Looking back while going forward

Back before their breakup, I loved listening to Blink 182, but weirdly enough I never bought any of their albums. I referred to these types of banks like Blink as “radio bands” -- bands with songs I love to listen to on the radio, but not enough for me to buy an album. The same can be said for Sublime, along with a few others.

Back last year in early 2015 I was surprised to hear the news that Mark and Travis booted Tom out of the band. That was kind of surreal for me because this meant there is only one original member of the band that’s left. While it is a bummer that Tom is now out of the group, I don’t really feel too bad as he seemed to be the one blocking the group from making another new album (based on what Travis said during a radio interview). On top of that, Tom apparently phoned in his part while they made their 2011 comeback album, Neighborhoods (which I noticed right away as that album was NOT good at all).

Last week is when the group dropped their first single of their new album California, which I feel is a perfect name to an album from a band that started in the golden state. To me it’s a sign that they are looking back and seeing what made Blink, Blink. And to show that, the first single titled “Bored To Death” reflects this well by having the song sound like something that could have came out from them around 15 years ago. Mark does a great job with the lyrics and Travis does what he does best by banging on the drums and giving the track a fast, high energy feel. Then add in what Matt Skiba is doing with the guitar and adding harmony vocals to the song and you have something that Blink fans should love to hear again and again.

Sure, the song is serious and that is what Blink is half known for, but the other is their dumb, ridiculous side that gives songs goofy titles or lyrics to a track. Well, to contrast “Bored To Death,” they also released another song from California called “Built This Pool.” I don’t want to spoil it, so listed to it with your own ears to see what I mean. ;-)

All of this Blink news had me go back and research how the band was like back in the ‘90s when they were still relatively unknown back during their Cheshire Cat days. There’s a photo of them playing in Corona, CA at the Showcase Theater, a small venue where bands both big and small played for many years until it got shut down in 2008. In it you can see the scene was bursting with punk vibes and looked like fun time to be in the club listening to them rock out. But in examining the photo I noticed something interesting. Let’s zoom in on what I’m talking about.

Holy crap! That’s a cup from Del Taco! Don’t know whose drink it is, but seeing that it’s near Mark I’d have to assume it’s his. If that’s the case, then the dude has good taste in food as well, adding some bonus points for himself.

Everything appears to be lining up for this to be a great album as it harkens back to their old stuff, has the familiar two faced appearance to their song crafting, a feel good album name, and is going to drop on July 1, 2016 -- the 182nd day of the year. Clever.

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