Ducking For Cover

Want to clarify something I said in the last post that garnered some comments:

I don't believe that Blink 182 is my generation's The Police in terms of their talent or quality of music. Naturally The Police are a significantly better band. I meant that it seemed like the careers of Blink and The Police are strikingly similar. Both bands exploded rather unexpectedly and developed a rabid fan base. Over the course of their respective tenures, both bands grew and reached out in directions that listeners didn't expect, culminating in records that totally changed the way in which people viewed the band (Synchronicity and Blink 182). Both bands then came undone in a very public manner resulting in a seemingly irreconcilable breakup. The biggest difference is that Sting was actually able to have a successful career without The Police, while +44 and AvA demonstrated that Blink was only as good as the sum of its parts.

Hope that clears it up. I don't know what (if any) band matches The Police's success and talent in my generation. Part of what made The Police so huge was their worldwide appeal. I don't think any band has acheived that AND had the raw talent to back it up. *Nsync, maybe (with Timberlake in the role of Sting), but the comparison is still very flawed. That gives you a sense of what I was trying to say though.

This week is looking like review week here at VLM. In the next few days you'll get reviews of new albums by:

Guns N Roses (expect this one in the next few hours)
Kanye West
Scott Weiland
Britney Spears
and perhaps a surprise or two if the Gods of Music and Blogging deem it so.

[tangent: Is there a God of Blogging? If so, think he's got a blog? I feel like that blog would be like the ultimate LiveJournal, where said God just rants and raves about all the crazed keyboard-wielding lunatics and the ideas they insist on making public. /tangent]

==TJ==

Blink 182 'Reconnecting'; Reunion Speculation Heats Up

Just a few short months after Travis Barker was nearly killed in a tremendous plane crash that killed 4 people, he and the other members of Blink 182 are apparently back on speaking terms for the first time in four years. According to a blog post written by former Blink bassist (now with +44) Mark Hoppus, the punk trio that sold nearly 12.7 million albums between the mid-90s and their split in 2004 have met face to face and communicated with each other for the first time since their well-publicized breakup. The blog post reads:

in the midst of everything else that has happened lately, tom, travis, and i have all spoken together. first through a number of phone calls, and then a couple of weeks ago we all hung out for a few hours. they’ve all been great, very positive conversations. we’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. it’s a good thing. obviously the first question for a lot of people will be “does this mean a blink-182 reunion?” the answer is none of us know. we haven’t talked about it at all. right now it’s just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect, and let the past be the past. the events of the past two months supersede everything that happened before. life is too short.

That pretty much poses and answers every question on the minds of Blink fans everywhere. While I'm glad to see the band is talking again, too many things need to happen before a reunion can take place. +44 and Angels and Airwaves (Tom DeLonge's band) are both still under contract for at least one more album, which means that little actual work can get done with Blink until those contracts are up. Travis Barker is also still recovering from injuries in that plane crash, so that's slowing things down too. All in all I think it'll be at least a year and a half before any talk of a Blink 182 reunion can be taken seriously.

Blink 182 are sort of the Police of my generation. Both had wild success during their time, leading to dissent amongst the band and a messy, very public breakup in which the members of the band stopped talking to each other for some time. It took 23 years before The Police could get back together for a tour. I'd be amazed if Blink 182 got back together after just 4 years away and did anything near what they were up to when they split. So while I want to see another Blink record in the near future, I also hope it's not too soon.

Blink 182 - The Rock Show [iTunes]

==TJ==

[Hype Machine Readers should Bookmark Me (Ctrl + D)]

Blink 182 Drummer Critical After Plane Crash

Charts coming in an hour or so...this story taking priority right now.

Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink 182 and its offshoot band +44 was in a plane crash late Friday night and is apparently listed in critical condition with severe burns. Barker and DJ AM had just wrapped up a show at the University of South Carolina when their plane went off the runway in a takeoff attempt. The plane's pilot, co-pilot and two of Barker's associates were all killed in the crash. Little other information is available about Barker or DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein)'s condition, but if something else comes out I'll post it here.

Keep the Barker and Goldstein families in your thoughts.

4 killed, 2 hurt as rock star's jet crashes [MSNBC]

Blink 182 - All The Small Things [iTunes]

VLM Makes A Triumphant Return!!

OK everybody, I'm back! The month off was pretty awesome, but let's just dive in to the music!

-The Foo is back! The Foo Fighters have set September 25th as the release date for their new album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. A tentative tracklisting is on their myspace page, and early last week the first single "The Pretender" leaked onto the internet. The song isn't quite as good as "The Best of You", but as a sign of what's to come on the new album, I'll take it. In addition, the Foo Fighters have released a 10th anniversary edition of The Colour and the Shape with new bonus tracks. Normally this would suck and reek of corporate underpinnings, but since the bonus tracks are decent and they don't jack the price of the album up, it marks another classy move by the always awesome Dave Grohl.

Ruling on the Field: 6.5/10

Foo Fighters - The Pretender [via sendspace]

-Joining in on the fun is Jimmy Eat World, who slated October 16th as the release for Chase This Light, and also re-released Clarity and Static Prevails in anticipation. No single out yet, but look for one in the next few weeks.

Ruling on the Field: I want a single, dammit!

-A very large (and probably long overdue) "F--k you!" goes out to Chad Kroeger and the guys from Nickelback. The commercially angsty Canucks just reissued their 2005 smash All the Right Reasons with three pointless live tracks and a DVD of music videos. Since I'm pretty sure everyone who's going to buy All the Right Reasons already did so, this move just marks a cheap marketing ploy to scrounge another 30 bucks out of Nickelback's "hardcore" fans. Real smooth, guys...real smooth.

Ruling on the Field: Fuck you, Nickelback!!

-I Ruckused Sum 41's controversial new album Underclass Hero shortly after coming home, and damn it if it isn't a throwback to what punk rock is SUPPOSED to sound like! The title track is a ballbuster of the highest caliber, and nothing on the album is inherently bad, it just tends to lean into territory already walked by the likes of Blink 182. Regardless, Sum 41 comes through again with what might be the most underrated punk album of the year.

Ruling on the field: 7.5/10
Highlight Reel: "Underclass Hero", "Speak of the Devil", "March of the Dogs"

-My list of CDs I need to hear has expanded, now including Who We Are from Lifehouse (tentative ruling based on what I have heard: 8.5/10), Smashing Pumpkins' new album Zeitgeist, and the new one from Velvet Revolver. More on those when I sit down and hear them in full.

-Linkin Park released the video for their second single off Minutes to Midnight, "Bleed it Out". Love the camera work and the song's awesome, but didn't Coldplay already trademark the whole everything-in-reverse idea?



OK that's all. Back later

==TJ==