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The blink 182 general discussion topic


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1 minute ago, Ry-Bread said:

Lol. It just seems if you are going to name drop a band in a song, it should make the song catchier or make people recognize it even more. Not think, what is a bowerhouse? Ball house? 

Like that stupid "Stay, play that Blink-182 song, that we beat to death in Tuscon" Chainsmokers song. Hate the song but it gets stuck in my head because of the catchy name drop. If they said "Stay, play that (insert band from 40 years ago no one listening to the radio knows) song", I wouldn't even know the song. Same with that crappy Kid Rock song "singing Sweet Home Alabama all summmerrrrr long" . That song reference is the only reason I know that song.

Just seems like they got all excited thinking everyone would get the reference, and it fell flat. Could be wrong, maybe everyone knows Bauhaus and I'm the exception. But it's just weird, especially in a chorus of what is supposed to be a single that is aimed towards pop radio (which younger people listen to). If it was in a verse on a B-side, whatever.

What do you mean, you've never had this song "stuck in your head"??

 

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34 minutes ago, Ry-Bread said:

My only complaint with SOOHM is the "Bauhaus" reference. I had no clue who they were (still really don't, but at least know it's a band), and given that the song was made for radio play, not sure if that demographic does either? In which case, it's just a weird part of a fairly catchy chorus IMO. I think they kinda missed the mark on that and really showed their age, while really trying not to...

Would love to hear the several other choruses they went through before settling on that one.

Odd complaint I would say. In fact, I think it's maybe the only thing I like about outright. Skiba likely knew exactly the type of female who they are singing about would be into Bauhaus.

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For the record, this is what Feldy said about the song:

Skiba came up with the "Bauhaus" lyric and we were talking about that...How many Blink fans are going to even know who Bauhaus is? At the end we decided "Who gives a fuck?" and did what we want. It's a fun line! It was song originally called "Orange County female." Mark's wife is from Orange County. We wanted to write a classic, no-brainer pop-punk song: major key, fun, happy, classic. We wrote that one pretty early on. It kind of got shelved because it felt too happy compared to the rest of the record. 

Travis really drove a couple of these songs home. He came back to this one and said, "Dude, we cannot leave this song off the record. It's too important for the Take Off Your Pants & Jacket-era of Blink." There's no drama. There's no heaviness to it. It's about this female who is a little bit out of her mind but we love her. 

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2 hours ago, Ry-Bread said:

My only complaint with SOOHM is the "Bauhaus" reference. I had no clue who they were (still really don't, but at least know it's a band), and given that the song was made for radio play, not sure if that demographic does either? In which case, it's just a weird part of a fairly catchy chorus IMO. I think they kinda missed the mark on that and really showed their age, while really trying not to...

Would love to hear the several other choruses they went through before settling on that one.

My theory is that California is a concept that has been in the works for many many years even with Tom (which is why we have the songs on his Odds and Ends record). In most songs there are references to the state of California and the 80s and early 90s. To reference some hot crappy bands that teenagers today listen to to appeal to them would be ridiculous and would not fit the overall theme. I definitely think they tried to show their age. If they tried to be on mainstream/pop radio, why the hell would they play a pop punk song? Wouldn't EDM or mumblerap be the way to go? And why make a music video that references a video that was made before most of those kids were even born? 

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46 minutes ago, thongrider said:

My theory is that California is a concept that has been in the works for many many years even with Tom (which is why we have the songs on his Odds and Ends record). In most songs there are references to the state of California and the 80s and early 90s. To reference some hot crappy bands that teenagers today listen to to appeal to them would be ridiculous and would not fit the overall theme. I definitely think they tried to show their age. If they tried to be on mainstream/pop radio, why the hell would they play a pop punk song? Wouldn't EDM or mumblerap be the way to go? And why make a music video that references a video that was made before most of those kids were even born? 

Now that's some fan fiction! haha. Interesting though, especially since those Tom songs do have similar themes. In this theory, do you think they scrapped the concept for the initial Skiba songs that Feldy threw out and then went back to the California thing when they started over? Or are there even MORE California/teenage/reference-heavy songs that they wrote before Feldy got involved?

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1 minute ago, Champ182 said:

Now that's some fan fiction! haha. Interesting though, especially since those Tom songs do have similar themes. In this theory, do you think they scrapped the concept for the initial Skiba songs that Feldy threw out and then went back to the California thing when they started over? Or are there even MORE California/teenage/reference-heavy songs that they wrote before Feldy got involved?

856.jpg

If my theory holds any truth, I'd say those songs must've had similar themes, but who am I to know? Maybe the themes on Tom and Mark's records are pure coincidence. 

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4 hours ago, Ry-Bread said:

My only complaint with SOOHM is the "Bauhaus" reference. I had no clue who they were

the great thing is that if you're unfamiliar with the band, the lyric still works. it just means she's an art student who's hung up on a famed design school where they made avant garde short films and wacky furniture until it was closed by the nazis.

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50 minutes ago, thongrider said:

Maybe the themes on Tom and Mark's records are pure coincidence. 

Yeah it's just coincidence IMHO. It is eerie that the last lyrics on Tom's solo demo album are "And this is California...." but they said the title "California" came after writing, once they had noticed that many of the songs/themes were related to growing up/living there (LA,San Diego, California, etc.) so it just made sense.

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Hm, I always thought it was strange how both Odds & Ends and California both had an abundance of Cali references on them. Tom did state that he was working on a few of the songs for the next blink record. Isn't there a reference to be 16 again on Tom's solo record too?

At the end of the day I agree, probably just a coincidence. But I'd still take Golden Showers over any of the new joke songs blink has put out.

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I definitely think the California thing was already set in motion whilst Tom was still in the band. I've noticed it before. Songs like Suburban Kings actually sound like blink in progression but not overdoing it with experimental shit. Very poppy song. I love that song. A couple of the lyrics are a bit iffy in that song but it doesn't ruin it like some of the California lyrics do. I can't remember the lyrics of Circle Jerk Pit but I'm sure that one was intended for blink too. AVA will never do a song like that. Plus the part where the song slows down and Tom is still singing sounds like it was written for Mark. I'm sure that song mentions their youth a bit too.

And An Endless Summer was definitely a blink song. That song is full on pop punk outside of the spacey intro. That has some shit lyrics too. Just they're shit in a different way to what California has. But you can see it mentions being a teenager in that song. They definitely tried to go a more upbeat route but remaining experimental at the same time. Songs like WIWY, PLG and Disaster from the EP were way more upbeat compared to the stuff the blink guys have released since 2002. So I definitely think the California thing was already an idea like 4-5 years ago.

I also remember Mark and Skiba talking about a side project about writing "punk rock" songs for kids back like 4-5 years ago too. That would not surprise me at all if that eventually became what is now California.

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Y’all stretching IMHO. If Tom’s demos inspired anything, it was for them to figure out how to get him out of the band with those ideas and get back to pop punk! He even said he showed them some as a direction for new Blink and never got a response lmao.

Mark/Trav have pointed out several times their distaste for the “U2 sound” Tom wanted, with long intros/synths/keys/etc. With that stuff on the table, and Tom refusing to collaborate in-studio, Mark/Trav jumped at the chance to get him out. 

I highly doubt the pre-Feldy stuff they wrote with Matt was deadset on a “California” theme, and that kid project Mark/Matt discussed long before never came to fruition, so that’s moot. 

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16 hours ago, Champ182 said:

For the record, this is what Feldy said about the song:

Skiba came up with the "Bauhaus" lyric and we were talking about that...How many Blink fans are going to even know who Bauhaus is? At the end we decided "Who gives a fuck?" and did what we want. It's a fun line! It was song originally called "Orange County female." Mark's wife is from Orange County. We wanted to write a classic, no-brainer pop-punk song: major key, fun, happy, classic. We wrote that one pretty early on. It kind of got shelved because it felt too happy compared to the rest of the record. 

Travis really drove a couple of these songs home. He came back to this one and said, "Dude, we cannot leave this song off the record. It's too important for the Take Off Your Pants & Jacket-era of Blink." There's no drama. There's no heaviness to it. It's about this female who is a little bit out of her mind but we love her. 

Fan fiction, mate.

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19 hours ago, Ry-Bread said:

Y’all stretching IMHO. If Tom’s demos inspired anything, it was for them to figure out how to get him out of the band with those ideas and get back to pop punk! He even said he showed them some as a direction for new Blink and never got a response lmao.

Mark/Trav have pointed out several times their distaste for the “U2 sound” Tom wanted, with long intros/synths/keys/etc. With that stuff on the table, and Tom refusing to collaborate in-studio, Mark/Trav jumped at the chance to get him out. 

I highly doubt the pre-Feldy stuff they wrote with Matt was deadset on a “California” theme, and that kid project Mark/Matt discussed long before never came to fruition, so that’s moot. 

I do believe Tom when he says that but I also believe he's bullshitting at the same time too. Unless you're on about when Tom first introduced the Dream Walker idea to blink. I know that was originally meant for blink too. I think anyone would've ignored his responses about wanting to start some comic book franchise about some kid that flies around with an umbrella that looks like a lightsaber haha. But I do remember him talking about how he wanted to take blink forward with a song like New World but there was no way he wrote that song before he got kicked out of blink IMO. The lyrics in that song kinda make sense to him quitting blink again anyway. Mark & Travis definitely didn't want Tom out though. They were perfectly fine with him as long as he was committed IMO.

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My view on Tom's demos is that there are only a few that were originlly for blink, and not even in that shape. He surely developed the real demos to their final form. To me, at that time, it was really obvious that he was kind of making up that story: the whole "I was booking shows for blink", which is just stupid, and the whole "this was the bunch of songs I was working on for new blink record". First, I don't beleve he was booking anything; and second, what I said above, my feeling is that only a few ot those songs on "Demos..." were originally intended to be for blink.

So I call it bullshit. As I call bullshit the main core of Tom's statements since, almost, a decade ago.

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Yeah I doubt for a second the concept of 'California' was that old, although I could understand it logically - one album is 'neighbourhoods' about different places, then the following being "California" the unifying of their origins. 

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Something I've wondered about: Is "Grandpa" about someone who gets molested/has an incestious relationship with their grandfather? or is it someone singing to their grandma? 

I've always thought it was the former, but lately I've realized that the latter also makes sense.

Edit: He does say "your own grandfather". I forgot that. Feel silly now.

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15 hours ago, thongrider said:

Something I've wondered about: Is "Grandpa" about someone who gets molested/has an incestious relationship with their grandfather? or is it someone singing to their grandma? 

I've always thought it was the former, but lately I've realized that the latter also makes sense.

Edit: He does say "your own grandfather". I forgot that. Feel silly now.

originally, the song was about hitler.

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