Champ182

I tried, folks!

Good lord what an annoying conversation! Anyone who ever watched the Cheetah Videos and Album Launch can clearly see they were not in some bottomless pit of depression while writing that album. It's right there on tape. They were being hilarious weirdos and living out their wildest creative dreams in a way they hadn't even attempted before. They were still in a strange part of life in their late 20s/early 30s that I'm sure many of us can actually relate to, when family stuff can get weird, friendships fray, mental illness has a tendency to rear its head, they had babies at home which is incredibly beautiful but also incredibly stressful and anxiety inducing especially combined with the guilt of being away so much, the country was newly at war, the pressure and monotony of "being Blink" was getting to them, etc etc etc. It's ridiculous to think they were "miserable" and down in some dark hole at the time, but it's also ridiculous to think they were happy go lucky millionaires chasing a trend. I happen to think it was a very honest and earnest account of all of those feelings. It's strange to me that diehard Blink fans could think it was all one way or the other after 20 years haha.

Just throwing this Ramones centrist anthem in here wait what

I love One More Time so much. We're in a pretty unique time in music history where a ton of bands who already had their time and then broke up or went on hiatus or whatever have come back years later. That never happened in the past the way it's happening now. Some of them are cash grabs, some are because their kids grew up and they're bored and wanna relive their youth or stave off old age, and very few genuinely recapture the inspiration and energy it takes to be a "real" band. Against all odds, that's where Blink are at right now. I genuinely never ever thought I would see a version of Blink that had all 3 members feeling engaged and creative and trying hard, ever again. In my opinion, that comes through in the music, even if it's impossible for them to actually reach the levels of genius they had when they were way younger and in way different circumstances in life. We were lucky enough to see what these dudes could do at full capacity in their 20s, and now we are getting to see what they can do at full capacity in their 40s and 50s. Of course it's not gonna be exactly the same and they can't fully achieve the symbiosis they did back in the day, but it was totally far-fetched for almost 2 decades that we'd ever get to see it. It's such a gift.

I'm in Omaha, KC was just the closest spot last year and I couldn't make a trip work this year!

My biggest regret - I almost met up with Ghent last year and could've become an honorary Krew member Can't wait to hear how it goes tomorrow!

Ahhhh I wish, I missed my chance last year when they had to cancel

This is a great point, and hopefully now that Mark finally relented and he's seeing how well-received the deep cuts have been maybe he'll buck up and do it more often haha

It's so great to hear that sentiment coming from Tom in particular, I mean how many times during his weirdo AVA era did he put down Blink and talk about how AVA was supposedly more "meaningful to the world" or whatever, and so many of us wanted to shake him enough to snap out of it and realize that Blink was ALREADY meaningful to the world in the exact way he talks about in that clip. Very cool.

god dammit that was like watching a blink 182 online rom-com for a split second

shhhhhh @thongrider you're interrupting a sweet budding romance!!!

This is amazing haha

Good lord hahah. It's so bizarre that all of a sudden he just had THAT personality, and it stayed his personality for 15+ years, and now he's just back to not being that way anymore...

This is one of my only Blink conspiracy theories, I just don't quite believe that everything Travis says about the band is totally accurate and I think he inflates his role sometimes... They've all declined to talk about the making of the album other than the Zane Lowe interview for some reason, but I have to imagine Tom and Mark's version of events would be a little different than Travis saying "me and my friend wrote the whole song and sent it to Tom and Mark and they cried and said it was perfect." 2/3 guys in the band have a career of writing lyrics and melodies and chord progressions, 1 doesn't... Travis obviously knows more about music than I could dream to learn in a lifetime, but other than contributing a spare line here and there over the years that part of songwriting isn't what he has done in any of his thousands of projects. I just don't quite buy the idea that suddenly he's writing entire songs on Tom and Mark's behalf.

I think Roller Coaster is right up there with Going Away To College when it comes to "songs that would've been just as huge as all the other hits if they were singles"