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Five Years of Skiba


Champ182

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2 hours ago, Nosferatu said:

Yeah I do agree with this but I still think blink would stand out a bit without Travis as well. Gotta include blink having Mark & Tom both being singers with contrasting voices. Tom's riffs on Dude Ranch are pretty unique too. Then the more pop punk blink sounding AVA/Tom DeLonge songs like Overload, Circle Jerk Pit, An Endless Summer, New World and Golden Showers are really unique to the point only Tom/blink could come up with them kinda songs IMO. I've always felt there's been a massive difference in blink's sound compared to the other pop punk bands though.

Then California came along and although Travis kills it on that album, to me it doesn't stop some of the songs sounding like every other pop punk band from 2005 and onwards. I think a lot of what makes blink stand out is Tom and Mark blending together as well.

Yea, but blink would have never, ever became as huge or influential (for better or for worse) as they did without Travis. Every pop punk drummer wanted to be him, from the way they started setting up their drum sets to the parts they tried to play. 

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I think Pin The Grenade is an example of "overplaying" in my opinion. I actually really like the song, it's one of my favorites of the Skiba years, but the verses get a little bogged down with everything going on in Travis's beat. My guess is they started the idea based on a beat Travis had, which they said is a new approach they've been using the last few years. I give them props for stuff like that, but I think it's generally easier and more natural to write the guitar/bass/melody first and add drums to that, than to write drums first and then add guitar/bass/melody to the drums.

Either way, it's a good song but it's fun to dissect stuff sometimes.

 

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1 hour ago, Champ182 said:

I think Pin The Grenade is an example of "overplaying" in my opinion. I actually really like the song, it's one of my favorites of the Skiba years, but the verses get a little bogged down with everything going on in Travis's beat. My guess is they started the idea based on a beat Travis had, which they said is a new approach they've been using the last few years. I give them props for stuff like that, but I think it's generally easier and more natural to write the guitar/bass/melody first and add drums to that, than to write drums first and then add guitar/bass/melody to the drums.

Either way, it's a good song but it's fun to dissect stuff sometimes.

 

Funny you pointed this song out. I’m not one to usually say Travis overplays, because I think it adds much needed flavor to blink given the bass and guitar work is so minimal. But this is one of the only songs that came mind on the topic and how it does seem a bit much on the verses 

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4 hours ago, Diddy Faplord said:

Yea, but blink would have never, ever became as huge or influential (for better or for worse) as they did without Travis. Every pop punk drummer wanted to be him, from the way they started setting up their drum sets to the parts they tried to play. 

Oh yeah, I definitely agree. I just think Mark & Tom's contrasting vocals & unique riffs made blink just as influential as Travis did.

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3 hours ago, Nosferatu said:

I always thought Travis was restraining himself on the verses of Pin the Grenade. He's not going overboard with fills like he does on the verses of songs like Kaleidoscope, 6/8 or on NHTSO.

Yeah, his overplaying kills the first verse of Kaleidoscope for me.

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1 hour ago, twentytwenty said:

Yeah, his overplaying kills the first verse of Kaleidoscope for me.

I definitely see why people don't like it haha, but I'm a fan of him going overboard. I remember when I showed Kaleidoscope to one of my tutors at uni who is a drummer and he couldn't listen to the verses cause of Travis haha.

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9 hours ago, Champ182 said:

I think Pin The Grenade is an example of "overplaying" in my opinion. I actually really like the song, it's one of my favorites of the Skiba years, but the verses get a little bogged down with everything going on in Travis's beat. My guess is they started the idea based on a beat Travis had, which they said is a new approach they've been using the last few years. I give them props for stuff like that, but I think it's generally easier and more natural to write the guitar/bass/melody first and add drums to that, than to write drums first and then add guitar/bass/melody to the drums.

Either way, it's a good song but it's fun to dissect stuff sometimes.

 

Parking Lot is hands down the worst...maybe not because the whole song is bad doesn't really ruin anything but it's so silly.

The worst part about these drums is that true sound fake, I could not tell if this was Travis or a electronic drum loop sped up.  On Neighborhoods/DED it was overkill but it was very raw sounding so it didn't overwhelm the song AS MUCH

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I would say that Skiba has done well. Of course its not blink because Delonge isn't there anymore. Some would even say that blink stopped when Raynor got kicked out 20 years ago. I will try and defend my favourite band because I think some of the shit they're getting is unjustified. Delonge is not around and who knows if the direction that the band has turned towards (and not are everyones cup of tea) was Hoppus' wish all along but Delonge attacked that argument. Hoppus is the mainguy of the band now with Barker as his sidekick, and I think its pretty understandable that they're doing different things now when that dynamic between Hoppus and Delonge is gone. 

To be more precise about Skiba I see him as an absolute hero - he takes a lot of shit, but keeps blinks legacy going. I still haven't seen them live, but Im very happy that people get to see the band play their best songs through 20+ years. I completely understand that you dont throw a legacy like that away and start a new band. So yes, just the name "blink" means a lot. In the Skiba-era I think we have seen that Skiba is more musically gifted than Hoppus. Cali + DLX was fairly even, but with NINE Skiba shines and is the one bringing the songs forward. Also I believe that with Skiba the band has got three members that are actually commited to making songs, instead of releasing an album every fifth year. Its actually an fuctioning band. I think its hard to comment on wether it was a good idea or not with the additional songwriters for NINE, when we dont now their level of influence. Clearly the band itself had a lot to say as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 minutes ago, boxelder said:

does anyone sort-of feel their enjoyment of this band slipping? five years in, i really feel a need to re-evaluate what this era is doing to the band as a whole.

when i put on the old records (CC--neighborhoods, even) there's a spark present. listening back, it's clear blink was always very accessible, but there were interesting instrumental breaks and creative sonic choices that put them above, in my mind, the rest of the pack. with feldmann at the helm as of now, there's a complete absence of ANYTHING interesting. that falling demo, unfinished as it is, is a good example... re-use of the beat-to-death adam's song riff, boring recycling of the same chord progression, anthemic chorus for matt to shout, copy-paste song structure, lack of interesting dynamic changes... i just don't know how anyone can sit back and ENJOY this, especially having been a fan for decades.

i know the fanbase still has a right to be frustrated at tom, but this era just ISN'T working. it's doing exactly what he said... fucking up the legacy of the band.

No one is challenging anyone else so its just becoming paint-by-numbers pop-punk. It's not bad but it isn't great, it's just sort of standard. 

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19 minutes ago, boxelder said:

does anyone sort-of feel their enjoyment of this band slipping? five years in, i really feel a need to re-evaluate what this era is doing to the band as a whole.

when i put on the old records (CC--neighborhoods, even) there's a spark present. listening back, it's clear blink was always very accessible, but there were interesting instrumental breaks and creative sonic choices that put them above, in my mind, the rest of the pack. with feldmann at the helm as of now, there's a complete absence of ANYTHING interesting. that falling demo, unfinished as it is, is a good example... re-use of the beat-to-death adam's song riff, boring recycling of the same chord progression, anthemic chorus for matt to shout, copy-paste song structure, lack of interesting dynamic changes... i just don't know how anyone can sit back and ENJOY this, especially having been a fan for decades.

i know the fanbase still has a right to be frustrated at tom, but this era just ISN'T working. it's doing exactly what he said... fucking up the legacy of the band.

I agree with some of this, BUT, I'd rather have NINE (great album) than nothing at all. I couldn't care less with the "legacy of the band"-bullshit, it's just music. If it wasn't for the money they would've had a different band name, just think of it that way. 

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15 hours ago, Ry-Bread said:

But plenty of people enjoy it and it is absolutely “working”.

It totally is. 'I Really Wish I Hated You' has over 25 million listens on Spotify. That isn't a small amount. People obviously do like these new songs and the new era of the band and it's obviously working for them. It's working for me.

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7 hours ago, Russel Coight said:

It totally is. 'I Really Wish I Hated You' has over 25 million listens on Spotify. That isn't a small amount. People obviously do like these new songs and the new era of the band and it's obviously working for them. It's working for me.

Bots.

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