Saturday, 8 October 2022

Blink-182


With this weeks news that Tom DeLonge is set to rejoin Blink-182 I thought now would be a good to to write a post about them as it's been at the back of my mind for some time.

Like many, I first came across them around the turn of the century when they did "All the Small Things" which I thought was a good catchy record. Around the same time I was getting back into Green Day mainly because of the fast drumming.

Blink-182 were being referred to as the new Green Day by some, but I initially argued the one song I knew of theirs was too slow for them to be considered similar to Green Day.

A mate of mine got into Blink-182 in a big way and bought pretty much their entire back catalogue. Amongst this was their debut album "Buddha" which he lent me. This was from long before they were famous and isn't even considered an official album release and sounds like it was recorded in their bedroom.

I liked the album enough to make a copy of it. I was also convinced the comparisons with Green Day were valid, if anything the drumming on this album generally speaking was faster than Green Day. Interestingly the song I liked on the album the most was "The Girl Next Door" which was a cover of a Screeching Weasel song. 

There were plenty of other decent songs on the album though. The opening track "Carousel" was a particularly fast one and the rawness along with Toms complete inability to sing really made it for me. 

As their first official album "Cheshire Cat" had quite a big overlap with "Buddha" song wise, he then lent me their second album "Dude Ranch". I couldn't really get into that one though.

I'd started to hear more of their music on the music channels including what was their latest single "Man Overboard" which actually never charted. At the same time they released the live album "The Mark, Tom and Travis Show" which my mate bought straight away and insisted on playing it in my car.

I enjoyed it enough to get my own copy. What I liked most about it was the drumming being extra fast, they played all the songs faster than the studio versions.

A consequence of this was when I finally heard their "Enema of the State" album it was unlistenable because many of the songs were also on the live album so sounded far too slow.

At this point Blink-182 were everywhere. You would get Blink-182 night on MTV2 for example. They were being portrayed as basically overgrown high school kids that the high school kids themselves could relate to. They talked about how Mark and Tom met at school and have been inseparable best friends since.

I personally found all this a bit cringeworthy. Maybe the fact I'd already finished school had something to do with it, that I was older than their target audience. 

I remember the big MTV premiere of their new single "The Rock Show" and thinking this is crap. My fanatical friend bought the new album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" which he copied onto tape for the car and left behind in my car so I basically inherited that tape.

The album was a mixed bag, some great tunes but plenty of filler material too. The best track on the album though was a hidden one "What Went Wrong" which is what I've posted. 

It's an acoustic song and probably the best acoustic song I've ever heard. Again the fact Tom can't sing is part of what makes it so good.

It wouldn't be long before I was losing interest though. What didn't help was that I had a punk band of my own and others would tell me there's no way we could be as good as Blink-182 because they're all over TV and radio whereas we're not, despite the fact they'd heard none of my music. Whether we were better or not is down to personal taste, but I will say Blink-182 would probably tell you themselves they didn't get to where they got on pure talent.

One of my housemates at the time had heard my music and said he liked it. I wrote an acoustic song which I thought was better than "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day and he agreed, but said it's not as good as "What Went Wrong" by Blink-182 which I agree with. All of my songs that I consider half decent are better than "The Rock Show" though.

My friend who was a big Blink-182 fan also went off them. He'd moved onto what he considered to be proper punk music. Soon Blink-182 went on hiatus themselves with Tom and Travis doing the side project Boxcar Racer.

They've come and gone over the years since. What's become apparent since then is inseparable best friends Mark and Tom don't seem to like each other much at all. Then quieter member Travis has been doing the whole celebrity thing with his reality TV show and these days he's known for being the husband of a Kardashian.

Tom quit Blink-182 in 2014. Whilst he didn't sing on all their songs, part of their appeal was his inability to sing so taking that away seems wrong.

I hadn't heard a new Blink-182 song for many years so decided to give what was their newest song at the time "I Really Wish I Hated You" a listen. My reaction to it was oh dear. It's everything I hate about modern music and sounds like it could almost be a David Guetta record. 

In summary they have a great first album, a not so great second album, a third album that's unlistenable if you heard the live album first, a mixed bag fourth album and a bunch of music since that I don't know much about but what I've heard is rubbish.

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