Blink-182 [ARCHIVED] Band • Page 215

I was wondering when people would start retroactively hating old Tom

 

I've been saying this same stuff for over 10 years at least!

 

The first time I heard it I had no idea what was happening, the back and forth, the pace, the sound, the two vocalists. I was, 13/14 or whatever and I had literally never heard anything like it. It was like someone turned the light on for music. It was the first time I heard something and immediately was like "this is for me" versus appreciating something, or liking it because a friend gave me an album, or just enjoying music and sounds in general. Always loved and listened to music, but that was the first time I had a moment of connection with music in that way.

 

it flows so well. it feels like a rap verse or something but it's so melodic.

the fucking bridge we've been waiting for.

 

Don't apologize at all! blink-182 occupied maybe 80% of my brain from ages 9-16 so I could read stuff about them forever.

Haha that reminds me of when my only album was Cheshire Cat. I got into blink when my best friend showed me Dude Ranch on a Cub scouts camping trip, we just played his walkman as loud as it would go in the tent we shared with the headphones sitting in between us. I was hooked, but also like, 9 or 10 years old, so my parents were not down to buy me parental advisory albums, or even Dude Ranch since there was a song called "Dammit". So I got Cheshire Cat and listened to it a billion times (I still think it's a fun album even if they really, really wear the Descendents influence on their sleeve hard). The previously mentioned friend burned me a copy of Enema but he put "Dumpweed" on it like, four times in a row at the beginning and for some reason "Wendy Clear" wasn't on it (and "What's My Age Again?" had a tiny, slight skip in the opening seconds, and I listened to that version of the album so fucking much that I still anticipate the skip even if I hear that song on the radio or on Apple Music). So Cheshire Cat and my weird version of Enema (along with I think All Killer No Filler and maybe Sticks and Stones) were the only albums I listened to for about two years until I could get my hands on other stuff. I'm the same way with blink. They were my first favorite band and pre-Neighborhoods I have very strong feelings for (just about) every single song they've ever made.

Basically, blink-182 makes me feel good. Nowadays I prioritize other artists and other artists impact me way harder than they do, but I'll always have that attachment to them, so especially when they're active and seem engaged and lively, I'm happy. It shows in "Bored to Death" and I really look forward to California.

 

This is pretty much spot on for me. I remember sitting in my friend's basement listening to Aerosmith and Our Lady Peace one day when I was 11 or 12, difficult to remember, and coming across Dude Ranch in my friend's older brother's CD case. He had the booklets with each disc and the artwork caught my eye so I threw it in the boom box (what a throwback), and I was floored. We sat there and listened to it front to back probably hundreds of times over the next however many months, and our parents even let us skip school to go to the mall to buy Enema the day it was released.

 

I think the weird thing for me is that Tom issues and all the crap that went down actually started turning me off to Tom sung blink-182 songs. It got to a point where I would skip through them. Which is kind of crazy considering I have loved this band since 1995. I think that is why Dude Ranch really resonates with me so much today.

 

Haha, oh Cub Scouts. I am about 10 years older than you, so at that time it was Boy Scouts for me, still camp each summer and I had this one tiny little case for CDs I was allowed to take so I had to pick like maybe 5 or something I could bring. I brought Enema and kids would come by just to listen to it in the tent for an hour or so. I remember the days of avoiding the PA sticker. Holding a thumb over it when showing my mom, once I told her I'd led her listen to the album first, and then swapped it out with something else when we got home. I think that was Pennywise's "About Time" — she didn't like the imagery of "killing" in the title of a song. Basically Blink kicked it all off and then it was a really, really heavy mix of MxPx, Millencolin, NOFX, No Use for a Name, Lagwagon, and anything I could find that kind of sounded like any of those bands. Having a friend visit California, and hear about this band called "The Ataris" and me trying to find anything I could by them before finally seeing them live with MxPx and feeling like I won the fucking lottery because I could FINALLY buy their two CDs. I was so happy to just finally have more than like 3 songs. Finding New Found Glory was the next "oh my god" moment when I new they'd be the biggest band ever. I felt like I owned that band and got in on them so early that I had to tell everyone about them. (That obsession of telling people about music never went away, lol.) Napster hitting was then when my world opened up and I couldn't stop looking for music. I had to find something new. It was basically the definition of addiction.

I love the lack of "Wendy Clear" - one of my secret favorites on that album. And I totally agree with that description "blink-182 makes me feel good" — that's a great way to put it. And that attachment. They were ... for lack of a better term ... a lifestyle. I wanted to have that much fun. I wanted to look that cool. I wanted to swear and think life was gonna be ok if I put on sunglasses and wore billabong or hurley.

 

I remember eating crappy food at school, a Snapple was 50 cents, a roll with butter was 50 cents, so I could eat for a dollar at lunch every day on the $10 per week my parents gave me for lunch money (then gorge myself on house food when I got home in the afternoon). If I did that I could buy a new CD every two weeks or so, maybe sooner if I did chores or extra work around the neighborhood. I saved up specifically for Enema and bought it the day it came out on the way home from school - friend took me in his Jeep - and I just played it over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. We'd blast that thing from the car every morning driving into the parking lot. Months on end without switching it out. I think before it was released I had heard some stuff like "Mutt" in these HORRIBLE real audio files you could download on the "internet" as it was back then. Hah. Basically just one pages of things and animated scrolling words. It was the first song I ever heard with Travis.

 

And then Mark thanked me in Neighborhoods and if I die tonight that's still like gotta be somewhere in my obituary. You hear that Blink-182 thread? Make that happen. I was kinda a dick, pretty weird, I liked to swear, and DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

 

When I saw that I was happy for you #goals

 

Haha.... I was hooked within seconds into the song, I didn't have to listen to it several times to get use to it or analyze it (then again I was also 13, so I don't know what I would of been analyzing), I just fucking loved it right away, and I still love it.

 

It's the most like reactionary and serendipitous moment I can remember with an album.

 

These pictures. This is what it was like seeing them at Soma, Belly Up, and this other small venue in SD. Can't remember what it was called, but small venue.

Anyways point is we all had bleached hair or frosted tips and looked ridiculous. Music and mosh pits were good though.

 

OH man, yeah. I saw Home Grown, Pivit, and shit, quite a few bands there if I think about it
. I think that venue and Chain Reaction are maybe the two we went to the most during my college years.

 

Hearing all of these stories is crazy because I did a lot of the same things, just with Busted and McFly as opposed to Blink and New Found Glory. My parents would give me lunch and canteen money to buy food and I'd voluntarily go without just to save up for the newest albums or magazines that featured my favourite bands.

 

Yes! Chain reaction!!! My nephews band just played there a couple of months ago. Nowadays, it is about the Observatory, Glass House, and the Fox to an extent. Lots of those cool places and venues are gone now. Shame.

 

You're describing the first time I listened to Blink exactly, except the song was "Josie," haha.

 

It's crazy to think this is the band that brought me to AP (back when it was just a Blink fan site), and here I am on the current incarnation of that website discussing the same band I think.. 16 years later? Wild.

 

So far seeing blink at Kerfuffle and in Richmond. Picking a PA date to meet up with friends later this summer so I hope I win VIP!

 

No worries guys. I clocked that once I'd gotten a coffee down me.

On the track. I think it's ok. It's solid enough. Nice vibe. Chorus feels a bit bland but it'll do me. Matt's voice fits ee lesson with Mark's and for the first time in a while it sounds like th band are all on the same page. I can't wait to see them when they hit the UK next year. With someone that can sing live.

 

I was going to say exactly this. I remember exactly where I was when I heard pathetic (school bus on a field trip to West point). I'll never forget the song, it shaped my life.

 

And I was a person who sent you a tweet about it with your name circled in red. I remember how you couldn't believe that your dream came true.

 

I think Mark is head and shoulders above Tom as a lyricist. The best example I can think of is Mark's chorus and bridge on Feeling This compared to Tom's verses. Mark has his duds but he is so much better at painting a picture and mixing humor in with seriousness.

Tom's obviously got some memorable lines, Untitled from Dude Ranch and Stay Together for the Kids come to mind, but I think Mark was always the stronger writer of the two.

 

Josie and Apple shampoo always come to mind