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wtf has happened to our band? Christ almighty. I’m 100% a tombot now. There’s no way he’d stand for this shite. Song is pure trash too.

Normally I don't really care about them playing Tom songs with Skiba, but the idea of doing album anniversary shows without Tom really rubs me the wrong way.

Its like celebrating 20 years of marriage with your new wife you married 4 years ago

Not true. Only a few months ago we had some new guy in here trying to sell his used hat collection. This place is buzzing with activity.

I just really disagree. It's a bloated record for sure, but not a single song on either release holds a candle to most blink records tracks. you have some that are 'okay', none of them are at the same tier as a 'good' blink song. They're forgettable, interchangeable at best, and insulting and cringe-inducing at worst. If California tracks come up on shuffle I instinctively skip, because they're so fucking lame.

Someone sounds a bit excited about the prospect of seeing more of Travis's kids...

The more we hear about this project the more I'm curious if it will be Mark's eventual pivot to "retiring" Blink sometime soon. In the past he talked about Blink as if it was the only thing he wanted to make music for. BCR was a huge bummer to him because he thought Blink should be the outlet for all of their music, any side project ideas he had were always in response to Tom dragging his feet or quitting. Now he's got this new project that he seems really stoked about and talks about how it lifted him out of the doldrums of the past few years and how freeing it is to be able to write different styles of music with all different types of people, all after 3 years of having pop writers/producers filtering in and out of Blink already, it doesn't seem like he has the same view of Blink 182 that he used to and he might be itching to let that be his past and move onto new projects that don't come with the same expectations and/or baggage. Just the fact that Blink has a new album supposedly coming out in the next 3-4 months and he's preempting it with a Simple Creatures release and tour and interviews about how this project took him out of a depression because it was such a great change in pace, it's unusual to me. He used to be very protective of Blink and very defensive of their legacy and how much it defines who he is as a person, now that seems to be a little different. I could be totally wrong of course, maybe when the Blink album comes out he'll be just as energized as ever. But there's just a kind of strange vibe right now in my opinion.

You keep saying that but repetition doesn't create validity.

I'll take Pharrell over Feldy right about now.

kay's version of speedo:

I might regret posting this in retrospect, but I’m a lot more interested in the potential of this album than I was a year ago. Not quite excited per say, as I’m still reasonably skeptical, but definitely intrigued. As we all know, California was done really fucking quickly, blah blah. But this time it does seem like they’re really genuinely taking their time. And seemingly mapping it out much more carefully. They started writing not too long after Cali Deluxe, right? They started recording a year ago, and even with Travis’s health issues in mind, Matt and Mark were still writing and working in the studio during that time, and Travis has been back with them for six months. And they’re STILL not done. I mean, this is a ballsy thing to say, but that in itself is very self titled-esque. Ya know, given all the self titled-esque talk. I also like that they’re branching out with various producers instead of just having Feldy steer the whole ship this time (although I’d still prefer he weren’t involved at all. But hey, can’t win em all). Now the various producer thing can just as easily pull things down as they can push things up, but it does make the playing field much more interesting. I honestly don’t know what to expect anymore, but color me intrigued at the moment. Really wanna see what the fuck this thing is now.

I think Mark has gone through the 5 stages of grief with blink not being what it used to be, and these stages have taken place at various times over the last 15 years. Denial - When BCR happened, and TOYPAJ saw a turn in what blink were trying to do where Mark wanted to hang on to the Enema feeling but Tom wanted to go further, I think Mark saw trouble. He didn't want to let go. Tom wanted to try and push things further and Mark didn't want to lose what they had, so he 'embraced' the concept of going fully weird and properly working together on a different sound. We got Self titled. Anger / Depression - +44, enough said. Bargaining - Neighbourhoods and DED and reforming with Tom. I think he knew it wasn't going to work this time, he knew Tom wasn't committed, he knew it wasn't like the old days, but he was desperate to relive it, so he kept making excuses for Tom and trying to find ways and means to make it work. Alternatively you could argue bargaining was going to extremes with California to dial the sound back to the late 90s and sell out for the relevancy, depends how you look at it. Acceptance - Now. He knows it won't ever be the same again and he's accepted it won't be so he's just flat out stopped caring anymore. Let other writers in, let many producers in, they'll pump out some crap songs for him, he'll tour a bit to keep the money and the name going, and then go do other stuff.

1. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 2. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 3. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 4. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 5. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 6. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 7. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 8. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 9. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy 10. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy CAN WE FORGET ABOUT THE THINGS I SAID WHEN I WAS DRUNK. I DIDN'T MEAN TO CALL YOU THAT.

with their latest album, they’ll become a straight up pop band instead of a pop punk band—similar to the other bands in their genre (FOB etc)—and people will be mad and never move on. blink won’t care and will be happy because first and foremost they’ve always wanted to make popular music. the album will do decently but not amazing for a band of their size and stature because music made by bands (as opposed to singers or rappers) is not on the upswing this decade. tom won’t rejoin, and if he does, whatever project they’ll plan to do will have a billion delays and then essentially put the band on hiatus.

I think it'll be more like the Panic and FOB stuff of late. Not good

There is no way on earth this record is going to be anything like Untitled. There's no Tom, and no Finn. it's still Feldmann, it's a fuck ton of outside writers and apparently a major pop producer on board now too. it's going to be a barely recognisable poppy clusterfuck and it's going to have stupid noises in it and they'll claim that's experimenting.

It means nothing other than Mark was going through old photos and is now probably over the Tom crap, mostly because he proved he doesn’t need him IMO and it’s time to move on. Indeed a big step for Mark from a grudge standpoint, but he’s older this go around and time heals all wounds.

Same fucking set list? The exact reason why I have no interest seeing them live even if they played in my living room.

Outside songwriters make sense when you have great performers that may have a great voice/stage persona but arent incredibly good in the songwriting area. It just doesn't make sense to me with blink, but thats just my opinion. I love catchy glossy pop songs but i don't see matts/marks forté in that.

I'm listening to these songs. The thing is I am sure I have listened to some of them in the past but it's like I've never heard them before. Gravedigger is the most terrible song ever written about a monster truck. It makes sense though that liking the Dave Matthews Band is a prerequisite for being an average white person who likes beer and trucks. Then I was going to say that Two Step wasn't bad only to realize I was listening to Two Step by Def Leppard. I'll keep you updated as I go on with the list.

I find it intriguing at this moment. The thing about so many people being involved awakes my curiosity. Another different thing is how it will turn out... if it will be a masterpiece or a massive turd. From my irrelevant point of view, I'm expecting very low standards with this band at this point. So if they improve that, that's ok, I guess. I don't know, we'll see.

realistic reply, using mainly singles dammit -- blink-182 basket case -- green day ocean avenue -- yellowcard get the time -- descendents sugar we're goin down -- FOB linoleum -- NOFX don't want to know if you are lonely -- husker du i wanna be your boyfriend -- ramones the girl next door -- screeching weasel honestly -- cartel honorable mentions: when i come around -- green day ATST -- blink my friend's over you -- NFG everything is alright -- MCS hyper enough -- superchunk may 16 -- lagwagon she's my ex -- ALL

Except that's not what it is. I still like other pop punk bands. Alkaline Trio released a great album just last year. it isn't much of a stretch from their releases from 15 years ago. and I still like it. This isn't "growing out of blink" this is "blink putting out a worse product".

I'm not buying shit from blink anymore. Didn't give a penny to DLX (well a couple YouTube listens to each song maybe) and will never go see them live again unless it's at a festival. I think years from now, only if Tom were to ever come back fulltime, everything from this era but Bored to Death and maybe KotW would be forgotten like it never happened. I can see it now. Mark would occasionally say stuff like, "Me and Travis are super proud of everything we accomplished with Matt and will never say never to working with him or John or any of the numerous cowriters in the future. But with Tom back, he brings a simple songwriting structure that is uniquely blink." We don't have a Bon Scott situation where Brian Johnson did an admirable job with the band. We literally have a name or brand being milked so some of Mark's new friends can get a nice payday and Travis can go get another Cadillac and Mark can go to Disney World with his college-aged son. Sorry, I'm in a cranky mood. Bad week.

It’s going to be an absolute cunt soup of a record. Every song will bring me nearer to cutting my ears off. Honestly my expectations are so low

Tom needs to re-join and re-quit blink again so we can have some fun stuff to talk about

I'VE GOT ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE..... ANNOUNCEMENT SOON...

more like the ACDC of punk. kind of same over and over and over.

Defending pedophilia jokes is an even weirder hill to die on than defending the Dave Matthews Band. Congrats @NJansaid you no longer have the weirdest hill title.

Kinda looks like he’s going for the “serious artist” look like Tom was in the early days of angels. Ironically, mark has a stupid fucking haircut, just like Tom did. Weird to see 47 yr old mark taking a stab at pop superstardom. b182.com- “if you could say one thing to Tom right now, what would it be?” Mark- “what’s with that haircut?”...

Lillian is a highly underrated song.

What happened to the livestaple until they die "rabbit hole"?

Long Lost Feeling is the best California era song.

The end pal. Game over. Fucking state of it. Mark makes me fucking sick, Skiba is the epitome of ‘meh’. When’s new Angels coming out?

i like the song. i like the girl from this video. i like skiba’s hat. and he is really look rad. anyway, no one expected something amazing, imo.

They need to stop pushing the whole “trashy pop” narrative. Simple Creatures sounds like every other pop song on the radio at the moment.

I'm sure too. EDIT: to be fair, I'm genuinely curious about it all. The three producers thing was intriguing to me.

Great list and a great thread, thank you so much for sharing. Ghent - stick this one in the Hall of Fame when you get a second, cheers.

No one cares about message boards anymore. Any new fan would be too young to sign up to post on a fossil website like this

So apparently new album out before Warped Tour the latest. I am really hyped!

And a guy from Italy came over to tell us Mark blocked him on social media for critiquing blink!

Here's the thing with growing out of "Blink and that kind of music" - I did grow out of pop punk for the most part, like a LONG time ago. Especially the real glossy overproduced style that took hold after Blink blew up. There are always some awesome bands making music with pop and punk elements, but as a specific genre I'm guilty of growing out of pop punk I guess haha. As a kid in the late 90s/early 2000s I fucking loved just about any and all pop punk, I devoured as much as I could. But Blink was ALWAYS the best of the bunch, their music went far beyond standard pop punk to me, and just as I was "growing out" of that style, lo and behold Blink did too! BCR and Untitled mixed things I loved (and still love) about older Blink with the types of indie rock that I was just starting to check out at the time. I wasn't remotely as interested in that next wave of pop punk, with FOB and Simple Plan and MCR and Panic and ATL. So I did grow out of that world, and so did Blink, and then with California they not only went back to pop punk they actually inserted themselves into that later style that I didn't like as much in the first place. There is no doubt that if Enema or TOYPAJ came out today they wouldn't click with me the same way they did when I was an obsessed middle schooler haha, that's just how music works and there's nothing wrong with that. But there is also no doubt that I would like them WAY more than I liked California, and in fact I still like them and every other Blink album so much that I still fuck around on this message board with all of you people waiting impatiently to find out what they'll do next!

I'll take too many cooks than one hyped up cook on crack flipping 100 artificial hamburgers in the back.

It honestly still feels bizarre to me that Matt Skiba is in Blink 182. And it's been 4 years!!? Like what is his place in this band? Does he enjoy it? Is he interested in the music they're making? Does he feel any ownership of the band and if not, does he want to or is Blink a fun way to cash some big checks? On a personal level it working as well as they all hoped? The whole situation still seems off for some reason haha, even taking into account how ANYONE would feel different as a replacement member. So much attention has gone to Feldy that I still feel like I barely know Skiba's vibe as a part of Blink 182.

I think the default blink online policy for account deletions should be: delete your own account, bitch. this isn't fucking K-Mart, we don't have a customer service team. And if we did they'd be dicks and wouldn't help you anyway.

Can we all marvel about what a giant snowflake @redhotbrianpeppers is for quitting because a mod edited a silly joke thread and then coming back years later to insist his account be deleted?