Mindless Self Indulgence really doesn’t mind if you hate them, assures Little Jimmy Urine, vocalist and programmer for the New York City electro/punk band.

“But we do mind when people who don’t get it write it off as a joke band just because we don’t take ourselves so seriously,” he is quick to add. “When did it become that being serious equals genuine and truthful?”

Enough people certainly are “getting it,” though.

Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI), after all, has had two songs at number one and two (“Pay for It” and “On It,” respectively, off their latest CD, “If”) at the same time on the Billboard Hot Singles chart.

It’s said that has not been accomplished since Bright Eyes did it four years ago with “Lua” and “Take it Easy (Leave Nothing).” For good measure, MSI also had a song at number five at the same time that they occupied the top two spots.

Urine is trying not to get too excited about it. “Until I’m swimming in gold I’m never gonna really notice stuff like that because it’s all so goal oriented,” he says. “You’re gonna play a show here at this time and you go play it. You get paid and move on to the next goal. That’s the same thing with the singles.”

Better than a single, perhaps, is that “Never Wanted to Dance,” the opening track of “If,” has been selected for “Madden NFL ’09,” described as “one of the most influential soundtracks in videogame history.”

Urine insists the band is motivated by “being able to get away with s---,” and is driven by “money and our huge egos.”

“Our strength and weakness are always the same thing,” he says. “It’s that we are a very unique band with our own form of music that no one else does. And like anything new and unique the powers that be have a hard time applying us to all the categories that came before. A hexagon shape does not fit in a square hole.”

That’s the beauty of MSI, the music press seems to be saying.

The band, suggests Metal Hammer, is “an antidote to a world that takes itself too seriously,” and its music is “as colorful and inventive as it is a provocative soundclash.”

This is “co-ed cacophony” at its best, adds Rocksound.

The Village Voice hails MSI as “the most innovative electro-punk band since Atari Teenage Riot.”

The Boston Globe praises the band’s “bratty spirit..and in-your-face sound and persona.”

It is no less than “freakishly fun,” adds All Music Guide.

It resonates, Urine believes, “because we say and do whatever we want.” “We don’t kowtow to radio or MTV. We just have to make ourselves happy. We live by our own examples and our own mistakes,” he says.

All of which brings Mindless Self Indulgence to today.

“We seem to be at the ‘Who is this Mindless Self Indulgence?’ part of our career,” he says, “which is silly because we have been here for 10 years and our fans have been here for 10 years. So if you’re just tuning in, you’re the one who’s late.”

He is not surprised MSI has made an impact. “Because we made something people want to either hate or love,” he reasons.

He offers this as his “resume” – “I hate music and the trappings of all the clichés that go along with it, and I’m here to tell you don’t have to deal with a band acting like a f------ ‘band.’ And to anyone wanting to do music I would say find another career. The music business is the worst in the world. If I was as good at doing something else I would have quit a long time ago.”

The music business has been going downhill for 15 years, he adds. “It will turn into something else completely than what we all grew up with,” he predicts. “What I think is so funny is that people still think it’s this wonderful rock star dream like it’s 1977 or some s---.”

As to what he hopes people might take from the music of Mindless Self Indulgence, Urine says, “I hope they think for themselves and take what they want from it all. It’s not my job to teach them or tell them what to do.”

He is equally frank when asked if he wants MSI’s music to give people hope and to encourage them to remain optimistic amidst the challenges of life. “I’m not here to save them or give them anything,” he insists. “Some of them will die. Some will do drugs. Some will go to jail. Some will turn out OK. Some will be famous. Some will be losers. It’s called life.”

And his vision of life is what he writes about as the band’s lyricist. “I’m inspired by that fact that I can really write about anything I want to because I’m in a band where I don’t have to censor myself,” Urine explains.

The creative process for the band has not changed much, he says. “Sometimes I go out of my way to make writing a song interesting, like writing a song online with all the fans. But for the most part the songwriting process has been the same.”

Those fans, by the way, are people “who are sick of the same old rock’n’roll cliché bullshit,” he says.

What can people expect who are seeing MSI live for the first time?

Urine: “Let’s turn that (question) around. What do I expect? I expect people to dress the f--- up, do whatever the f--- they want, bring me presents and not be boring or I’m gonna get them.”

First time concert goers will learn “that we are as crazy and kinetic and sexy as our music,” he says.

“Every night we do different s--- and take our lives into our own hands,” he adds. “I hate bands that just stand there and play. We want to entertain ourselves as well as you. Unless we do that, it’s f------ boring up there.”