Blink-182 - Pop Punk - San Diego, CA
Just a few months ago, Blink 182 announced out of the blue that they were recording new songs for an EP to be released around Christmas time. As a longtime fan of the band, I was pleasantly surprised, but also anxious at the news. Their last album, "Neighborhoods," just didn’t do it for me, and I was really starting to think that my days of loving pop punk were forever gone. Fast forward to today, and I very well may be retracting that statement.
"Dogs Eating Dogs" isn’t perfect by any means, but it vastly benefits from the fact that Mark, Tom, and Travis all wrote the songs together—in the same room—something they didn’t do with "Neighborhoods". Every song on the EP has some sort of vocal collaboration between Mark and Tom, and even though it’s still a bit Tom-heavy, you really get a sense that everyone was working together. The vocal tradeoffs in “Boxing Day” are nearly perfect, and they’re enough to conjure up powerful nostalgia in even the most cynical of Blink fans.
For better or for worse, though, influences from all of the members' side projects (Angels and Airwaves, +44, Boxcar Racer, The Transplants, etc.) really dominate and characterize the tracks. There is, of course, an extended synth intro to the EP’s first track that has Tom written all over it. Additionally, the title track sounds a whole lot like “Lycanthrope” by +44. Perhaps the most controversial of these side project inclusions is the hip-hop verse in “Pretty Little Thing,” rapped by Yelawolf. Obviously, this sounds like an awful, out-of-place idea that would never fit in on a Blink record, and for the most part, I have to agree with this. Yes, it has grown on me after a few listens, but I still shouldn’t have to “get used to it” to enjoy its placement in the song.
It’s the choices like this Yelawolf inclusion that quickly turn many nostalgic Blink fans away from these new releases. If my best friend in 2004 told me that there would be a rap verse in a Blink song someday, I probably would have laughed in his face and told him to f*ck off. Yelawolf or no Yelawolf, though, I’m still willing to look past it because for the most part, these 5 songs are pretty good, even with the heavy influence of the side projects.
The music has certainly matured but there are still plenty of moments that recall the best moments of Blink-182’s past releases. If you don’t like the first crunchy punk chord of the verse in “When I Was Young,” which is SO perfectly reminiscent of the pop punk glory days of the 2000s, then you never really understood what Blink was about in the first place. As for the song’s content, the title speaks for itself. It’s something that everyone begging for another "Dude Ranch" or "Enema of the State" on the message boards needs to realize: the members of Blink 182 aren’t little kids anymore. They are all nearing their 40s, and do you really think it would be awesome if Tom was still singing about wieners and f*cking dogs in the ass? No. It wouldn’t be awesome. It would be weird, and Blink 182 would be the laughing stock of the music industry. These guys have grown up, and they have better things to talk about than dicks and high school. And if that’s still all you want to listen to, what does that say about you?
"Dogs Eating Dogs" is a great, pleasant release by Blink 182 that’s the perfect way to top off 2012. As a devout Blink fan before and after the hiatus, any new music from Mark, Tom, and Travis is a treat to me. Of course it’s not going to sound like it did when I was in high school, but I’ll take the new, mature Blink 182 music over a regressive, derivative Blink 182 any day of the week.
Preview and buy the "Dogs Eating Dogs" here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dogs-eating-dogs-ep/id586491886
Bands website:
http://blink-182.com/
By: Max Puhala
"Dogs Eating Dogs" isn’t perfect by any means, but it vastly benefits from the fact that Mark, Tom, and Travis all wrote the songs together—in the same room—something they didn’t do with "Neighborhoods". Every song on the EP has some sort of vocal collaboration between Mark and Tom, and even though it’s still a bit Tom-heavy, you really get a sense that everyone was working together. The vocal tradeoffs in “Boxing Day” are nearly perfect, and they’re enough to conjure up powerful nostalgia in even the most cynical of Blink fans.
For better or for worse, though, influences from all of the members' side projects (Angels and Airwaves, +44, Boxcar Racer, The Transplants, etc.) really dominate and characterize the tracks. There is, of course, an extended synth intro to the EP’s first track that has Tom written all over it. Additionally, the title track sounds a whole lot like “Lycanthrope” by +44. Perhaps the most controversial of these side project inclusions is the hip-hop verse in “Pretty Little Thing,” rapped by Yelawolf. Obviously, this sounds like an awful, out-of-place idea that would never fit in on a Blink record, and for the most part, I have to agree with this. Yes, it has grown on me after a few listens, but I still shouldn’t have to “get used to it” to enjoy its placement in the song.
It’s the choices like this Yelawolf inclusion that quickly turn many nostalgic Blink fans away from these new releases. If my best friend in 2004 told me that there would be a rap verse in a Blink song someday, I probably would have laughed in his face and told him to f*ck off. Yelawolf or no Yelawolf, though, I’m still willing to look past it because for the most part, these 5 songs are pretty good, even with the heavy influence of the side projects.
The music has certainly matured but there are still plenty of moments that recall the best moments of Blink-182’s past releases. If you don’t like the first crunchy punk chord of the verse in “When I Was Young,” which is SO perfectly reminiscent of the pop punk glory days of the 2000s, then you never really understood what Blink was about in the first place. As for the song’s content, the title speaks for itself. It’s something that everyone begging for another "Dude Ranch" or "Enema of the State" on the message boards needs to realize: the members of Blink 182 aren’t little kids anymore. They are all nearing their 40s, and do you really think it would be awesome if Tom was still singing about wieners and f*cking dogs in the ass? No. It wouldn’t be awesome. It would be weird, and Blink 182 would be the laughing stock of the music industry. These guys have grown up, and they have better things to talk about than dicks and high school. And if that’s still all you want to listen to, what does that say about you?
"Dogs Eating Dogs" is a great, pleasant release by Blink 182 that’s the perfect way to top off 2012. As a devout Blink fan before and after the hiatus, any new music from Mark, Tom, and Travis is a treat to me. Of course it’s not going to sound like it did when I was in high school, but I’ll take the new, mature Blink 182 music over a regressive, derivative Blink 182 any day of the week.
Preview and buy the "Dogs Eating Dogs" here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dogs-eating-dogs-ep/id586491886
Bands website:
http://blink-182.com/
By: Max Puhala