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California (1 year later)


Scott.

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1 hour ago, Olidamus said:

Look what you did Speedo, you got on Ghent's bad side with your California bashing. Now prepare for endless one liners, nonsensical arguments, and disappearing acts!!

We are BOTBM teammates, I am only getting Ghent's playful side right now!

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I would love Tom back in the band as much as anything but the reality is if he's back he will most likely half-ass it unless he has a drastic change in personality which I just don't see coming. It's better Matt is in the band for now I just really hope the next release will be music they originally wanted to write and Feldmann has minimal input. I think California being such a success is a bad thing for the band because Mark seems so insecure these days I'm not so sure he'll be willing to change it up. 

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3 hours ago, Sebastián said:

I still think California is a nice album. Like others said, I enjoy catchy, formulaic pop as well as experimental, progressive rock, so to me there's not much wrong with the album. The highs are very high, and the lows are not that many.

I don't know if they've confirmed this, but in my mind, John/the band tried to make an album which shared something with all the previous ones. The way I see it, California shares...

...with Cheshire cat: the number of songs, and "The only thing that matters" (which mainly reminds me of "TV". It sounds to me like a HQ version of "TV").
...with Dude ranch/Enema of the state: the 'polish', 'catchiness' factor.
...with TOYPAJ: the split of lead vocals in equal ammounts, the mix (to my ears, both sound exactly the same) and the inclusion of short joke tracks.
...with blink-182: the dark, somewhat electronic nature of "Los Angeles" (which I'm not the first to say sounds like "Violence"; hell, they both are track 4!). Both albums also include one acoustic number.
 

...and finally, with Neighborhoods: the 80s, Cure-like bass/keys (like the intros to "Left alone" and "Snake charmer"), and the AVA-like vocals - e.g. in the middle-8s in "Bored to death" and "California" the song. I still don't see why Mark and Travis, who had been complaining about Tom's musical desires, would choose to do this now. Maybe it was John's decision? Maybe a passive-aggresive joke to Tom?

Anyone care to share their opinion?

 

When I don't find the guitar parts on a song/album interesting, I challenge myself to learn and play other parts simultaneously - for example, the bass notes with the accents of the drums. Or, if the vocal melody is doubled a 3rd above (or a 6th below), I try to play both lines on different strings while hitting the root notes of the chords. Maybe you can find that interesting to do as well?

(I did some of that stuff on a "Roller Coaster" cover; you can check it out here in case I wasn't too clear)

 

You seem new here, and welcome. Your posts are well thought out and are a very welcome. I agree with you that California is solid, I just don't think it stacks up compared to previous ones. People around here don't seem to understand there is a middle ground between loving it to death and absolutely hating it

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I hate to say this but I would rather have Tom in blink and half-assing it than what we currently have. He half-assed Neighborhoods and DED and in my opinion those are both way better than California. He half-assed live shows and they were still more entertaining than what we have now. I'll take a good blink album with Tom every 4-5 years over a new California album every year.

Post-reunion pretty much sucked and it was really frustrating to be a fan of the band before they gave Tom the boot, but at least I enjoyed everything the band did during those six years more than anything they've done since. I honestly loved the direction they went with Dogs Eating Dogs and I was really excited about where the band would go from there musically, and how they would continue to evolve their sound. Instead, we got the exact opposite of musical evolution with California.

I still have hope that blink's next album will be something new and interesting, but even with that hope, it's hard to be very excited about the band anymore...

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California era kind of reminds me of a processed hot dog stand..or one you'd find in a gas station.  I just don't get excited at all for it and my stomach gets upset, but I'll do it if I'm on the road and really hungry.  There's nothing unique about it, it's just the most basic processed food I can really think of, and they just keep pumping them out every day..in short periods of time.

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To this day I'll never understand how Mark went from writing great songs in +44 to eventually writing shit songs on DLX. It's almost as bad of a leap as Tom going from BCR/Untitled to eventually writing Love pt2 (that was the awful one right?). I dunno what else to say.

As a kid these dudes were my idols. Now I realize they're just a buncha 40- year olds millionaires with tattoos singing about high school. I'm completely ok missing headlining festivals and after shows these days. 3 years back and I would've been there in the non-existent mosh pit.

Still. My favorite band up to DED. 

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11 hours ago, vic vinegar said:

To this day I'll never understand how Mark went from writing great songs in +44 to eventually writing shit songs on DLX. It's almost as bad of a leap as Tom going from BCR/Untitled to eventually writing Love pt2 (that was the awful one right?). I dunno what else to say.

yup. play these side by side

 

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15 hours ago, Sebastián said:

Back in 2011 when the 2nd LOVE album was released, I remember lurking here and being surprised at the praise it was getting compared to the 1st LOVE. To me, LOVE Pt. 1 is a very beautiful, strong album, whereas Pt. 2 has many more weak songs. Still, it features "Behold a pale horse" (my favourite AVA song), and the first 4 tracks are nice as well... But yeah, I think Pt. 2 should be considered 'the awful one' of the two.

Probably using either of the Love albums is a bad example. Should've been Odds and Ends or Stomping the Phantom Brake Pedal or whatever it was. I just remember Love getting backlash when it first came out but it seems a lot of people dig both albums these days. I only ever checked out a few songs off each to be completely honest. I just didn't like the first 2 albums enough to devote more of my time to Ava at the time, though I thought iEmpire was better than WDNTW.

15 hours ago, boxelder said:

yup. play these side by side

 

Yep, I liked emo Mark better. He'd bitch- slap new Mark for this song. +44 is peak Hoppus. I'm so happy I got to see that band live.

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Gotta say I prefer Weatherman. Literally hate Wildfire. I'd rather listen to the terrible AVA songs than Wildfire haha. When I first heard Weatherman, I used to find it dull & boring but as I started appreciating +44 more, I eventually just fell in love with the song. That album had a similar impact as the smiley face album. First few listens, I'd just never know what to think of it. Fast forward 2 years after hearing it, I just finally figured it out. Great album. I'd argue that it's better than BCR. Would also argue that it's on the same level as the smiley face album.

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