The blink 182 general discussion topic

[thongrider]

Those were the good old days.

[Elite Takes - this is jan]

Ironic, I find it "disingenuous" to pretend Cali-Nine were blink like it was all was hunky dory.  Nothing wrong with liking that material, but it was clearly non-blink stuff.  It hardly encaptures any of their signature sound or style.  There were definitely some fun moments, don't get me wrong, I had fun with Cali, but even the stinkers and clunkers on One More Time 1&2 still hold that Tom & Mark magic dynamic you simply can't replace and still call it blink.

Cali-Nine was less blink than Boxcar and +44.  

Not trying to hate, just being real here. You can't honestly think it's 'disingeneous' to not consider the Cali-Nine era blink music. 

[Paparazzi Magnet]

California is like a piece of candy that’s blink-182 flavored. It’s not the real thing, but it’s a fun experience.

You get all the bells and whistles that the golden age of blink-182 brought:

- Vocal bridges

- Fun and upbeat themes 

- Na na na na na’s

- Melodic vocal lines

- Songs about youth and being a teenager

-  Pop-punk tones with a beachy flavor 

- A joke song

 

But at the same time, something is missing. And even though something is missing, not a damn person or critic out there has ever been able to actually put their finger on it accurately. (We still don’t know).

Perhaps it lacked soul. Or perhaps the listener deep down has this fear that it was really just factory manufactured plastic from Feldman that was solely meant to give the listener a bite sized taste of the nostalgic and glorious past. Or maybe an element of organic is not there. Maybe there were no new elements introduced, and it was just a recycling of the blink playbook. Or maybe we all just have a bit of “Tom bot” inside of us that we can’t admit to fully? Again, we don’t know. 

The good news is that with the release of One More Time, I’m starting to appreciate California more and more. Obviously it’s a common and magical theme with blink that people really enjoy prior records as their new stuff drops. But I didn’t expect it to hit as much as it has been for this album in particular.

 

I like Nine personally. It seems more real and authentic songwriting to me. The whole “Matt is new!” thing wore off so they were forced to have just the music speak for itself. Sadly, covid kind of brushed this album under the rug, and it’s a very forgotten era that never really had a chance to exist. Would love to hear Pin The Grenade live though sometime.

[Elite Takes - this is jan]

20 minutes ago, Paparazzi Magnet said:

California is like a piece of candy that’s blink-182 flavored.

You get all the bells and whistles that the golden age of blink-182 brought:

- Vocal bridges

- Fun and upbeat themes 

- Na na na na na’s

- Melodic vocal lines

- Songs about youth and being a teenager

-  Pop-punk tones with a beachy flavor 

- A joke song

 

But at the same time, something is missing. And even though something is missing, not a damn person or critic out there has ever been able to actually put their finger on it accurately. (We still don’t know).

Perhaps it lacked soul. Or perhaps the listener deep down has this fear that it was really just factory manufactured plastic solely meant to give the listener a bite sized taste of the nostalgic and glorious past. Or maybe an element of organic is not there. Maybe there were no new elements introduced, and it was just a recycling of the blink playbook. Again, we don’t know. 

The good news is that with the release of One More Time, I’m starting to appreciate California more and more. Obviously it’s a common and magical theme with blink that people really enjoy prior records as their new stuff drops. But I didn’t expect it to hit as much as it has been for this album in particular.

 

I like Nine personally. It seems more real to me.  Would love to hear Pin The Grenade live.

Pretty much agree.  But I don't think it was that deep down.  I think it was pretty evident on the surface it was forced or 'manufactured' feeling to make something happen in absence of Tom, which could have been phenomenal if they just did their own dream team side piece, but instead they had to do it under the blink name, which put them in this sort of box they could never figure out.  Because even with much better music like Boxcar Racer, if that was a full album called blink 182 - we'd be like "sick, but where's Mark? We need Mark for it to feel fully like blink" or Blink 182 - WYHSB "this is dope, but it has no signature Tom in it".  

It's just near impossible because we associate blink with Mark & Tom since the beginning and their dynamic together.  That's why a lot of people didn't like Neighborhoods, it felt like Tom was distant and not caring to be there, and why no one likes Feldy era. 

It doesn't help that Skiba is like a dark/tortured soul that writes heavily deep themes and music.  It's cool in theory, but they didn't write Self Titled music (which is hard to do without Tom's guitar also), they tried to write upbeat - poppy music for Gen Zers.

I think it's successful because A. Nostalgia works for sales B. Gen Z'ers did like the stuff just fine.  But in doing so they alienated all of the longer term fans from the 2000s that were like "Wtf, why are we popping xanax and cheating on our spouses now?" "Why are we doing Steve Aoki remixes and all over Tik Toks?" "Mark is a lot less funny without Tom to bounce off of or get encouraged by".  It just felt forced all over. 

California had some saving grace because they just literally themed it (a bit overly simple by the way) around a California concept.  But the music itself had Feldmann's hands all over it.  But then they saturated it to hell with 20 songs of the same exact structure (mark go, chorus, Skiba go, chorus, vocal bridge, chorus) and just beat it to damn death.  Mark is so clearly too old for the shit he's talking about.  They definitely still do it a bit now on OMT/pt 2, but it's just about 3X better by nature of Tom wanting to be there, the music having plenty to offer.  I'm not gonna say it's prime blink at all, but it's a damn better place to be and music to swallow.  

I could go on, but I don't think it's that hard to pinpoint anymore.  It's just not blink without Mark & Tom plain and simple. 

[Paparazzi Magnet]

2 minutes ago, Jans Stand said:

Pretty much agree.  But I don't think it was that deep down.  I think it was pretty evident on the surface it was forced or 'manufactured' feeling to make something happen in absence of Tom, which could have been phenomenal if they just did their own dream team side piece, but instead they had to do it under the blink name, which put them in this sort of box they could never figure out.  Because even with much better music like Boxcar Racer, if that was a full album called blink 182 - we'd be like "sick, but where's Mark? We need Mark for it to feel fully like blink" or Blink 182 - WYHSB "this is dope, but it has no signature Tom in it".  

It's just near impossible because we associate blink with Mark & Tom since the beginning and their dynamic together.  That's why a lot of people didn't like Neighborhoods, it felt like Tom was distant and not caring to be there, and why no one likes Feldy era. 

It doesn't help that Skiba is like a dark/tortured soul that writes heavily deep themes and music.  It's cool in theory, but they didn't write Self Titled music (which is hard to do without Tom's guitar also), they tried to write upbeat - poppy music for Gen Xers.

I think it's successful because A. Nostalgia works for sales B. Gen Xers did like the stuff just fine.  But in doing so they alienated all of the longer term fans from the 2000s that were like "Wtf, why are we popping xanax and cheating on our spouses now?" "Why are we doing Steve Aoki remixes and all over Tik Toks?"  It just felt forced, plain and simple.

California had some saving grace because they just literally themed it (a bit overly simple by the way) around a California concept.  But the music itself had Feldmann's hands all over it.  But then they saturated it to hell with 20 songs of the same exact structure (mark go, chorus, Skiba go, chorus, vocal bridge, chorus) and just beat it to damn death.  Mark is so clearly too old for the shit he's talking about.  They definitely still do it a bit now on OMT/pt 2, but it's just about 3X better by nature of Tom wanting to be there, the music having plenty to offer.  I'm not gonna say it's prime blink at all, but it's a damn better place to be and music to swallow.  

I could go on, but I don't think it's that hard to pinpoint anymore.  It's just not blink without Mark & Tom plain and simple. 

Honestly, 100%. Can’t agree more with everything you just wrote

[Elite Takes - this is jan]

2 minutes ago, Paparazzi Magnet said:

Honestly, 100%. Can’t agree more with everything you just wrote

Well I meant Gen Z, not Gen X, but I think you picked up on that. 😭

[Paparazzi Magnet]

I watched a video earlier today of blink playing Touchdown Boy live in the 90’s, and in the middle of it, Mark was doing a silly dance so that Tom would laugh and not be able to sing the words. It was precious lol. They really have a special dynamic you can’t replicate easily.

[Ghent]

If the Skiba era isn’t actually blink-182, then neither is anything pre-Enema. The best musician and most famous member of the band wasn’t present for that era.

Unless you’re more of a fan of Tom than you are blink (yes, that’s a lot of you), it’s blink.

[allsystemsgo]

The heart of the band is Mark and Tom. Don't know how else to put it.

[twentytwenty]

1 hour ago, Jans Stand said:

It's just near impossible because we associate blink with Mark & Tom since the beginning and their dynamic together.  That's why a lot of people didn't like Neighborhoods, it felt like Tom was distant and not caring to be there, and why no one likes Feldy era. 

You sure of that bud!?

[Ghent]

The spirit of the band is only Tom for a lot of people here, which explains the love for any AVA turd but the disregard of any blink without Tom.

[Kay]

The spirit of blink is Tom and Mark together, there are barely any AVA superfans here at all. 

[Paparazzi Magnet]

^ blink 

[Russel Coight]

44 minutes ago, Paparazzi Magnet said:

^ blink 

 

^blink-182

[2point5]

With BotBM starting this week I just wanna say I genuinely agree with all of your opinions. You’re all great and I love and respect every single one of you. 

[Russel Coight]

With BotBM starting this week I just wanna say I actually have integrity and even though you’re all great and I love and respect every single one of you, if we disagree on something i will politely tell you so and if that proceeds into an argument i will kindly tell you to go get fucked cunt.

[thongrider]

With BOTMB coming I'd just like to say that I love all of you, but will probably disagree with all of you about everything just because I can.

[Rickay]

I think the Skiba era music would have been better if they weren’t burdened by releasing music as blink. 

[Rickay]

15 hours ago, Kay said:

I still mostly listen to punk and emo and stuff floating around there, a lot of comedy music to ease the sad brain, hilariously at the moment I have been listening to that Chappell Roan record thats doing really well, never been big on pop but she’s friggin’ brilliant. 

What comedy music other than Bo? I’ve never heard anyone else that comes close to mixing the comedy / heart like he does. 

[2point5]

5 minutes ago, Russel Coight said:

With BotBM starting this week I just wanna say I actually have integrity 

Imagine lying to these fine people in the very first sentence.

Remember folks, a vote for me is a vote for honesty. Not a fan of Nine? I’m right with you, brother. You think Nine is actually a good album and should be well respected? I couldn’t agree more!

Let’s get this competition started!