boxelder

great posts abound here haha. nice work as always @Thibaut182. as for the above post @KhAoS182 Bootlegs i’m curious based on the date if that’s a re-edited rendition of the M+Ms vid. as we all know, the video was shot in july of that year and completed the next month. i think the original version was on some surf comps by the fall. so i wonder if that late december tape is the edited version with mainly performance footage — ie, this one on the official vevo https://youtu.be/kZs88WWGDoo

song is so good. prob one of my favorites of the year

agree about happy days lyrically feeling clunky. it’s also a little too general. still, with time it ages better for me. at least it was developed from a honest place

NINE is an interesting experiment... it’s fascinating but also a little sad to see blink enter the phase of their career where they just hire songwriters. some elements of NINE are fresh, but it does sound very same-y. heaven might have the most devastating lyrics the band’s ever shared, and NHTSO is definitely among the best of this era. i like songs like pin the grenade, which is a good throwback. the melodies in OSES work their way into your head even if the lyrics are horrible. hangover you is a banger. happy days is an honest plea for less anxiety, which is earnest, but the lyrics seem a little too straightforward or generic. TLDR: it’s a mixed bag. it’s just kind of weird. band will never be the same again, and skiba still appears to have an undue share of duties. still, there’s things to like about it

first week sales + bundles goose these numbers considerably. for blink heavily — i think both recent efforts debuted high and then dropped to a ridiculous low, then fell off entirely

transvestite easy.

they’ve been pretty cool about it since before california even came out. mark was more “is what it is” and travis was liking his posts and stuff. what will happen is that blink makes another skiba record and are dropped from columbia. then they regain tom for a HOF performance, and then a huge greatest hits tour.

i would actually really like to see some sort of reunion with scott. it's actually a little weird considering his length with the band that he was more or less wiped from the history books. even bands that have members quit or fired at some point reunite for a one-off. would kill to see a dude ranch set with scott on drums

this about says it all. aside from viewing the band solely in a financial lens, he mentions their career in past tense... not because he's not in it anymore, but because it's over. "it's really about what we did and the mark that it made" = 1992-2005. since that time, he's never viewed blink as an active, relevant band, and has invested nothing in it. it's solely a fun thing to do to see past friends and make some dough.

very well said friend. this has been an interesting detour the past couple years, and it potentially even saved the band's career/life (still on majors, "kind of" relevant). it also has been interesting in a sense to see blink (well, mark) transparently transition to utilizing songwriters for everything. famous music industry trick -- bring in some songwriters. at the end of the day though, it's never felt like blink, and it never will. the question is if (when?) tom returns, what will the band sound like? will it pick up where neighborhoods left off? will they make a back-to-basics fast punk record (cali w/o hooks?) with bill stevenson, as was part of the plan in 2014? my prediction: tom continues to surprisingly unravel more information about UFOs and garners more attention. new blink makes another LP for columbia that doesn't do too hot and is dropped from their contract. blink's inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, they reunite with tom, and embark on another hugely successful "reunion" tour

good lord. just was browsing youtube and saw the clips from reading 2014. it was so awful... one of the worst performances ever. mark and trav must've just been constantly embarrassed to tour with tom. it's almost like he's sabotaging the show intentionally, or holds the band and its songs in such low esteem that he makes the whole thing one giant joke. his guitar tone is shit, and he's shout-singing in this bizarre childlike voice, growling every lyric and giving up on others. it becomes a thing where it's like... do we even want him back? i'm torn. there's an energy and weird chemistry still evident but he just sucks so bad. whereas it's obvious skiba's a mismatch and the whole thing's a little boring. just such a precarious position this band is in, and it's a little heartbreaking for mark.

blink 182 is my favorite band of all time. they are underrated songwriters and made some of the greatest punk anthems ever. what they are not is a good live band. they never have and never will be. mark is woefully out-of-practice, both he and tom need vocal lessons, and matt is there for a paycheck at this point. plus modern-day blink lacks chemistry. i’m glad they’re around and i’ll always see them but the only member worthwhile is travis. all said, pre-breakup blink was certainly entertaining in a sloppy and explicit way. today, with the backing tracks and metronome and shit, it’s nowhere near the same

incredible find, and great ear of yours to notice them declining the SOMA offer. adding it now!

double post but did anyone see mark's blink ranking? it's interesting to see the consensus is pretty universal that feeling this was the "apex", as he says. in the comments he also praises anthem pt 2 as some of tom's best songwriting: "gives me chills"