Nosferatu

What I mean is that they've always been a band that people from 15-25 years old can easily relate to. Even the smiley face album and Neighborhoods are kinda like that to an extent but with way more mature themes, which makes them relatable for adults too. There are still people that can relate to California. Hell, even I still relate to nearly all the songs, just I can't stand the majority of how the album sounds. I don't view themselves as being too serious. Perhaps personality wise I agree, but their songs aren't as serious as +44, Boxcar Racer, AVA and the previous two blink albums. Majority of us on these boards might not relate to who blink are right now because I definitely agree, I love who blink used to be. I loved their humour back then. I loved the jokes that they'd talk about on the stage, even during the reunion. Hilarious band. I loved that they gave no flying fucks about how shit they sounded live too. If you're talking about all that, then yeah I agree. But I mean just the California album. Even if it's shitty teenage stuff that none of us don't wanna listen to anymore, there will always be people that will get into blink and think the same way about the music as we once did. As for people like us, we'll always have the old blink stuff to listen to for that. I remember Tom going on about how he wanted AVA to be this band that saved peoples lives. But he already had that with blink. Blink are still gonna write music (co-write with others should I say) that people will listen to and be inspired by, even if most of us on these boards don't like what they did with California.

Although I hate how they went about California, there is never any denying how inspirational blink can be. They might be 40-50 writing similar songs they grew out of writing about 15 years ago, but at the end of the day, those very same songs are stuff that teenagers & young adults relate to. Good for blink. If it wasn't for them, I don't know what the hell I'd be doing. They're a massive reason why I do what I do. Blink always will be some kind of inspiration to me. California definitely has its bright points. Bored to Death is a quality song. I'm glad it exists. Plus I love songs like LA, Bottom of the Ocean, Long Lost Feeling, San Diego and HISALP. I even love Built This Pool. Glad that song exists too. Blink might possibly do a California Part 3. But I know there will be about 5 songs I'll love. I'll just add them to a playlist with the tracks I've just mentioned. That'll be my California album. Did the same thing with Neighborhoods mixed in with a couple of solo Tom tracks & AVA tracks.

Yeah, I think that EP sucks. Makes the Knife sound like some masterpiece from the Who or something.

Yeah, that's a good performance. Mark has always been pretty good on that song though IMO. Still not a fan of the guitar tone that Skiba uses but he played that way better than he usually does.

Now before we do this... let's go over the ground rules. Rule number one... no touching of the hair or face... AND THAT'S IT! Now let's do this.

He definitely has stage presence unlike Skiba.

Oh definitely. Only thing I find worse than the yodelling is gang vocals. Tom's yodelling was weird as hell. I remember Invisible Parade. Sounds like owl calls or something. But like someone said, it's the fact he was called out for doing it in too many songs. But blink took that way further on California with the nananas woahs and other random mouth noises. That's one of my main gripes about California, which I've said enough. It's a good album but man do those woahs and gang vocals ruin a song like Left Alone.

The gang vocals have no place in a song like this either. This is what blink sound like now. There's a massive difference in this song compared to the original version. Blink of today sound more like All Time Low replicating blink.

I remember people hating the ladadas on here. I also remember people making fun of Tom for coming up with the yodels too much in songs like Surrender, the War etc. Now we look back on it and realise Tom only did this for 1-3 songs an album. I don't hate nananas. They're great for 1-2 songs. All the Small Things and the Party Song were the 2 songs on a 12 song album with nananas. TOYPAJ had Online Songs. Just one song out of like 13-14. Nearly the whole of California has some form of nananas, woahs, ohhhs, yeah yeahs, oh-ehs. We all thought Tom was ridiculous for overusing ladadas and yodels but he doesn't even come close to overusing them compared to California. 1-2 songs is fine. Anything more than that is iffy. Anything more than 4 takes the piss. Even the fucking Offspring use less woahs than blink. And gang vocals don't belong in blink at all. That's some ATL crap. They can fuck right off. It ain't blink with gang vocals.

Yeah, they're all from the same scene. California music scene. I mean these were guys who'd shake hands on the stage with NOFX and shit like that. Then after the +44 days, Mark started hanging out with the likes of Pete Wentz and All Time Low. Now it's even worse. They're hanging out with songwriters that have helped the likes of Justin Bieber. I don't think the new album will be shit but I think that's cause my expectations are that low, I'll end up actually liking the album. I don't really mind blink going more pop. They do it well in songs like Boxing Day. Even Tom has had kinda poppy songs like Suburban Kings. It'd make a solid blink sound. But they don't need a bunch of co-writers to do that. It's fucking Mark & Skiba. Two of the best lyricists there are from pop punk/punk rock. Yet somehow, they've been led to believe they're not good anymore. I wanna hear the damn blink songs that were there before Feldman. There was no way they were shit like Feldman would have made people believe. Before California, Mark & Skiba were consistent as hell when writing great songs. They can't just be shit overnight. This new album won't be blink-182. Boxcar Racer is closer to being blink-182 than what this album will be IMO. It's basically two guys from blink with like 10 other co-writers. They're no different to what One Direction or something are. They were 4 guys who'd write songs but also have like 10 other guys helping out. I've got no problem with that. Yeah, punk bands have had co-writers and shit. But not blink. Blink always was 3 guys writing songs together, without giving two flying fucks what people thought of them. And they had a producer that tried to make them very same songs sound better, and not one that gets them to drop the whole thing and hire a bunch of co-writers to help out. There's too much input. Every single idea should start off from Mark, Skiba or Travis. Even if I love this upcoming album, it'll have a tainted feel to it. It's not blink. It's just a side project that includes Mark & Travis from blink and 10 other dudes all with equal amount of input and happens to use the name blink. Boxcar Racer and +44 are more blink than what "blink" are nowadays.

Yeah, the way that Instagram post was worded seemed like it was taking a dig at blink. Like about Mark wanting to remain relevant or something. Any famous musician will take offence to that. Gotta remember Mark actually went through a writers block stage too. Before California, he wrote roughly around 20-25 songs since 2001? He'll definitely take something like that to heart.

It is a summer album after all. Shandy & California.

California is just shandy.

I don't get the hate for Nickelback. I don't like them but they're not terrible like everyone makes them to be. I just believe it started off as some "cool" thing to hate on them then people just decided they hated Nickelback without actually forming their true opinions. Rather have them on the radio than whatever is on it these days.

Never understood the love for Foo Fighters. I like about 3 songs. They're one of the most boring rock bands I've ever heard IMO. Plus something seems really fake about Dave Grohl. Don't know what it is but I don't think he's this cool & nice guy like he's portrayed to be. Comes across as an asshole to me.