Blink-182: Encyclopedia II - Blink-182 - History

Blink-182 - History

Blink-182 - Flyswatter / Buddha / Cheshire Cat

Towards May, 1993 blink realised that a demo tape known as Flyswatter, recorded using a boom box in Raynor's bedroom, was quite shit, which explains the poor sound quality. In an interview, Hoppus said that around eighty copies had originally been produced. Before the end of the year, the band released another demo tape known as Buddha. Around 1,000 copies of this were produced by Kung Fu Records. In early 1994, blink released their first full-length album, Cheshire Cat, released on Grilled Cheese Records. The album contained many new versions of songs that had appeared on the Buddha demo. Shortly after the release of Cheshire Cat, blink was threatened with legal action by a techno band in Ireland of the same name. In order to avoid a lengthy lawsuit, blink added the numbers 182 to the end of their name. Although there are rumours as to why these numbers were chosen (for example, that it is the number of times Al Pacino utters the word "fuck" in Scarface, that they represent Hoppus' ideal weight, or the position in the alphabet of the letters R and B, referring to the northern San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, making the meaning blink [possibly, fuck] RB.), all the band members but one have made it clear that the numbers were picked at random. In one interview, Travis stated that the "182" was the U.S. radio codeword meaning 'homicide' (apparently confusing "182", the radio codeword for conspiracy, for "187"). During the pop punk boom of the 1990s, blink-182 were signed by MCA which later became Geffen Records which they stayed with.

Blink-182 - Dude Ranch

After moving to Encinitas, California, the band recorded the album Dude Ranch with producer Mark Trombino. The album was a hit, and two singles from it ("Josie" and "Dammit") rose to the top of the U.S. airplay charts. In 1998, the band met a slight setback. Raynor, who had a serious drinking problem at the time, was reportedly asked to leave the band and go into rehab, although there are also reports that he decided to leave to go to college. Raynor claims he agreed to go into drug rehab, but the rest of the band kicked him out over the phone because they didn't believe that he would do it. Whatever the explanation, he left midway through a U.S. tour. He was replaced by Travis Barker, who had been playing with support band The Aquabats. It is widely believed that the single "Man Overboard" on the band's live album speaks directly to Raynor's rift with Mark and Tom. Although Mark has stated, on the radio show "Loveline", that the song had nothing to do with the break up between them.

Blink-182 - Enema of the State and The Mark Tom and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back

In 1999 the album Enema of the State was released. On the album the band hired notorious Rancid and The Offspring producer Jerry Finn, who had produced every album since. The CD was successful, propelling the band to pop punk fame, and gaining a large amount of airtime on MTV and Total Request Live (TRL). This was largely due to the commercial success of the songs "What's My Age Again?",which was a song dedicated to the group's very close friend Matthew Purcell, "Adam's Song", and "All the Small Things"; and particularly to the infamous music video for "What's My Age Again" which featured the band streaking. They sold seven and a half million copies of the album worldwide, which made it their best-selling album up to that point. The sound on Enema of the State was rooted in the same genre as earlier punk-rock bands such as NOFX, Green Day, and The Offspring, but it was more accessible to the mainstream, with a punky-feel. Many original fans felt that the band had strayed from their punk rock roots.

blink-182's only live album, The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back was released in 2000. It is no longer in print, and it is sought after by collectors. The songs are from the group's first three albums: Cheshire Cat, Dude Ranch, and Enema of the State. The album also includes one new song, "Man Overboard," as well as a few joke songs.

Blink-182 - Take off Your Pants and Jacket

2001 saw blink-182 continue their commercial success, recording Take off Your Pants and Jacket (the strange title was a punning reference to masturbation), which followed the same basic formula of "Enema of the State". In 2001, blink-182 appeared on the cover of CosmoGirl, and won a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award.

In 2002, bands such as Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, and Simple Plan began following the same route as blink-182, marking the expansion of the pop-punk genre. Mark Hoppus participated in the making of Simple Plan's debut album, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls.

When the CD first came out, there were several versions with different bonus tracks. There were three versions, "Take off," "Pants," and "Jacket," each of which indicated by a different sticker on the CD. The actual CD had pictures of a red plane, yellow pants, or a green jacket. Each version had two different bonus tracks. The tracks were "Fuck a Dog", "Mothers Day" and "When You Fucked Grandpa", three joke songs, and the serious were "Time to Break Up", "Don't Tell Me That It's Over" and "What Went Wrong". Since there were only two bonus tracks on each of the three versions, some long term fans wanted every one. Those bonus tracks were only out for a limited time, about a month or so. After that month they only sold "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket: without any bonus tracks and with all three logos on the actual CD itself.

Blink-182 - The First Wave of Side Projects: Box Car Racer & The Transplants

After touring for the promotion of the widely successful Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, the band decided to take a break from the pop-punk world. During this time the members of the band took different paths, Mark passed more time with his newborn son Jack, but Tom and Travis had other ideas. while Tom and Travis were involved in a side-project called Box Car Racer , in addition to this, Travis worked on The Transplants. Both bands explored other musical styles.

One of the first side-projects involving the members of Blink-182 was Box Car Racer, in which Tom and Travis functioned as band members and songwriters. Tom wanted to create an acoustic-emo sort of project, while Travis wanted to create a hard-core punk band like Fugazi. Instead of creating two separate bands the friends decided to fuse the two ideas together to create Box Car Racer. The name of the band comes from the name of the airplane Bockscar, which dropped the second atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Japan. The first single of the self-titled album was "I Feel So", followed up by "There Is". The record included guest singers Tim Armstrong (Rancid, Operation Ivy, Transplants) on "Cat Like Thief" and Mark Hoppus (blink-182). However, according to recent interviews with Tom, Box Car Racer project caused much friction between him and Mark, which was one of the main reasons the band abruptly broke-up in 2005.

After Box Car Racer, Travis decided to do a second side-project known as The Transplants. This band started as Tim Armstrong (Rancid and Operation Ivy) and Skinhead Rob just messing around in Tim's basement recording studio. It did not take long to realize that their punk rock fusion with rap had something special, but they really wanted to seal the deal. Having already known Travis from Box Car Racer, Tim immediately asked Travis to assist in the side project. Soon the Transplants debuted their first CD entitled "Transplants" on Tim's record label Hellcat Records. The fist single of the album was "DJ DJ", followed up by the wildly successful "Diamonds and Guns". But their second single was soon banned from the airwaves due to explicit lyrics. Despite this fact, the song is now feature on the Garnier Fructis commercial. The Transplants are now a major punk-rock act and even toured on the Warped Tour.

During blink-182's time away, their fans grew impatient and searched for new punk-rock bands which they began to know and love. In come Sum 41, Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, Simple Plan, and many new emerging artists of the time.

Blink-182 - Untitled blink-182

After taking some time off in 2002, following the record tour, the band released their fifth blink-182 (album) on November 18, 2003. Described as a self-meditation on romantic decay, the album featured the hit singles "Feeling This" (previously named "Action"), "I Miss You", "Down", and the 1980s-influenced "Always". Travis Barker has confirmed that the band left the album untitled (rather than self-titled) to represent a new blink-182. It showcased a style of music deeper than anything blink-182 had done previously, but still got a good deal of play on pop stations and MTV. Critics have deemed their sound similar to that of The Police and U2, although members of the band claim they took most of their influence from The Cure, whose front man Robert Smith had appeared on "All of This". Listeners called the riffs heavier and the lyrics more profound. The lyrical content of their songs is often humorous and uplifting. A tour with No Doubt in the summer of 2004 was very successful. In many ways it also helped blink-182 break away from the common pop punk genre, dismissing predictable similarities that could be seen from band to band. blink-182 were now on a pedestal next to Green Day overlooking the genre they helped to create despite the album's lack of commercial success.

Blink-182 - Indefinite Hiatus

On February 22, 2005, the punk rock world was shocked when blink-182 announced an "indefinite hiatus". Fans were distraught and the announcement was soon removed from the band's official site. Rumors soon began to swirl about the band breaking up. The only band member to speak up right away was Travis, but he soon stated that he was not the only person in the band and there were two other people reporters could question. Fans soon began to say there was a fight that separated Tom and Mark. Kerrang! soon printed an article that confirmed worried fans' fears, but Tom denounced it on his "In-studio journal on MacBeth, and told no one to trust any article unless it came straight from the band members' mouths.

Blink-182 - Greatest Hits

In the wake of the hiatus, Geffen Records released blink-182's "Greatest Hits". From Cheshire Cat to the untitled album, the album chronologically holds the band, most famous, and most important songs in their career, including the two previously unreleased tracks "Not Now" (from the European version of the untitled album) and "Another Girl Another Planet" (a cover song originally by The Only Ones, recorded for its use as the theme song to reality show Meet the Barkers). The album immediately climbed to the top of the chart and reached #6 on the United States top selling records.

Blink-182 - The Second Wave of Side Projects: Plus 44 & Angels and Airwaves

Soon after blink-182's hiatus, Mark announced his new electronic-based side project Plus 44, whose band members included his Blink-182 band mate Travis Barker and Carol Heller of So-Cal punk band Get The Girl. He told reporters that it was and electronic-based project and is "way out there". For quite some time the Plus-44 official website displayed the message "Musical Masterpiece in progress, please be patient". But after six months the band posted the brand new song called "No It Isn't" for the website's visitors. Rumours swirled that the song was about Tom Delonge, due to the fact it was released on his birthday and the day he was supposed to reveal his project to the world. After a couple weeks, the website returned to normal and the site's designer gave hints that they were uploading a new song and picture on to he website, but sadly an error occurred.

Tom Delonge went into hiding after the "hiatus" of Blink-182 and did not speak to anyone for months. Rumours began to swirl that he was working on his "solo album". In early September, during an interview one of the Foo Fighters let information slip that Tom was busy working in their studio on something great. Later that month, Tom finally revealed Angels and Airwaves to the world. On December 21, 2005 Tom let all his fans in on his well-kept secret. On the first official MacBeth podcast he introduced fans to the band, Angels and Airwaves (A.K.A. - AVA (pronounced "Ay-Va" after Tom's daughter)). Other band members included David Kennedy (Hazen Street and Box Car Racer), Atom Willard (The Offspring, Rocket from the Crypt, American Hi-Fi, MOTH, The Special Goodness, and Alkaline Trio), and Ryan Sinn (The Distillers). He also gave the fans a little taste of the music and the trailer to the AVA movie, which is due out in autumn of 2006. In the January (2006) edition of Kerrang!, Tom revealed the song's titles and meanings. Angels and Airwaves' first concert is expected to be at the Give It A Name Festival in the UK on April 29th & 30th, 2006.

Also in 2005, Travis Barker's old side-project The Transplants returned with their sophomore album Haunted Cities, which was released on Travis Barker's La Salle Records. This album was a step up from their début and really showed their musical expertise. The first single of the album was "Gangsters and Thugs" which enjoyed massive air play and was frequently played on MTV. The Transplants reportedly broke up at the conclusion of the 2005 Warped Tour. Immediately after that Skinhead Rob from The Transplants and Paul Wall said that together with Travis are participating in a new project Expensive Taste.

Blink-182 - A Rift in the Band

Many credit the growing tensions between Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus as the reason for the "indefinite hiatus". In an interview with Kerrang! Tom discussed blink-182's hiatus. It was stated that the side project Box Car Racer created a rift between Tom and Mark. While on tour, Tom had an epiphany and knew he was destined to do something great in his life. At the end of their European tour in 2005, Tom wanted to return home to be with his family. Geffen Records immediately offered Tom a solo album, but he declined. Mark, reportedly, heard only half the story and became very upset. To retaliate he created Plus 44. Tom claimed that the last words said by his band mates were "If your family is going to be your priority, then you better be cool with the repercussions."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki