Champ182

Haha this matches your enjoyment of a lot of the post-Rubin AVA stuff so that makes sense. I just don't really "hear" Tom in a lot of the post-Rubin era stuff. I could be completely wrong but the melodies/progressions/structures seem unnatural for him based on the rest of his career, which makes me think Ilan has a bigger hand in AVA than anybody else ever has. (Which is totally fine by the way, he's the other fulltime bandmember and Tom isn't very interested in music so it makes sense. I also have never been drawn to AVA in the first place. But Ilan's vibes just don't hit the sweet spot for me.)

Was this an animated series based on his teenage coming of age live-action comedy movie that hasn't come out yet?

Rebel Girl was released on April 30, 2019 Lifeforms will be released on September 24, 2021 I wonder if there has ever been another major release where a single was released 2 years, 4 months, and 22 days before the album. Even when you factor in Covid that's a hilariously long time haha.

I'm curious what Travis's role is like as a producer. Has there ever been any kind of behind the scenes article or video or anything that talks about that? I can't imagine him being very hands-on.

If you've seen my posts you know I prefer my pop-punk to be an ingredient with indie rock, so my picks aren't really in the Travis/MGK vein, but here's a band from New Zealand that I fucking love right now: (Bonus points on this one for sharing a name with a +44 song

The album isn't out yet?? I just scroll past most AVA posts but since people had been talking about like 10 different songs I figured it was already out haha.

Yeah that's how I feel, I don't think any of the poll questions quite hit it for me haha. I sometimes check out a song or two from each AVA release because it's Tom Delonge. I don't HATE it, it's interesting due to its place in Blinkland, but if it wasn't Tom Delonge I would never even decide to press play. As for Blink, my standards are SO much higher so I feel way more disappointment about where they've gone, but it's still probably equal-to-better than AVA. Big ol' pile of "meh" all around haha

Weird question I somehow missed over the years - what is the design on the cover of Flyswatter supposed to be? I always thought it looked like the Atlanta Braves logo haha

Man fuck off with this. Teasing Diddy for being overly aggressive is one thing, this is stupid.

you guys are truly super sleuths. I'm not sure if it's impressive, or scary, or both.

Agreed! When she hones in on a kinda pop punk-meets-Lorde sound it's really fun (and more interesting than the actual Lorde's new album unfortunately).

An even better example: It's so easy for me to imagine Travis doing a flashy beat, the keyboard riff being guitar, Mark singing the verses, Tom singing the choruses.

This isn't quite the purpose of this thread, but I was listening to the new Killers album (which is shockingly great, I liked their first album but never kept up with them over the years. Never knew they were capable of an album this interesting, highly recommended). Anyway, sometimes I come across songs that make me think "If you squint hard enough, THIS is what Blink could have evolved into if Tom never lost his mind." Usually it's something that has elements of Tom's anthemic ambitions, classic melodic energetic Blink-style alt rock, and 80s new wave Tom and Mark both have love for. Certain elements like slide guitar aside, this Killers song is the latest example I've heard. The outro especially reminds me of one of their extended instrumentals they were doing live after Untitled.

Spinal Tap

This version was floating around at the time of the release, and it's actually Travis and one of the outside songwriters jamming out the chord progression, rather than the band themselves recording a demo. I assume the band just recorded the final version. "This demo inevitably turned into 'Heaven' on 'NINE' - blink-182 album. It was a small piece of a 45 minute jam / writing session with my friend Chris Greatti. The rest is history." -Travis https://www.rocksound.tv/news/read/travis-barker-has-shared-the-demo-of-heaven-off-blink-182s-new-album-nine

Absolutely agree! This is awesome

God daaaaaamn that went down so smooooooth! That might have been the most "genuine" conversation we've heard between those two since literally before the first breakup. Just shooting the shit about goofy memories, best places to buy doorknobs, families, hobbies, a lengthy but earnest tangent about UFOs, and an overall genuine appreciation for one another. Instead of two guys pretending to be best buds while the mics were on (the way they sometimes seemed during the reunion), it was two guys who admittedly aren't best buds anymore catching up because they still like each other and have a ton of fond memories together. Can't ask for much more than that.

Can anyone record this for those of us without Apple Music? This is a historic moment in Blink history that needs to be documented and shared with the world (only barely hyperbole).

Well, time to copy/paste myself again since the same topic has come up 900 times: Nobody gives a shit about who co-writes Angels and Airwaves songs because, for most of us, AVA never had a reputation of being a special organic tried-and-true songwriting team pumping out incredible meaningful music. Blink had an entire career's-worth of music that was made that way. So who cares what Tom decides to do with his other project? It's a straw man in the discussion of Blink using outside songwriters (which I don't really care much about anymore). I guess my view on it is that yes Mark lost his songwriting partner... but then he replaced him with Matt Skiba! Ya know, one prominent songwriter/bandmember out, one prominent songwriter/bandmember in. It's all water under the bridge at this point ESPECIALLY in light of what Mark is going through, but I still think they overcorrected by skipping the part where they actually replace Tom with Matt Skiba haha. Instead they replaced Tom's contributions with a revolving door of Skiba, Feldmann, and a bunch of randos from the music biz. And now Tom's producer/bandmember's brother is helping write songs for AVA and I don't care because it has nothing to do with any of that.

hahaha Tom is like the reverse Godfather - "just when I thought I was in, he PUSHES ME BACK OUT!"

beautiful

Great research, thanks!! As for whether he'd stay if Tom came back, I don't see Mark and Travis kicking him out, I just think everyone would mutually realize that Skiba was filling in as a substitute and then his shift was over. I can't imagine any hard feelings in any direction, just like a "Hey thanks guys that was fun! Let me know if you need me again sometime! Seeya around!" That's kinda what I mean by not establishing much of a real connection. Considering he's been in the band for 6 YEARS already(!!) it's always felt like a favor for friends rather than a creative passion.