Champ182

Whoa! Haha I have no idea the last time I've seen him without a hat of some kind. Probably still in his insane era? He sure seems a hell of a lot healthier (physically and mentally) nowadays.

I haven't listened to this album in quite awhile and god it fucking rules. I like hearing this remixed/remastered version. I'd definitely listen to the actual album even more if it didn't have certain ear-splitting production choices.

I'm inbetween Ghent and Diddy on the Scott thing. If one member of the band doesn't give a shit or is subconsciously sabotaging things because they're not happy, it tanks the whole thing. We already know that Scott was unsocial, he was turned off by Tom and Mark's ambition (he wanted to stay "small" and didn't enjoy the touring/press stuff) and his heart just wasn't into music in the same way (he went from being in a nationally known band to almost never playing music again). I can only imagine how annoying and frustrating it was for Tom and Mark to obsessively put their entire lives into trying to make great music and take it to the world, and their bandmate just has an attitude of "meh whatever..." I'm sure they were partially looking for a reason to make a move, and when Scott started fucking off and getting drunk and caring even less about the band because he was miserable, the reason presented itself. Doesn't mean he was An Actual Alcoholic, but it also doesn't mean he was just a weird guy who they carelessly tossed aside because they wanted a better drummer. I bet most of us have had some type of experience where there's an uncomfortable thing that needs to be done (get a new drummer), but you give the other person some type of ultimatum in order to seem fair even though you are pretty sure they won't meet it (tell Scott to quit drinking and prove that he cares about the band), and then it plays out how you expected (Scott refuses, because he actually doesn't care about the band, then the drummer spot becomes available for Travis).

hey folks my band's new album is out and I don't know where else to put it so here ya go if you're interested!

Hahaha this is a huge honor! We're from Omaha.

Sure is, let me know what you think of the tunes!

I don't know where else to put this because it's not exactly pop punk, but here's some of my band's new stuff for anybody interested. New album coming July 31!

The cast is shocking considering the show looks like gibberish dogshit hahaha. I love Tom, I'm so glad to have The Real Tom back in the band, but what in the hell even IS that show?

Excuse me did I miss it or did nobody discuss Tom's fucking insane new cartoon???

Interesting little promo campaign they have going, it can't just be for the b-sides going online right? I would be really surprised if they did any sort of TOYPAJ anniversary shows or whatever though, they've just never seemed very interested in most of the non-hits from that album. I wonder what it's all about!

I'm not positive but I THINK this was from the original pre-Feldy/pre-California material. But yeah it doesn't sound single-worthy (or very good) to me either.

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.

Who the hell knows, I still think his brain wasn't working properly for quite a long time (or he was legitimately abducted by aliens and they replaced him with a lookalike for 18 years)

I was surprised to see him without a hat for the first time in years! Haha he looks a lot better now than he did in his fulltime UFO days: