Nosferatu

Travis definitely gives a shit about blink IMO. His commitment proves it alone. Yeah, his music taste changed but so did Tom's music taste when he was still committed to blink in the 02-04 era. Blink progressed from being this pop punk band. Songs like Feeling This and the Fallen Interlude all have hip hop elements in it regarding drum beats too. It makes blink stand out. The guy just loves drums and will pretty much play for anyone if they asked. And unlike Tom, Travis has always been able to bring his kids with him, so he has never felt the need to take a break from blink for family reasons either. Tom definitely gave a shit about blink. Yeah, he wanted control but Mark & Travis would've kept him grounded had he remained. It was more to do with his family. Sure, he started up AVA straight away. But the whole of the first AVA album was recorded at his own house. So he was with his family. He told Mark & Travis himself he didn't wanna tour for a bit and when they suggested a new blink album, he told them he's only up for it if they do it at his house. He just didn't wanna be away from his family. From 2005-2006, he was pretty much stuck in his own house. He was still a twat about the whole thing though since blink wasn't just his band. Definitely not fair on Mark & Travis to go to Tom's house to record. Dude just didn't wanna be away from his family at all, but he was still interested in recording new music with blink.

Yeah, i notice it but it's not annoying to me or anything. Most songs have that noise when they change to different notes on the fretboard. The only time I've ever hated it is on HISALP. Goes right through my ears on that song. Annoying cause i love that song as well.

Happy Days you mean? I haven't noticed but I assume you mean fret slides when the root note changes?

Yeah, enjoyed their first album. Not my favourite pop punk album by any means, but they proved they're a great band when they expanded the sound. It's weird, I say I love pop punk bands but I tend to dislike it when they do pop punk albums haha.

Yeah, love that Jimmy Eat World album. Same goes to the last two MCR albums. Love Deja & Science Fiction by Brand New too. Wasn't a fan of their Daisy album or that other one they did.

Yeah, I tend to like the Jerry Finn produced records. Check out the one by The Wiretap Scars by Sparta. It's more alternative rock. But Jerry Finn produced it and it's a damn good album IMO.

Yeah, only problem is even the great drummers aren't perfectly in time. It makes it harder to edit, cut and paste and all that shit when the drummer doesn't have a consistent tempo too. This song was like 145 beats per minute, but the drummer was ranging from anywhere between 140 and 150. There was just no way I could cut out a perfect take and merge it in with another perfect take because of that reason. I think because I started very early with the click track, I'm just used to it. I have the drum beats & grooves in my head as I'm playing the bass or guitar too. But I tend to come up with a drum beat at the very beginning on Logic Pro and just move the audio files over to Pro Tools and record the rest of the instruments.

Someone I'm close with has always compared live performing bands to musicians of the studio. A band might be decent live but sound utter shit in the studio as they have no idea how it works. They think it's the same ballpark. Then it's the same vice versa. Musicians in the studio might sound awesome in the studio but completely shit live, as they think they'd be able to pull off the same stuff with the same exact equipment. Both are completely different. I'm one who doesn't know too much about live performing but knows quite a bit about recording in the studio. When i saw this band perform live, they didn't seem too bad. Just very very average musicians and a crap drummer. But I didn't realise how shit this drummer was until I started recording them. His fills were all out of time. He didn't master the basics. Couldn't keep basic drumming rhythms in time to save his life, yet he was trying all these complex fills. Even Mark Hoppus has more groove on the drums at the end of every blink gig. After that experience, I decided I will never ever record anything with them ever again. It's my way with the click track or no way at all.

Oh my, I literally cannot stand working without a click track. Ever since I started learning how to record like 6 years ago, I have ALWAYS worked with a click track. In my first year for uni, one of the modules was to record another band. These guys could not play with a click track. They told me they never use it. I was like wtf? Who the hell plays without a click track? Never heard of such a thing. Had to treat their performances like it was a live set. Sounded utter trash.

I remember snapping the E string on my bass guitar once by just tuning it. Couldn't believe it. Also this happened fairly recently. I have a condenser mic that I use for recording. About 2 weeks ago, I was recording in my room and decided to go out later that night. Rather than put the microphone away, I just left it on the mic stand overnight. Brought someone I know to mine in the night too and when we woke up, she decided to use my bathroom and was still drunk. The mic stand was near the bathroom and she lost balance and stupidly decided to grab onto the mic stand to keep her balance. I could see the thing bending. In my head I was like NOOOOOOOOO Thank god the mic stand didn't snap. The mic was safe. Since then, I've decided not to leave it out overnight if I'm gonna be using it.

Yeah, he'll get his manager to tell Rise Records to fuck off through an email or something. Signed contracts mean nothing to our Tom.

I'll buy it. 300 bucks? 400 bucks? That's as high as I'll go!

Yeah, at one point I actually thought it was Arnie himself haha.

Yeah agreed with this and Kay too. TOYPAJ actually sounds perfect. Instrumentally it's superb. The melodies are fucking great. Literally everything on the album is great apart from the lyrics and song topics. I can appreciate Reckless Abandon cause that's basically just a 3 minute joke song. That was meant to be a ridiculous, over the top and stupid song, just like Golden Showers (which is a little more stupid and ridiculous and funny). Happy Holidays is the same. First Date isn't a cringe song to me, it's just overplayed. But the lyrics aren't awful for that IMO. Just simple. Plus first dates will always be a thing even for us adults. Hell, I'm planning a first date with someone tomorrow and I'm 26. But songs like Anthem Part Two with it's teenage rebellion and politics and Give Me One Good Reason with it's American high school topic just have some shit lyrics in there. The Rock Show is another song with that teenage youth/lyric stuff but I don't find the lyrics bad in that. Adults can probably still relate to that, especially the ones in their 20's that still act around 18-19 (I'm one of them included). I love Story of a Lonely Guy but can't stand the song topic and the lyrics of it (just like KOTW on California). All that prom shit. It just doesn't relate to who I am right now and the lyrics are just bad. I don't mind the youthful lyrics so much or shit about getting drunk on weekends. I do that shit every weekend anyway. But the lyrics still have to be done well. The difference of lyric quality between songs like First Date/The Rock Show compared to Kings of the Weekend/Parking Lot/Wildfire is just huge. Some of the TOYPAJ songs did it better and aren't as cringe. But songs like Give Me One Good Reason, Story of a Lonely Guy, Please Take Me Home are just as shit as those California songs when it comes to lyrics. And apart from KOTW, those songs are instrumentally more interesting and just sound way better as a whole. Plus no annoying woahs and gang vocals either.

Thing is, how can we judge stage presence? Think of a guy like Freddie Mercury. He'll ask for the crowd to wave their arms or some shit and the crowd will simply just do it. Now think of some random dude on a show like X Factor/Britain's Got Talent/America's Got Talent. He'll ask the crowd to do the exact same thing and they simply won't do it. Name recognition matters IMO. Oliver could be awesome with this live stream. He could be doing all crazy Tom DeLonge shit that oozes charisma. But at the end of the day, he's still gonna be in a room by himself with no live audience, no other musicians and it's just not gonna be the same as blink with Skiba even if Skiba was the shittiest guitar player in the world. People will just call him some Tom DeLonge wannabe. They already do when it comes to Leo and Leo actually performs the blink songs pretty well and has charisma also. Look at the soundchecks when they bring fans onto the stage. The crowd just don't really care (I'm aware it's a small crowd compared to the regular live show). Some of them have been better performers than both Mark & Skiba. But it's not the same. They don't have the look, they don't have the name recognition. It's just better when Mark & Skiba do it despite the fact that Mark's voice is completely shot and that Skiba fucks up nearly all the riffs and just nonstop yells into the mic. So even the soundchecks wouldn't be a fair comparison. Then there's Tom at Reading in 2014. Obviously the live stream quality was shite. Whoever mixed that did a fucking terrible job. But Tom was awful. His guitar sounded awful. But it didn't matter. He fucking stole the show. He fucking owned the stage that night despite his slurring. He was the man. The only way it'd be a fair comparison is if Oliver had a great band from the pop punk/punk rock scene, so he has a bit of name recognition like Skiba. At the end of the day, Skiba is always gonna be the better guy for blink and their fans, even if Oliver outperformed Skiba.

Hopefully this one is better than Rebel Girl, which isn't a bad song. I just found it a generic AVA song.

Haha, I actually love that band. The Shape of Punk to Come is an awesome album. But I couldn't listen to any other band do similar shit. Only Refused can do that sound well IMO.

Not heard a punk or pop punk band try it haha. Sum 41 have elements of it sometimes and I think it works for them. Not a fan of ADTR and have never really considered them pop punk so I can't compare them with the pop punk/punk bands I listed.

I love it when a pop punk or punk rock band becomes more experimental and no I don't mean Good Charlotte or whatever becoming way more poppy. I like it when the punk/pop punk bands get more darker, strange, aggressive or heavier. Sum 41 did it with Chuck, blink did it with the smiley face album, AFI did it with Sing the Sorrow, Green Day with American Idiot, Brand New with Deja, The Wonder Years with No Closer to Heaven etc I enjoy the side projects too. Obviously there is Boxcar Racer, but you got that Bad Astronaut side project from one of the members of Lagwagon. I've been looking for more bands that do this kinda shit. Bands from the pop punk or punk genre just going full on weird with experimental albums or experimental side projects.

Dunno if it's been mentioned but cba to read back and i'm kinda drunk but ive seen rybreads blink182 baseball cards on the blink-182 instagram story sick as fuck i'm loving it

Not a fan of Happy Days at all tbh. Very boring song. Probably the most boring blink song I've ever heard. Blame It On My Youth and Generational Divide are way better songs IMO.

TOYPAJ is one of those albums that was just huge when it was released but the album never stood the test of time like Dude Ranch, Enema & the smiley face album did. It's only the singles from that album that kind of just lived on.

I'm sure I've heard this on youtube before but I do like it haha. I prefer covers when bands make it their own like blink with A Letter to Elise & Another Girl Another Planet.

Well they never did an anniversary tour for Dude Ranch, which is a classic just like Enema & the smiley face album. California shouldn't be having one of those tours if Dude Ranch never had one. Songs like Dammit have been covered by so many bands too. Dude Ranch is actually an influence on pop punk music. Hell, they weren't even gonna do a tour for Enema before they figured out they're delaying the album by writing more songs.