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Frequently I found TOYPAJ to be a bland, safe emotionally stunted retread. But increasingly I’ve really appreciated the musicality and small subtleties. For a long time I felt like the weird focus on high school was to its detriment. I still feel like Tom was forcing himself to write about that time period for a lot of reasons — retreating psychologically from fame to a simpler time, trying to connect back to when he fell in love with punk as he was falling out of it, feeling commercially expected to. but overall, I’ve oddly come to respect it. There’s something cute about story of a lonely guy, something pure hearted. Even if does feel a little incel adjacent lmao

i think the "dark" descriptor emerged from the way they wanted to present themselves via TOYPAJ -- the all-black photo shoots, the side-swept bangs -- versus the music itself. even tom's guitar work, which is often cited for being dirtier or more angular on the album, is really not all that different than what came before. if anything, the only true groundbreaking thing about TOYPAJ is how enmeshed travis becomes in the sound, more willing to be himself and explore a broader range of styles than on EOTS. it's always been kind of amusing to me that they always viewed TOYPAJ as this darker brother to EOTS when it's the album with fuck a dog on it.

don't forget the drums, toypaj is one of the best sounding albums ever though. everything sounds so crisp and crystal clear.

I knew a guy in 8th grade that always reminded me of this song. I will always appreciate the diversity added by the tempo/lyrics, and yeah, most of blink's enema-TOYPAJ songs are just high school memories set to music. it's hard to single out any of them for being cringe when they all sort of do it.

Has anyone else ever had a soft spot for this song? It’s such a sweet puppy love kind of type of song.

Yeah, the Sekrets albums have some serious bangers.

Should have just stayed Matt and Dan and become Alkaline Duo.

This is my favourite from that EP

New additions to the timeline website! found pictures for this show (huge shout-out to photographer Oliver Klaus for those gems!) 7/4/1998: The band performs at the Pique Nique Sunnymead Festival at the Sunny Mead Farm in Knowlton, Canada. Other bands included Grim Skunk, The Kingpins, Bald Vulture and Nocturnal Emissions Source : https://oliverklaus.com/pique-nique-sunnymead-picnic-1998-blink-182-oliver-klaus-roger-hodgson?fbclid=IwY2xjawQ4m21leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2R1dQN1dYWXR3Nms5aTBRc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkAqoQDq48o7r8yYzwECL3uTt0SKGpICk4l2PiSrPSzEIBVHn_eNJd5izHOv_aem_RDr8rLsQlTaLpgHn_ktF1g

New addition to the timeline website! found picture for this show (huge shout-out to azpunkrockmuseum on Instagram for this very cool picture!) 6/29/1999: The band performs at the Phoenix Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. Source : https://www.instagram.com/azpunkrockmuseum/p/DWfe7pLgdOi/ I also updated the 1999 section of the website as the text box was getting too large (because there's so much information!!) took some time but it's updated! found newly surfaced behind the scenes footage from the Lit "Zip-Lock" music video : 8/9/1999: The video for "Zip-lock" by Lit premieres on MTV TRl which includes a cameo from Blink 182 in the video that gives a nod to the "What's My Age Again?" music video. 1:24:12 for the BTS Footage 37:23 on the set of the "Zip-Lock" music video found footage of Lit crashing Blink's set when they are performing "What's My Age Again?" at 20:26

Well said! I think you're probably spot on about some of the reasons why they stuck with some of these topics (it's still funny to hear how often they talked about TOYPAJ as being this "dark" album that brought in a bunch of their punk influences, I think Mark still described it that way in his book). But I also don't necessarily think it was like a teenybopper cosplay sellout thing to attract MTV fans either, which kinda became a go-to diss about the album. To me it feels more like a John Hughes movie or something, obviously made by adults but with the goal of recapturing something about teenage life. I mean nobody criticized The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles for being about high school haha. Blink had a gift of expressing the feelings from that exact time in life in a way that felt fun and sad and funny and angry and energetic and immature and deep all at once and made it palatable to the masses. Unlike in movies, you can only pull that off for so long as a musician. I don't begrudge them too much for mining those feelings in TOYPAJ, even if it feels a little silly in some places.

I'm seeing her in May and I'm psyched.

i've been sleeping on steely dan, this album rules, it's a debut album and it's hit after hit:

The solo songs from the split with Kevin Seconds are pure gold.

yeah she's the weird one

This song meant so much to me from the first time I heard it all the way into my early 20s. Then I kinda grew out of it for a while. But around 2021, I went back to all the music I thought I had outgrown. I started revisiting everything I used to dismiss as “too pop” or “not punk enough” anymore and now I’ve taken it all back, so there’s really no reason for me to hate on a song that talks about adolescence.

I can't listen to it because of how they spell SeKrEtS...I fucking hate it.

Yeah. A lot of toypaj is like that for me.

My understanding is that he was also responsible for a lot of the harmonies and programming bits on their records. One of those situations where Dan and Matt would do their thing and then he’d just go into the studio and tinker

July 2009 and its a fuck ton of Lily Allen 😂

it's been a while since i listened to this album all the way through

I love the Andrew Sisters, but I didn’t know they sang with Les Paul! I think this is your album but it’s not on spotify, so i’m gonna make a playlist for this evening with these songs: https://www.discogs.com/release/15956292-Les-Paul-The-Essential-Collection?srsltid=AfmBOoo4xo_bCLRSbuMLsxFw5rgXlooqMbb0g4FJSYyobFV31rilIhK-

I bought a double cd with Les Paul. The songs with Mary Ford kick so much ass.

That shadow from the mic in that thumbnail makes it look like Tom has a mustache lol

Another solid album dropped but it’s from an old band: I Am The Avalanche. I listened to it twice this morning and I really enjoyed it.

that's not cake people

I got to see her again last night in Boston. She’s incredible! And the band sounds awesome.

I like the new sig Diddy but holy shit does it have to take up half the page?

I have no idea why they considered TOYPAJ to be that much heavier or darker. even STFTK isn't as "dark" as Adam's Song. I have to assume guys like Rick DeVoe were telling them their songs were not as fun as WMAA and ATST. I guess Anthem Pt 2 is actually angsty compared to their earlier stuff. Also compared to the likes of Disturbed, KoRn, M Manson, etc they were on the brighter side of rock during that time.

I think a big part of that shift comes from the rise of nu-metal around that time. Bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and especially Linkin Park brought a much heavier, more aggressive sound into the mainstream. For a younger or more casual audience like I was back then that kind of heaviness wasn’t something we were really used to hearing on the radio or MTV. And because of that, I feel like even adjacent genres like pop punk started absorbing some of that sound. I agree that Sum 41 or New Found Glory mixed boyband kind of melodies with heavier guitars and that contrast can definitely feel a bit strange if you’re expecting something more straightforward like EOTS, which had a more natural pop sound imo. But at the same time though I don’t necessarily see it as a negative thing. To me it’s more like a moment in time where different scenes were bleeding into each other. Rock was trying to stay commercially relevant while heavier music was breaking into the mainstream, so we got this hybrid style that doesn’t always feel cohesive and hasn’t aged very well but is actually pretty interesting in hindsight. I still don’t see TOYPAJ pandering to that trend though.

Steamer Trunk is such a great tune!

Ah. I thought it was a typo lol

Okay so last nights show was definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever been too. I feel very grateful that I got to see her very first solo show. She killed it!

I’ve been listening to a lot of Olivia Dean lately. Love her.

One of my favorite songs off that record. Everything sounds so god damned good on that album, guitars, bass, vocals. I love this song!

All time blink classic. Corny, but not overplayed to point of ruin like First Date. Second half of TOYPAJ is so good and holds up better than first half to me.

blinc

I actively dislike this song. Loved it in HS when it applied lol.

Fuck. I’m never going to recover from this.

oh so I shouldn't bother because it's probably wrong.

I think Derek era is my least favorite trio era.

There’s a new playlist on Spotify that shows you what the first songs were that you streamed. Kinda cool. My first 5 were on the 6th June 2009 blink - Strings blink - Lemmings Ramones - Pet Sematary Ramones - Have you ever seen the rain? Nofx - Leave it alone what’s yours?

Just pulled the trigger and ordered this bad boy. Oh yes, it will be mine!

this feature is not available yet in my country 💔

I tried & it’s just bringing me to playlists other people have made with their first plays. I’m just on my phone…idk if that matters?

Just type my first plays into the search and it should be the first playlist it’ll calculate your results then

Wait, how are you guys finding this?

yeah this is a massive downgrade lol, just for the optics alone.