blink-182 Band • Page 1509

after only hearing about the original video for so long, it's pretty amazing to finally see clear footage of its existence!

 

Finished Mark's book last night so now I can finally go back through the thread and read all your thoughts on it. The second half from Cali/Nine to Coachella felt like it was breezed over pretty quickly but I still enjoyed it.

 

I haven’t read the book yet but does Mark discuss how they turned Can’t Go Back into one of the best Blink tracks ever?

 

No.

 

Why’d he even write a book then

 

Well, he can’t go back.

 

Halfway through the book. Pleasant enough, very easy read. Kinda like diet soda so far

 

Just finished, as everyone said easy read. Up until the breakup stuff most stories were familiar from past interviews or the other books on band. Still fun.

What surprised me:
- How much guitar Mark has written. Dammit and What’s My Age Again are Mark’s riffs. Who knew

- the book almost does a better job of explaining Tom then it does Mark. Makes you appreciate and understand a bit of his drive to do things

- mark’s mom funding Tom’s guitar and going to shows laughing when Tom is making your mom jokes to mark. I mean cmon, what a hero she is.

- no matter how many places I read the story about first night they met writing carousel it will always make me go “wtf that’s crazy”. Talk about destiny when the first night you meet you write a song that you’d be performing in arenas and stadiums 30 years later.

 

Worst part of the book is every time Mark says Cheshire Cat is bad

 

Peggy Sue, Touchdown Boy and Toast And Bananas are gems that I fucking love.

 

Would have liked more from the skiba era and gotten into writing one more time but I learned a lot I didn’t know from the early days.

 

Every other chapter is him talking trash on Cheshire Cat.

 

I'd love an EP of "2025" versions of songs from Cheshire Cat/Buddha.

Record it in 2 weeks, release it with a pre-order bundle on Modlife, and have Yelawolf rap on the bridge of 21 Days.

Cats Eating Cats.

 

He is very much a guitarist too, didn’t he write all of the music for +44?

 

anyone ever read that blink bio written by Jeff Shooman? came out in 2010, but it's out of print now. the interesting thing about that one is it features lengthy interviews with Scott.

here are some links to the PDF for anyone interested/wanting more blink material.

 

Wasting Time and Carousel too. Come on, Mark!

 

I was surprised how vitriolic the book got about the Tom stuff. I loved the book but if I had to criticise anything it would be a lack of discussion about Mark's own behavior which led to the break up. It felt slightly one-sided (would a 12 month break for the band have been that detrimental in hindsight?)

 

I don’t think it was talked about in the book but based on other interviews given by Mark and Travis about the first break up, Tom was also very demanding only wanted to do things his way or he wouldn’t do it. He wanted to record separately and email the files to the guys (what they ended up doing with Neighborhoods). From Travis and Mark’s point of view after the 2004 tour he would have a few months off before they got back into the studio and they thought that was fair enough. There were also emails Mark was receiving about Tom doing a solo project too that wasn’t mentioned in the book too.

I do think Tom was checked out at the thought and it was only a matter of time he quit the band even if they gave into his demands of a year off and recording separately. It’s interesting that he wanted a year off but once he quit blink he jumped right into recording AVA stuff.

 

Tom owns up to that behavior these days though. On Toby’s podcast he talked a lot about how his ego got in the way of things and how he didn’t know how to work through that type of stuff back then.

 

It's not even that crazy a thing to happen looking back. There must have been so much pressure and demand on those 3 dudes and it just amplifies and everything is under the microscope. I'm not even sure you could attribute the 'blame' to any one member.

Your whole life and identity is tied to one band, it's easy to see why a young guy would get jaded quickly. With maturity Tom knows he belongs in Blink but I can see why it happened.

 

I finished last night. I've seen that criticism a lot I think the only reason it didn't bug me is that it's a Mark hoppus memoir, not a blink biography. The biggest thing in his life at that time was his cancer and he spent a lot of time on that.

The part that got me was how he said his memory was absolutely fucked after chemo. That he wrote a 400 page memoir is that much more impressive.

 

I'm taking the good songs on Cheshire Cat over the entirety of Neighborhoods 10 out of 10 times

 

I wonder what a casual Blink fan would think of Mark's book. So many of the stories and inner band drama are things that WE have heard many times for years and years, so there wasn't a lot of new stuff in there. So yeah, I wonder if a casual fan is getting a shit of new info out of it and it's blowing their minds.

 

no question.

 

I’m sorry but I’m definitely a Neighborhoods > Cheshire Cat guy