blink-182 Band • Page 1513

Oh! And Mark’s parents were sitting just a couple rows behind me. I saw Skye a couple times too. Fun night!

 

Again my memory of that time was just thinking Tom was a weirdo and he's hyping his new music. I don't really remember what the response from Blink fans was for AvA but I know I personally was very satisfied.

It's also worth mentioning that both AvA and +44 came out at a time when the dynamics of modern mainstream music was dramatically changing. The success each band had was probably the absolute best case scenario for the moment. I mean you could probably count on one hand the number of rock bands that broke into the mainstream after 2006/2007 that had the level of success of anyone pre-2006/2007.

AvA went gold in the thick of the piracy revolution: Neither band had a “Blink-level” crossover, but they achieved real commercial success at a time when rock bands were struggling to break through. With that, I wouldn't say AvA (or +44) underdelivered.

 

I was like 16 when WDNTW came out listening to Valkeryire Missile for the forst time definitely changed my life. Tom overdelivered imo.

 

I was such a casual fan back then that I remember The Adventure being played on the radio for the first time and thinking “oh wow blink is back together?” only to be let down.

 

Tom DeLonge Announces Angels and Airwaves

This talk made me go find and bring back (typos and all) the first post he made on AP about this.

 

Good lord that is tough to read. Different times I suppose.

 

Up to that point in Delonge's career, this is accurate. In my opinion.

This is obviously ridiculous, but I'm sure there are some AvA superfans out there who agree with this.

Again, up to that point, this is accurate.

I cannot confirm this.

There is nothing in that statement that doesn't just sound like a weird dude being very excited about his new music. If anyone was actually expecting the best album of the prior 20 years, then I can't help you.

 

Yeah gonna say none of the things there called “accurate” are accurate.

 

The Macbeth post in the link takes the biscuit in ridiculousness in talking about a rock n roll revolution. But agree Tom just sounds excited.

 

Not even close.

 

I stayed up till midnight to download whisper on itunes, and did my first run set to a new release on empire. I’ll never forget those moments. Hit me at the right time.

today i think empire is the best album to represent the ava sound, whisper is a little boring, but the adventure lives in my top 5 songs of all time. my groomsmen walked out to the intro \m/ and i ripped a couple angels songs in the dusty drum set at the church to shake out the nervous energy morning of.

 

Imagine actually believing any of those things Tom said. Expectations are dangerous especially when they are set forth by the people creating art. I've never let that control the narrative.

It was amazing listening to get hurt for the first time thinking wow this is a really good album and then coming to learn how hated it was, only because of the expectations set forth. I kind of treat them like politicians where of course they're going to Hype themselves up to a degree that is not going to be based in reality.

 

Tom always said crazy shit in interviews, I think part of the blame is on us and the press for believing him this time.

AVA hit me at the right time too, I have a lot of love for the first two albums.

 

I’m just glad we made it through all of that. From the first break up through to OMT reunion. Such a wild time to look back on and such a musical output devoid of color and emotion.

 

Mark's book debuted at No 3 in the UK general hardbacks with 3.5k copies sold.

 

I am one of those 3.5k. You're welcome Mark

 

I think WDNTW & I-Empire are fine records, and I enjoyed them too, but I can’t help to think what some of those songs would have sounded like under a blink treatment for that time, which would have included Jerry.

The ones that were around at least, like The Adventure or Do It For Me Now, would have turned out 1,000x better in my opinion.

Travis, Mark, & Jerry had a knack for taking Tom’s ideas & making them great, and I think that was missing in AVA. Again, that’s totally fine & I don’t think Tom has any obligation to just stick with blink, but it definitely shows when you stand up his entire discography against each other.

I think Boxcar Racer & Untitled are infinitely better records than anything AVA has put out. He gets close in Lifeforms, but again, it was only after he mixed things up in the band & then handed things over to Rubin.

 

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.

 

Lifeforms is up there with Untitled as his best work

 

Lifeforms is maybe the only AVA album I can sit through front to back these days.

Untitled and Box Car Racer are still my 2 favorite Tom releases though. He was cookin with gassss in those couple years.

 

Lifeforms is great, but does not belong in the same conversation as Untitled at all.

I'm a big AVA fan too. I think if you remove both those Love albums from existence their discography is pretty solid.

 

I liked the first two AVA albums but then fell off hard. Are the remaining ones worth checking out or it is just Tom dicking around with his delay pedal?

 

Lifeforms is, imo, the best one.

 

Easily.

Still, doesn’t hold a candle to any of Blink’s records, and I’m even including California and Nine in that.

 

BTW, listened to California for the first time in a while this weekend. Some really good stuff on there and also, hilariously, forgot there were dad-rock like ballad-y stuff too.