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The (+44) General Discussion Topic


radioactive tomdog

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8 hours ago, _Kyle_ said:

From what I heard, Finn was late on board with that record and wasn't a big influence. But yeah, I agree that plus 44 could sound terrible with anybody else.

a lot of people here don't like to read the albums credits or do any research. during the time that +44 was writing/recording, Jerry was producing AFI's Decemberunderground, Tiger Army's Music From Regions Beyond, and a Morrissey album (which i was not aware of). I can't speak for the Morrissey record, but the other two were insanely big releases for both of those bands and large undertakings for a producer. AFI had written over 100 songs for their release and apparently Davey Havok would do just as many vocal takes in the booth (the engineer allegedly punched him in the face because of it)

there's no way Jerry had time to be around for the majority of the +44 sessions with all of that going on. he probably gave them advice at the beginning and end of the recording. then, he mixed the record as well. so, for the most part, WYHSB is 99% Mark, Travis, and Chris Holmes. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

sometimes i wonder why and how +44 fell apart. because we got confirmation that they signed to interscope for a second album in oct '07, and then radio silence until the blink reunion a year and a half later. was travis doing too many drugs? did mark not have great chemistry/get along with shane and craig? did the financial performance of WYHSB impact anything (unlikely)? was mark depressed or something crazy? just has always seemed weird to me they just unceremoniously hung it up pretty quickly.

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2 hours ago, boxelder said:

sometimes i wonder why and how +44 fell apart. because we got confirmation that they signed to interscope for a second album in oct '07, and then radio silence until the blink reunion a year and a half later. was travis doing too many drugs? did mark not have great chemistry/get along with shane and craig? did the financial performance of WYHSB impact anything (unlikely)? was mark depressed or something crazy? just has always seemed weird to me they just unceremoniously hung it up pretty quickly.

It seems like a great mystery really. I wonder if after his anger and pain over the blink split subsided he just had nothing to write about, or his confidence issues resurfaced without pain to inspire him. 

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1 minute ago, GrimCityGirl said:

It seems like a great mystery really. I wonder if after his anger and pain over the blink split subsided he just had nothing to write about, or his confidence issues resurfaced without pain to inspire him. 

i spent a little while skimming his old HMNIM/pickrset blog, and it appears as though he spent the majority of 2008 producing for bands, with little progress on +44:

3/15/08: "i know everyone is anxious for updates on +44, and i’ll keep you up to date on everything going on in +44 land"

5/25/08: "i know that many of you are anxious to hear about what’s up in +44 world, and we are still in pre-production. although i have half a mind to post one of the demos up here one of these days. i wonder if the label would sue me if i did? can they do that? probably, right?"

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18 hours ago, boxelder said:

sometimes i wonder why and how +44 fell apart. because we got confirmation that they signed to interscope for a second album in oct '07, and then radio silence until the blink reunion a year and a half later. was travis doing too many drugs? did mark not have great chemistry/get along with shane and craig? did the financial performance of WYHSB impact anything (unlikely)? was mark depressed or something crazy? just has always seemed weird to me they just unceremoniously hung it up pretty quickly.

I think they started demoing material from late 2007-summer 2008, but it was sort of an off year for them. They had played extensively in 2006 and 2007, and were taking 2008 a bit slower to allow for Mark, Travis and everyone else to pursue other projects. Then the plane crash happened in September '08. And the rest is history.

Had the plane crash not happened, the album may have come out in 2009. Or he might've hung up +44 and switched to a solo album. I think the concern was that +44 didn't take off as well as they may have hoped, and maybe Mark figured his own name was a better brand name than +44, just because more people recognized his own name than that.

But it's hard to say.

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Just now, BigOilyMenInBlack said:

I think they started demoing material from late 2007-summer 2008, but it was sort of an off year for them. They had played extensively in 2006 and 2007, and were taking 2008 a bit slower to allow for Mark, Travis and everyone else to pursue other projects. Then the plane crash happened in September '08. And the rest is history.

Had the plane crash not happened, the album may have come out in 2009. Or he might've hung up +44 and switched to a solo album. I think the concern was that +44 didn't take off as well as they may have hoped, and maybe Mark figured his own name was a better brand name than +44, just because more people recognized his own name than that.

But it's hard to say.

he was definitely planning to end +44 and start a solo album. i'm guessing it happened in the summer of 08, because by september (before the crash) mark was posting those vids:

then MTV did an article shortly before the blink reunion where he confirmed his solo intentions: http://www.mtv.com/news/1602612/exclusive-mark-hoppus-announces-solo-plans-puts-44-to-bed/

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2 minutes ago, boxelder said:

he was definitely planning to end +44 and start a solo album. i'm guessing it happened in the summer of 08, because by september (before the crash) mark was posting those vids:

then MTV did an article shortly before the blink reunion where he confirmed his solo intentions: http://www.mtv.com/news/1602612/exclusive-mark-hoppus-announces-solo-plans-puts-44-to-bed/

Ah, thanks for finding that. Haven't watched that in years.

My best guess is Mark and Travis both decided putting out solo albums in their own names was a better idea than continuing with +44. It must've got tired constantly having to hear people ask "who is +44?" Opening for Fall Out Boy must've been strange too. It's like they all got a cut in their incomes just because they wanted a band name.

I never detected any beef between the band members though.

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15 hours ago, GrimCityGirl said:

It seems like a great mystery really. I wonder if after his anger and pain over the blink split subsided he just had nothing to write about, or his confidence issues resurfaced without pain to inspire him. 

Interesting perspective, but I guess I don't find it all that mysterious. Their record dropped in late 2006, they toured well into 2007, and then took a year or so "off" (while still doing some work on the follow up), only to wonder whether it was even worth it make another +44 record, instead of solo projects (which they probably figured would be more successful). Then the plane crash happened.

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7 hours ago, BigOilyMenInBlack said:
9 hours ago, boxelder said:

44disasters.com... what was the deal with that site?

from the source that i got the mp3s from:

"44disasters.com (sister site of the late and great PunkDisasters.com) uploaded this a couple years back to go with an exclusive interview with Mark Hoppus. 
These are early demos done while Carol Heller was still in the band.

1. Cliff Diving
2. Little Death (instrumental)
3. Puppy Killing Machine (early title of Make You Smile)"

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9 minutes ago, daveyjones said:

from the source that i got the mp3s from:

"44disasters.com (sister site of the late and great PunkDisasters.com) uploaded this a couple years back to go with an exclusive interview with Mark Hoppus. 
These are early demos done while Carol Heller was still in the band.

1. Cliff Diving
2. Little Death (instrumental)
3. Puppy Killing Machine (early title of Make You Smile)"

Oh, cool. So presumably they came from Mark?

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