Mrk_Brdshw's Recent Activity
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Mrk_Brdshw replied to the thread Band blink-182.
Exactly how I feel. I've even heard Aaron Rubin articulate all of this before so I felt validated, but a lot of AvA is just Tom doing the same few things he did in blink but dressing it up with a few bells and whistles. If you take some blink music, lower the tempo, swap the distortion for delay, then repeat things ad nauseam so the songs have 7-minute run times... boom, Angels and Airwaves. Same chord progressions and melodic tendencies but different speed and sound design. But the unfortunate thing, like you mentioned, is that without someone guiding him, he just freely indulged in the same (few) patterns. So his songwriting had less variety than it ever had ("creative rut" was an accurate way to describe that) despite him and his fans insisting he was on this creative breakthrough. That's why he didn't just suddenly snap back to "blink mode" with Neighborhoods - even though he had really not done anything that technically different from blink while in AvA, his songwriting had devolved so much that it still just felt off. And having no producer and a lack of collaboration with Mark and Travis allowed it to stay that way. Echoing what everyone else has said, I can only really listen to the Rubin-involved AvA records anymore.
Apr 21, 2025 at 10:06 AM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked Crisp X's post in the thread Band blink-182.
There's just so much meandering in most of AVA's material, made even worse by Tom constantly going for like, at most, the same three or four chord progressions, patterns and melodies he had in his arsenal. There's an alternate universe where someone would've stepped in anytime he was writing and suddenly coming up with something a tad too familiar... ...and I guess I finally got my wish when he met Ilan and Aaron Rubin, who pushed him out of his comfort zone. The last two records are genuinely the only AVA records I can listen to front to back because he fixed what were big issues for me all along. I'm glad he found creative partners in them. I do want to say there's nothing bad with having a signature style. It just felt like he was stuck in a creative rut for so long, and it seeped in through his material during the first Blink reunion here and there as well.
Apr 21, 2025 at 9:02 AM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked Jason Tate's post in the thread Band blink-182.
Yeah gonna say none of the things there called “accurate” are accurate.
Apr 20, 2025 at 12:40 PM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked Ben Lee's post in the thread Band blink-182.
He did over promise & under deliver though. It would be one thing if he was like “I’m really excited about it. It’s a new territory for me & I think it’s really good.” Instead he claimed that the music was going to change the world, that nobody had ever done this before, that this was bigger than blink, that this would be the biggest thing to happen to rock music since U2. & then it was just what he always did with reverb, delay, digital elements, and different lyrical themes. He even says so in his interview with Toby. & I love that record. I loved it when it came out, but even then at 18 years old I was like “well this isnt what he said it was.”
Apr 19, 2025 at 7:10 PM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked cj's post in the thread TV Show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXX).
[MEDIA]
Apr 19, 2025 at 4:39 PM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked bradsonemanband's post in the thread Band blink-182.
Just because…
Apr 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
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Mrk_Brdshw liked FrenzalRob's post in the thread Band blink-182.
I think even Tom would be grounded enough now to say the early AVA days were definitely a case of overpromise/underdeliver. He was a 30 year old dude trying to reinvent himself not only personally, but to the outside world as well. Add in the pressure of coming off of blink's Untitled era, plus his back problems. I know he says the pills made him say stupid shit, but I think his ego and need to prove was the main driver there...the pills certainly wouldn't have helped though. During the first blink reunion, he was always posting about AVA, making sure fans knew that band was still active, working, doing shit. During that time, blink was his secondary band, not Angels. Now, he acknowledges that AVA was built at a time in his life when he was looking for light in a shitstorm. He said so in Zane's interview, and on Toby's podcast the other week he even said he's not sure when/if we'll get new Angels music/a tour. Obviously it sucks if Mark is outwardly mean towards Tom/Angels, but I don't think that's the intention, and even 2025 Tom would acknowledge how in the clouds he was during those hard times, letting ego and the breakdowns in his personal life get in the way.
Apr 18, 2025 at 5:39 PM -
Mrk_Brdshw replied to the thread Band blink-182.
(Sorry, I know replying to you defeats the purpose of the spoiler haha) I think maybe Nine, the collabs, Simple Creatures, etc. were just sort of too recent for him to really reflect back on with much significance yet. It also got quickly overshadowed by COVID and his diagnosis as well. Even though these guys have shared plenty and been open and vulnerable, there are still a few things that I'd like to hear about that I doubt they'll ever see a point in discussing. Number one is what was going on with blink before Mark's diagnosis. Matt seemed to be completely out of the loop with the band and seemed to indicate that a whole album was complete, but then Mark said "We haven't even started on the new blink record yet", completely denying said album's existence lol.
Apr 18, 2025 at 9:13 AM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked bradsonemanband's post in the thread Band blink-182.
Seeing our friend Mark in like 12 hours
Apr 18, 2025 at 8:51 AM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked TheJMan's post in the thread Band blink-182.
I just think it’s funny @bradsonemanband has been taking 35 minutes lunch breaks and getting away with it. So punk rock!
Apr 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked FrenzalRob's post in the thread Band blink-182.
I'm annoyed Mark didn't include the moment that I got a photo with him in a tiny pub here in Melbourne in his book. Really thought it was integral to his story.
Apr 17, 2025 at 8:01 AM -
Mrk_Brdshw liked artofjosephshelton's post in the thread Band blink-182.
Exact same for me. I remember my mom buying the Dude Ranch and Cheshire/Buddha cd's for my birthday, and I'd sneak into her room everyday to sit and dissect the artwork through the cellophane and imagine what each song would sound like. haha! Man I miss those days...
Apr 16, 2025 -
Mrk_Brdshw liked slimfenix182's post in the thread Band blink-182.
I'm taking the good songs on Cheshire Cat over the entirety of Neighborhoods 10 out of 10 times
Apr 16, 2025