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I just stumbled onto this old interview from 2000 and Mark describes Tom perfectly haha "Tom is totally, 100 percent faithful to his girlfriend. He's pretty straightforward: He hangs out with his girlfriend, and he believes in aliens. Honestly, he believes anything he reads. You could say, 'I read in a magazine that an alien landed in Australia. A doctor found him and did an autopsy – there's footage on the Internet.' And Tom wouldn't even question it. He would take it as gospel and go around telling everybody." https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-blink-182-went-to-the-top-of-the-charts-by-keeping-their-minds-in-the-gutter-20000120

If Feldmann became a full time member I would never buy another blink 182 product for the rest of my life. Literally fucking anyone at this point is preferential to me over Feldy.

I think the one thing that Skiba-era blink has done much better than Neighborhoods/DED-era blink did is make interesting bridges. The bridges on Neighborhoods and DED were almost all nothing. No lyrics, and not even interesting instrumentals. Good bridges finally made a comeback on California.

wow every time i hear a feldmann produced song, it sounds like it could have easily been on california if it had mark singing. everything sounds exactly the same. it's awful. i can't believe the same dude who produced Commit This To Memory hears this stuff back and thinks its acceptable. jerry finn is rolling in his grave.

i'm the source of the attic children rips; i still have the original cassette. if the mods like i can post a FLAC of the whole demo. they do boys don't cry several times, as well as some originals.

Why do they even bother showing up when we know Feldmann already wrote the music? Just for publicity photos?

Mark: I used to be super funny and cool, I love Disney Land more than I should, my son reminds me of my depressed self, please end gun violence, I totally have to see therapy over Tom, and I somehow manage to keep a perfect wife despite all this. Tom: I am completely lost in space ever since the painkillers dlimemna so let me take this awkward selfie and read some comments today, Ford caps are cool right?, Buy my shit, I mean invest, Announcement #182 like my old band #investTTS, my son and I play baseball and here's a preview of some acoustic shit I've been writing. Travis: My kids & Steve Aoki at Steve's 40th, here's my millionth project I am doing because like why not dudes, Blink is forever my home. Matt: Here's some shitty art, I am honored to be the cover guitarist in Blink 182, here's some shitty art next to me in a cast, here's me in a fedora next to some shitty art, I really care about this fan art someone made out of dog shit, Alk3 they will always be a part of me and we will write together again one day. That's basically my take from following and then unfollowing each of them...if they kept to their final points It'd be totally fine.

Here's the piece: https://loudernow.online/2018/04/10/john-feldmann-a-necessary-force-to-propel-blink-182-back-into-mainstream-relevancy/ The main argument is that while Feldmann did change blink's sound up in a way that has annoyed some veteran fans, it did appeal to casual fans more. And hopefully, this puts blink in a position where they can comfortably experiment in the next album.

Honestly, I do understand that blink wanted to play it safe in order to get themselves relevant in the mainstream again. But I don't think it was necessary. You can be experimental and be mainstream. The single doesn't have to be something like BTD. Just look at I Miss You. Blink themselves didn't expect that to be popular but it was. Green Day weren't relevant in the early 2000s until they experimented with the American Idiot album. All blink needed was a hit or two. Doesn't matter if the song is experimental or not, it can still be a hit. As for Matt Skiba coming in, I doubt casual fans would even know the difference between Matt Skiba and Tom. Really, I think of it as a no win situation when it comes to the hardcore blink fans. It was either two options for blink. One was to have the gothic punk rock sound that Matt would bring to blink, alongside his new wave elements and Mark's +44 vibes. Two was to try go the more mainstream sounding route, which is what they did. Doesn't matter which option they'd choose, the hardcore fans would be split. Some blink fans just don't want that Alkaline Trio gothic punk sound with blink, but there's also some who'd love it, me being one of them. So they went the more poppy route, but again, some blink fans just don't wanna hear that anymore, especially after hearing BCR, +44 and the 2003 album. Me personally, I don't actually mind that they went the more poppy route. It was the fact they went so overboard with it. There was just no need for every damn song to have a fucking woah or nana or whatever crap it was. One or two songs is enough. Gang vocals also do not work in a blink song either IMO. They could've done pop punk in a more blink way, not a crappy ATL way. That's just my personal opnion though. Everything they did just wasn't necessary at all IMO. Yeah, it worked, but it could've worked other ways too.

Mark was on a podcast yesterday, very interesting if you've got 2 hours to blow and want to skip through some ads/songs. https://secure-hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/a/d/5/ad51b7a7bf66004c/JR118_Just_A_Kid_From_Ridgecrest_CA.mp3?c_id=20322014&expiration=1523472527&hwt=76566e8b350dd353abdec82e0968d9f4 Here are the highlights: -Currently has 4 houses, doesn’t live in any. (Idaho, London, San Diego, Beverly Hills) -First punk rock song he heard and liked "Silly Girl" Descendants, 1988 gf showed him -"We were very DYI coming up in San Diego through a small club called SOMA. I was literally driving around to record stores dropping off our demos once a week, getting tapes made, going to Kinko’s and photocopying covers. So when we got signed to an Indie label it was like “Wait, so we don’t have to do this stuff all ourselves?”" -Only reason they got signed is because the owner of a label’s son liked them and kept putting their demo in his dad’s car stereo -They started getting more shows and he started doing poorly in college because he was missing full weeks, and his mom said “You only get once chance to be in a band. You can always go back to college” -Dad was pretty supportive but he doesn’t think he quite “got it” until Blink played Leno in 1999 -"We never felt like we were these “artists” on stage and you come to see us perform. Blink has always been this thing we’re all apart of." -Produced “Paused” band. “If I’m producing a band I want them to sound good, but I want them to sound like themselves." 01:04:00 first mention of new lineup “Supergroup” -“When Tom left again we had these shows booked, Travis and I didn’t want to cancel. We went to Matt, he was the only person we went to." -“It’s such a humbling thing for after 10 years of drama to have people chanting SKIBA and to be so accepting of Blink in whatever lineup, and for California to do as well as it did. It’s just really cool.” “The really cool thing is we go play shows and we’ll play songs that were popular in their day and people are like mehhh, and then we play California tracks and people go NUTS” -"When Travis joined that’s where Blink really made a turn and that’s where I really feel like Blink found it’s sound." -Mumford and Sons are giant Blink-182 fans -"The day that I moved to San Diego I went to Tom’s house, we met each other, and we started writing music that night. The beginnings of Carousel, the first song we ever wrote together." 1:36:00 Asking about what got in the way with Tom -"Life just happens, think about when you’re in high school, and think about who you’re friends with now… how many people are you close to from 25 years ago? Different interests, different paths, there’s no hard feelings." -"I understand all the feelings/posts, from the fans, I would feel the same myself. Even 40 years later I think, “Why did Paul and John not get along? You’re the Beatles how do you not figure it out guys?!”" -"Tension makes good music, but you can have that tension without drama, or fighting with people." -"I no longer drink before shows. I want to be just me, if I miss a note, it’s all me. When I play a show I want to do the best I can do." -Currently listening to “Slotface”, Scandinavian punk rock band -Justin Timberlake was most flattered on ASTS video, he loved it. -"I feel like Blink is the last of the “CD/Download/Napster” era that made it through and is still going. We’ve been very lucky. The whole scene we came out of has so many amazing bands/songwriters that just didn’t get to shine."

Travis just joined the Aquabats for a show in LA. He was wearing an Aquabats costume and everything! The band played the entire Fury of the Aquabats album, and Travis came out and played three songs with them. So far I've only been able to find a few Instagram posts, but hopefully something will show up on YouTube soon. Check it out!: I think it's so awesome that he did this! I would love to have seen this in person!

The Worst Part is a heartbreakingly beautiful song. I actually asked Justin Pierre (via Tumblr) why it remained a b-side and he said it was written before the EIIKM sessions and had already come out. Fair enough, even though it shows up on that deluxe release. Yeah MCS is very very influenced by 90s indie rock. The Rentals, Weezer, Pavement, Ben Folds Five, Superchunk, Fugazi, etc. So I consider them (in my mind) a 90s -ish band that evolved out the pop-punk/emo landscape of the early 00s. Would Justin Pierre be a good replacement for Tom Delonge? Not typically. He's probably a good choice to put into a band with Mark and Travis though, but he's pretty different than Tom. Say somebody like Ryan Key, to me, would be a more "natural" fit. But hey, good music can come from unlikely sources. Matt Skiba literally appeared on a song (Avoid One Thing) in the early 00s making fun of pop punk bands trying to sound like Tom Delonge. I still say he's a good fit, but nobody can really be Tom's perfect replacement.

That person at starbucks who wrote Tom on marks cup is my new favorite person.

Someone at Starbucks decided to mess with Mark's coffee?

Ever since someone posted about this guy going into detail about why All the Small Things is a great song, I've been watching a lot of his videos. This entire video is good but if you skip to the end, he gives his thoughts on the "assembly line" approach to making music. Though he doesn't mention him by name, it's pretty much a spot on critique of Feldmann's producing style and all that's wrong with it.

New Blink 182 Songs Day Two - We're Finished!

I'm a baseball nerd so I decided to try and combine two of my favorite things in the world: Baseball Cards & Blink-182. I decided to try and make a "set" for each studio album, as if they were released during that time period. (To the best of my ability, it's actually quite hard to find decent quality pictures from back in the day.) So here they are, I haven't made the backs yet but was so excited I had to share these. Once the backs are done I will have them printed like real "cards" and hopefully can get them signed some day. Disclaimer: I do not own any of these photos/trademarks/etc. These are merely for personal non-commercial use. Sorry for the watermark, but I'll be sad if someone prints them before I can lol. Enjoy. (You should be able to click this and make it larger). I have plans for some "variants" once I get around to it. Edit: Made some variants:

... yes? Very often. I wouldn't be into punk music without the Tony Hawk 2 soundtrack

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You know you're a pretty non experimental band when you do a song in a different time signature and feel the need to name the song after it. And wow, three whole songs in minor keys!

That seems like a nightmare

Good Guy Travis - Still performs w/ his old band mates 20 years after leaving

I watched all 9 seasons of Seinfeld in less than two months. I had a great time!

Yeah the UFO peeps have been claiming he is being fed "disinformation" for awhile, and I liked how the video pointed out his arrogance on the subject matter. Tom doesn't think there is any chance that he is being lied to, but when you lay it all out, it's much more likely that he is IMHO. Again, if the Government had all of these "sekrets" and wanted to educate the world, why wouldn't they do it? They could release their own books/documentaries/etc. with the brightest minds/scholars discussing it. Even just ONE nice documentary/announcement would do the trick. Why in the hell would the government entrust Tom Delonge to spread the word, while padding his own pockets? That is about the worst way of going about it. 3+ years on this Sekret Machines project and he has not exposed ONE new piece of information. Not one. Both books are basically recaps of tons of previous ideas, or stuff that Tom made up. The videos they've been posting are all public, NY Times/CNN/etc. It's crazy.

This is probably going to sound pretentious (and I'm not really sure who this even applies to) but I think being in a band or creating your own music gives some extra perspective on behind the scenes stuff and what you care about when it comes to Blink albums. I see people say stuff like "I don't care if the lyrics are deep, just give me 12 catchy pop punk songs and I love it, the sooner the better who cares" but if you care about or are interested in the ins and outs of songwriting you end up looking at the process differently I think. That doesn't mean they have to do the whole "live in a house together" thing for every album, but at the very least we know that it made them way more creative and thoughtful last time they tried it. And everything since then has felt a little bit undercooked or rushed or pieced together to some extent. They could probably keep putting out Californias in their sleep but if they want to really shoot for something great again they might need to take more time or do something that forces them to think outside the box.

Can you even get mad at Feldmann though? His job is to make money and his passion is to keep pop punk relevant. There's really no one else around (that has any money) that is doing this. His music has always been plastically, so it's not like he's intentionally sabotaging bands, they are coming to HIM. This is really all on Mark, and Travis to an extent. They have more power than Feldmann to say what is acceptable or not.

4 or 5 years ago I'd be shitting my pants. But I could literally not care less about new music from blink. No curiosity even. It'll just be there one day, I'll listen to it, probably a few times, and that'll be that. Guess I should continue to branch out to other sections of the board.

Thanks! NBA cards are what I got started on back in the day. My buddy works at a printing place and prints them as thick as he can to try and replicate a card "feel", the thickest he can go is a 12pt size I believe. They are still a bit thin, but I make custom baseball cards fairly often and they display great in a top-holder. Here's one I made a few days ago: Once I finish the backs I'll have him print a set, it's all just for fun to me. If I ever meet the band again I'll probably give them a set (to throw away on their tour bus) and try and get a set signed for the heck of it.

The issue with the argument isn't that deluxe is more or less experimental, it's that they wrote it the same time as California anyway so it wasn't them experimenting because they could, it's them releasing songs from the cutting room floor to make an extra buck. I do not think Feldmann was necessary. to bring them back into the mainstream they needed some catchy songs and a hell of a lot of effective marketing - both could have been achieved without Feldmann. blink know how to write catchy music and don't need a ghost writer to do it, and with the right amount of marketing (which they had the money to do) they could have 'exploded' back into the mainstream easily. The mistake they made with Neighborhoods wasn't completely down to the production/lack of a producer (although that certainly didn't help) but it was down to allowing a label who clearly weren't too bothered being in charge of marketing it (or not, as the case turned out to be) and the lack of an actually catchy single. It takes five minutes to write a catchy hook. go to any competent producer to make it sound half good and with enough money you can slam it anywhere and get a hit. it isn't rocket science, and John Feldmann is not the be all and end all of cookie cutter music. Literally any other producer with them and the same marketing tools they used would have had the same result. I'd argue better, if the songs were better.

- Deluxe had three songs that were in minor keys (6/8, Don't Mean Anything and Bottom of the Ocean) - Deluxe had a song with a different time signature (6/8) - California had many songs in the key of C (Cynical, Bored to Death, SOOHM, No Future, San Diego, Brohemian Rhapsody (if you want to include it)) - Deluxe had a version of Bored to Death that was actually in Mark's comfortable singing range (wish they would take this approach and tune down for some older songs as well). Eb major seems to be a good fit for them (like in Long Lost Feeling) and I think this would be cool to see more of going forward. None of these alone are reasons why it's more experimental. But, it shows they are making an effort to not just release a song in the key of C, in 4/4 and using the chords C Am F and G.

for sure. motion city probably have the most interesting songwriting and arrangements for their genre, late 90s–2010s. and amazing lyrics. MCS are nothing like the mall-punk fall out boy generation of bands. in fact, they probably most sound like superchunk and other early 90s indie rock.

another slightly off topic thing about blinks music is that it’s aged really really well. the production on those albums are so crisp and fresh even today, without sounding dated like hair metal in the 80s, or even the feldmann schlock of today

Good interview to re-read every now and then. Good perspective. Simpler times. You can look back and smile without necessarily longing for them because you're older and wiser and it wouldn't be the same if you put the same group of people in the same room. Props for Mark recognizing they're Fischer Price Toys for punk music. My "punk friends" occasionally rag on me for loving blink best but they're the ones who got me into punk. Sure I prefer my music a little less poppy these days but it doesn't negate what they did for the scene. I wouldn't know what a Dead Kennedy or a Descendant or a Misfit was if blink hadn't implanted the seed in my head in the late 90's. Anyways good shit.

I think Justin Pierre comes to mind for a lot of people because he already worked with Mark on two of MCS's best albums and he has a high voice that would contrast with Mark's in a more similar Tom/Mark type of way. I'm not sure how well it would work in reality though since his writing style seems to be very personal/autobiographical and "singular" if that makes sense. Like I imagine him writing fully-formed songs and presenting them to the band for their input straight from his brain rather than starting from scratch and collaborating in the studio the way Blink prefers. I'm not sure how it would end up. All that aside though, I think Motion City's music and personality as a band was closer to Blink on the pop punk spectrum than Alkaline Trio was. Just tons of catchy-as-fuck melodies and riffs. And I actually think they sound WAYYYYYY more unique and "timeless" as someone said, than the other bands from that Hot Topic mid-2000s era like FOB, The Academy Is, Good Charlotte, etc. It's hard to explain but they always felt more authentic and inched closer to that era's indie rock than the others. Some of their stuff sounds almost like Blink meets Death Cab which was right up my alley at the time (and still is).

Justin Pierre is such an awesome human, too. he complimented my Last Night cover and spoke to me about it, and literally the other day on facebook my friend complained a few weeks ago that this super old picture from like 2010 of us meeting MCS was ridiculously dark and you can't see anything, and Justin Pierre responded with "I was born in darkness" I was creased. I love him lol

The Neighborhoods explanation always seemed like a copout to me. "hey what's a good way we can explain the disjointed recording process and AVA yodeling?"

Would fuck her till the neighbours complained about the smell

He has changed the post to “I am starting a new album” instead of “we” now

Thanks, I'm sure our resident pedo already knows about it.

He probably just went "I can make you crazy rich" and they went "aiiight"

Same old Feldy. I can't stand when he says "I am The Fever, Travis is The Fever".. Can't he just let the band be the band instead of sneaking his way into everything he produces. I don't like their stuff though, it's garbage to me. But the hardcore bands that I listen to are like the opposite of this one - American Nightmare/Bane/Have Heart/Blacklisted/Kid Dynamite etc. - so I guess it's not my thing.

Yeah...The whole point of the album is to be overly simple and throw back to the roots of the band its not like they were tricked or conned into doing it lol. Mark had been lost in a world of overthinking lyrics and songs to the point that he could barely release music anymore. It’s not like this is the permanent modus operandi now. Just like recording in a house wasn’t permanent after untitled and recording in separate studios wasn’t permanent after Neighborhoods

this basically sums up how this band works now http://thehardtimes.net/news/mark-hoppus-unloads-matt-skiba-equipment-truck/

I actually like MCS a lot more than Alkaline Trio but I can't imagine Justin Pierre in blink. But I couldn't have imagined Skiba in blink either, so hard to say

Lol, why use that pic? None of those people are in AVA anymore

as far as we know, i think it's obvious tom was still the asshole in that situation. he refused for a decade to record anywhere but his home, while mark took over a week to fly halfway around the world for an EP. and only because tom wanted it out by christmas to promote modlife. i always thought his criticisms of mark about the DED stuff was manipulative... in reality, it was tom who wasn't trying hard enough

You know this video is like, 6 years old right? I doubt he reads this board at all, it's just a dumb collegehumor sketch.