute HIM's CDs in America.[4] When it came time to record "Something Diabolical", Valo was asked by the band to record some of the vocals.[4] The hidden track is said by Bam Margera of CKY/Jackass/Viva La Bam fame. He can also be seen in the video for "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" driving a car shaped like a banana, which RockHard Films' Marc Klasfeld directed. "Balls Out" can be heard briefly in the car chase scene from the 2008 movie Drillbit Taylor.

"I'm the Least You Can Do" reuses a piano riff from "Birthday Boy", a song by Jimmy Pop's pre-Bloodhound Gang band Bang Chamber 8, released in 1990 on a self-titled demo tape.

Title and artwork

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The cover depicts a large, naked white man, whose genitals are obscured.

The title and album art each have unique stories. Initially, the album was going to be titled Heavy Flow, but Jimmy Pop discovered that there was a Moby song of the same name.[5] Guitarist Lupus Thunder and Pop have expressed their distaste for Moby in the past.[5] After scrapping Heavy Flow, Lupus Thunder and Jimmy Pop began trading emails that featured the recurring gag "now that's a hefty fine".[5] The band later realized that Hefty Fine would make a good name for a record.[5] Lupus Thunder, in an interview with The News-Times said, "it just clicked in his head and [we're] like, 'Hefty fine? Hold on a minute.'"[5] Bassist "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff and Lupus Thunder have also gone on the record stating that the name could be a play on words meaning an attractive, obese person.[5][6]

As for the cover art, there are several stories. According to "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff, the cover art was originally intended to feature an obese African-American woman, but Geffen insisted that the band change it.[7] According to former guitarist Lupus Thunder, the cover model, Carlin Langley,[8] was chosen out of several applicants.[7] Potential models were asked to send in a picture and a bio, but Carlin Langley sent in a photograph of himself performing fellatio on another man.[7] The band was impressed by Langley's sense of humor and hired him.[7] Carlin Langley went on to post in the official Bloodhound Gang forums, under the user name "Hefty Fine".[6]

A clean version of the album was released in the US, containing instead plain wooden box-style artwork, and the poster of Langley being replaced by a larger version of the image of the band from underneath the CD tray. That version also omitted the skit "Diarrhea Runs in the Family".

Release and promotion

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Sometime in 2006, Bloodhound Gang launched a campaign to have the Pennsylvania state anthem changed to their song, "Pennsylvania". The outcome is unknown. A follow-up single (and its accompanying video) titled "Screwing You on the Beach at Night" was released in 2007; an alternate version of the video features former porn actors Till Kraemer and Leonie Saint fornicating while the band is performing around them.[9]

As of April 2021, Hefty Fine is the only Bloodhound Gang album not to be released on vinyl.

Reception

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Critical response

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic28/100[10]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [11]
Billboard(unfavorable)[12]
Blender     [13]
Hot Press0/5[1]
IGN3.5/10[14]
Music Emissions     [15]
Playlouder     [16]
PopMatters2/10[17]
Rolling Stone     [18]

Hefty Fine was panned by music critics. The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 28/100 from ten reviews, making it the second-worst-reviewed album ever at the website.[10] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic criticized its lyrical and musical similarities to their previous releases, saying that "the music is tired, almost all plodding 4/4 alt-metal, with the exception of parodies of dance music from the early '90s." Erlewine added that, "the humor may be perpetually adolescent, but the Bloodhound Gang's music is stuck in the '90s, so it can't really appeal to a new era of teenagers."[11]

Chart performance

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On October 15, 2005, Hefty Fine debuted and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 24,[19] selling 38,066 copies.[20] The next week, the album fell to number 64,[19] selling an additional 23,665 copies.[21] On its sixth, and final week, the album dropped to number 181, disappearing off the chart the following week.[19] The album spent a total of six weeks on the chart.[19]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Jimmy Pop except where noted

Hefty Fine track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Strictly for the Tardcore" 0:09
2."Balls Out"Jimmy Pop, Lüpüs Thunder4:19
3."Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo"Jimmy Pop, Jared Hasselhoff2:51
4."I'm the Least You Could Do" 3:58
5."Farting with a Walkman On" 3:26
6."Diarrhea Runs in the Family" 0:24
7."Ralph Wiggum"Jimmy Pop, The Simpsons writers2:52
8."Something Diabolical" (featuring Ville Valo)Jimmy Pop, Harry Dean, Jr5:10
9."Overheard in a Wawa Parking Lot" 0:04
10."Pennsylvania" 2:57
11."Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss" (featuring Natasha Thorp) 4:20
12."Jackass" (exclusive to UK and Japanese releases) 2:26
13."No Hard Feelings" 9:15
Total length:40:07
  • After "No Hard Feelings" ends, there is four minutes of silence before Bam Margera says "This is Bam and hidden tracks shit dicks out" at 9:11.

Credits

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Charts

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Chart performance for Hefty Fine
Chart (2005) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[22] 32
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[23] 4
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[24] 82
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[25] 32
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[26] 75
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] 7
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[28] 36
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[29] 26
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[30] 24
UK Albums Chart[31] 109
US Billboard 200[32] 24

Certifications

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Certifications for Hefty Fine
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Austria (IFPI Austria)[33] Gold 15,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ a b Cummins, Steve. (November 1, 2005). "Hefty Fine". Hot Press. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  2. ^ "Going for Adds". Radio & Records. No. 1617. July 29, 2005. p. 21.
  3. ^ "Bloodhound Gang: Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss". GfK Entertainment. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Karol, Adam. "Bloodhound Gang". Popular Underground Magazine. Archived from the original on August 16, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Friedman, David (July 29, 2005). "Bloodhound Gang gets ready to serve fans with humor-packed 'Hefty Fine'". NewsTimes. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  6. ^ a b Bürgler, Stephanie (2005). "Bloodhound Gang". Slam-Zine. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d "Lupus Thunder: 'Everything Is Nasty In Bloodhound Gang'". Ultimate-Guitar. October 13, 2005. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d Bloodhound Gang (2005). Hefty Fine (liner). Geffen Records.
  9. ^ "Bloodhound Gang - Music video, concert, lyrics". The-BloodhoundGang.Com. February 24, 2014. Archived from the original on December 5, 2018. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  10. ^ a b "Critic Reviews for Hefty Fine". Metacritic. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
  11. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Hefty Fine - Bloodhound Gang". AllMusic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  12. ^ Jeff Vrabel (October 5, 2005). "BLOODHOUND GANG, "Hefty Fine"". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  13. ^ "Bloodhound Gang - Hefty Fine". Blender. November 2005. p. 131.
  14. ^ JR (January 5, 2006). "Bloodhound Gang - Hefty Fine". IGN. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  15. ^ Dave Edair (November 8, 2005). "Bloodhound Gang - Hefty Fine". Music Emissions. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  16. ^ Swells (October 4, 2005). "Hefty Fine". Playlouder. Archived from the original on October 12, 2005. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  17. ^ Mike Schiller (November 7, 2005). "Bloodhound Gang: Hefty Fine". PopMatters. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  18. ^ Hoard, Christian (October 6, 2005). "Hefty Fine: Bloodhound Gang: Review: Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 9, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  19. ^ a b c d "The Visualizer - The Bloodhound Gang". Billboard.com.
  20. ^ HITS Daily Double: Building Album Sales Chart Chart Date: March 10, 2005 HitsDailyDouble.com Retrieved February 4, 2011
  21. ^ HITS Daily Double: Building Album Sales Chart Archived December 6, 2012, at archive.today Chart Date: October 10, 2005 HitsDailyDouble.com Retrieved February 4, 2011
  22. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  23. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  24. ^ "Ultratop.be – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  25. ^ "Danishcharts.dk – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  26. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  27. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  28. ^ "Charts.nz – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  29. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  30. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  31. ^ "Chart Log UK 1994-2008". zobbel.de. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
  32. ^ "Bloodhound Gang Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  33. ^ "Austrian album certifications – Bloodhound Gang – Hefty Fine" (in German). IFPI Austria. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
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