Good Taste Is Timeless

Jun 20, 1999 8:00 PM EDT

It's not a pretty sight when punk bands hit pay dirt. Their loyal fans, already surly and disaffected by nature, tend to react as though somebody ruffled their mohawks. Imagine how miffed they're going to be when they read this: Blink 182, a raffish San Diego outfit somewhere to the left of Green Day, will make a top-10 debut on this week's Billboard album chart with "Enema of the State." It's bad enough that we're writing about them in NEWSWEEK.

Fortunately, there's no trace of sellout in "Enema's" torrent of tommy-gun melodies and gleefully obnoxious lyrics. Sample: "Nobody likes you when you're 23/What the hell is ADD?"

Blink 182--the name supposedly refers to the number of times Al Pacino says "f--k" in "Scarface"--has lost none of its artistic immaturity. The video for "What's My Age Again?" features the trio romping about in their birthday suits, covered only by an armada of tattoos. "There's nothing more awkward or funny-looking than a naked dude," says bassist/singer Mark Hoppus, 27. Gigs at skateboarding events earned the boys their street cred. Now they're headlining the Warped Tour. That's bad news for punk purists trying to cope with seeing Blink 182 all over the place. It will be hard to miss them: they're the ones without any clothes.

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Devin Gordon is the editor of Newsweek Digital, the umbrella company encompassing Newsweek's various web properties, including Newsweek.com and Newsweek Mobile. Previously, from June 2007 to June 2009, he was senior editor of the magazine's Periscope section, which was nominated for a National Magazine Award for "best section" in 2008. Previously, he was a senior writer, writing about film, television, sports and popular culture for the Arts and Entertainment and Society sections. He was part of the Newsweek reporting team for the past three Olympic games, including the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he covered swimmer Michael Phelps, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, for which he wrote Newsweek's cover story about skier Bode Miller.

During his tenure at the magazine, Gordon has written about everything from HBO's "The Wire" to rock band Coldplay to Oscar-winner film directors Ang Lee and Peter Jackson. He profiled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator Larry David on the eve of the series' fourth season debut, and "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan just prior to the film's record breaking release. For Newsweek's year-end double-issue of 2002, he wrote "The Matrix Makers," (Jan. 6, 2003), a cover story about the two upcoming "Matrix" sequels—the first behind-the-scenes look at the new films by any publication.

Gordon joined Newsweek in 1998, after graduating from Duke University. His first cover story was "The Dominator" (June 18, 2001), an examination of what makes Tiger Woods tick. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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