November 18, 2024 • 55 mins
In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy discuss the self-titled 2002 album from Box Car Racer. Find out more about what led Tom DeLonge to embark on a solo project after Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, how Travis Barker got involved but Mark Hoppus was excluded, and how Box Car Racer paved the way for the best of blink-182 on this week's podcast.
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See you next week for another episode of CHP.
Sick of hearing all the ads? Subscribe to Soda Premium on Apple Podcasts to get rid of them!Follow @ColumbiaHP on X!
While you're there say hello to @BlakeMurphyODC and @JGoldsbie.If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: http://bit.ly/chpmerchOr reach out to the show and say hey: podcast@columbiahouseparty.com
If you enjoyed today’s show, please rate Columbia House Party 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.
See you next week for another episode of CHP.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Sometimes I wish it was brave. I wish I was stronger.
I wish I could feel no pain. I wish it
was young, I wish it was shy, wish it was
another episode Columbia House Party, Jake, what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Are you disappointed that I could find no way to
rhyme Columbia House Party with any of those lyrics?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
A little bit? But you know what, Tom didn't work
that hard either, so I feel I also.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Thought about uh singing them in the Skilo tone of
I wish it was a little bit taller. You know,
let's just be honest. It's really hard to do an
intro lyric with this format without falling into the Tom voice.
And I don't want to do that to people. I
don't the people deserve better than me trying to do
(01:07):
the Tom voice.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I think that's fair. You know what, everyone has a
Tom voice impression, and we've all heard him at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I think, yeah, it's like Christopher Walkin.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Exactly like Christopher walking.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's like the entrance exam to go to an acting classes.
Can you do it? Christopher Walkin? Okay, you can. You
can come in. That's a that's it. That's all Kramer
runs his kids.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Can Chris Walking and Tom DeLong.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah. Tom Delong's a vocal warm up though. It's like
the lemon face lion face. But you're doing where are you?
And I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for this off
the rails.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
If he doesn't TV episode.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, this is the this is the way to break through, Jake.
Today we're discussing a two thousand and two side project
that was in retrospect the beginning of the best version
of Blink onwent eighty two and the beginning of the
end of Blink one eighty two. It's the first Blinks project,
one too dark in moody for what Blink was at
the time, and one that, while not elite on its own,
(02:06):
holds up well alongside Blink's self titled if you're tracking
the entire history of the band and their artistic growth.
Today we're talking about the lone album from Boxcar Racer.
Boxcar Racer.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sometimes I wish I was brave, I wish I was stronger,
I wish I could feel no pain. I wish I
was long, I wish I was shy.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I wish I was honest, which I was not.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Because I blow.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Dale Show Dale Show Counts, John Tim Dale shows, John Day.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Lets start up that start up Dal.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Joe Dale, jow Dale, Us John Jail, John Dale, Jos
John's Day.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's start up, that start up, that's start of.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Of course, is I Feel So, which is one of
the two or three box Car songs every Blank fan
remembers and probably occasionally forgets, whether it's a Blink song
or a Boxcar song. Jake, I know you have some
hot takes about box Car, and you know, I think
this might end up being a little bit of a
shorter episode through the meat of it because some of
(04:06):
these topics came up last week when we talked about
the Blink untitled, because again we're we're kind of doing
these out of order, and box Car came in between
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and the untitled. But
you have some thoughts on box Car Racer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Do you not? I do?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Box Car at least when it came out kind of
came in a weird spot for me as a Blink
fan in that like I was into it, and I
was into sort of like a darker take on Blink.
But it's a record that just never stuck with me,
even like when it came out, like I remember seeing
the video where I feel so and being like, that's
(04:42):
kind of a cool song. And then I bought the
CD and I listened to it, and then I just
kind of put it away. And that's kind of been
my attitude towards box Car forever, in that every now
and then I'll go back to it, being like, maybe
it's time to give box Car another go, maybe I'll
like it this time, and and I just kind of
forget about it immediately, except for one song, which I
(05:03):
think sounds like a Blink song, But we'll talk with.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That in a bit. Oh, we're going to talk about
songs that sound like that fall into the vague, which
Blink or Blink side project?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
This is?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That's I got a little sub dispecial for you at
the end.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh that's what this is, okay. I saw that in
the run sheet.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was curious, Yes, the mystery clips parentheses, Dylan has
these separately. That's that's going to come at the end
of the episode. Until then, you know, there's not a
lot for me here beyond. I was a huge Blink fan.
I liked this album when it came out. I was
very worried at the time that it would mean that
it meant Blink was breaking up, which eventually yes, but
(05:40):
we got a couple more albums out of them. I
was also a little confused at the time because, like
I was in high school and the idea of two
thirds of a band breaking off to do a side
project that also included a feature from the third person
in the band. I didn't really understand why this wasn't
just a Blink one eighty two album. We are, of
course going to talk about all that, not a yeah.
(06:00):
I mean, I don't have a ton of connection to
it from the time, Like I distinctly remember listening to
it with my friend Charlie, who I've mentioned on the
podcast before, back in the region. You know, we would
have been in his dad's office, probably on some bean
bag chairs, listening to this and for whatever reason, you
remember these weird things. Charlie's favorite song off this album
(06:21):
was cat Like Thief. I don't know why I remember that.
I vaguely remember it in an MSN status, But there
you go. That's I don't stay in touch with Charlie
all that much, other than we have an annual Christmas
tradition of messaging each other or calling each other on
Christmas every year. We've been friends since we were like
five years old, and I wish that we were still
a little closer because there are a lot of this
(06:45):
era of music connections that bring up Charlie memory. So
shout out to Charlie out on the East Coast. Yeah, anyway,
that's my big box card connection is my friend Charlie
being back from overseas and listening to it with him
and not understanding why it wasn't just a Blink album
since Mark, Tom and Travis were all on there somewhere.
And of course, not to give too much away before
(07:07):
the break here, but we will as always be talking
about nine to eleven. Of course after this, all right, Jake,
(07:29):
would it really be a Columbia house party staple and
a Columbia house party arc if there wasn't some attachment
to nine to eleven?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Does seem to come up a lot?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I guess when you're talking about music in the early
two thousands, Yeah, fair enough, kind of a relevant cultural moment,
or not cultural moment, just an everything moment. So if
you were Blink one eighty two, you were about to
tour Europe and nine to eleven happened. Obviously, that tragedy
changed a lot of things about how the world was operating,
(08:00):
and especially things like travel and whether it made sense
safety wise and feasibility to tour. So Blink calls off
their European tour. They call off another tour because of
Tom's persistent back issues, which were based around a herniated
disc where at certain times he couldn't stand for more
than like one song at a time without needing to
(08:21):
sit down, and he was in a lot of pain.
So during the recording of Take Off Your Pants a Jacket,
which we discussed in detail back on episode sixteen, Tom
would mess around with a lot of acoustic stuff. At
that time, he felt very trapped by Blink's sound. As
he told music Radar, I was getting kind of bummed
out in the studio. It's probably my fault because I
never said but I just wanted to get in there
(08:43):
and try things out. But you feel like you can't
because the band is paying for studio time. It's almost
like you have a canvas and all of these paints,
but somebody says, no, don't touch those now, We've just
got to get the blue on the canvas, And you say,
but there's red, No get the Blue done. Maybe they'll
be time for Red later. And with box Car, I
just wanted to do that. So this is uh box Car,
(09:06):
I guess is Tom's red album, whereas Take Off Your
Pants and Jacket is Tom's blue album.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I think I definitely enjoy listening to Tom talk
about his music than I enjoy listening to Tom's music.
But I do think that I he does seem like clearly,
he seems like he's very clearly a guy with bigger
ideas than perhaps his career to this point had allowed
him to pursue. Like he's clearly a big thinker for
(09:36):
better or worse or just better. He's clearly a.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Guy that better.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, And he's clear on a guy who's like comfortable
sitting still, so to speak, which is fine and more.
Incredibly successful musicians who got successful doing one thing should
think like that. In my opinion, even if I don't
always like the result, I respect his sort of desire
(10:01):
and his especially at this point in like the Blink fandom,
like they were as big as they'd ever been at
this point. Then to be like, I'm not satisfied with this,
I want to do something else, like I don't like.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Credit to them. Yeah, I mean, neither of us can
relate to doing that in the middle of at certain
points in what looked like potentially successful careers.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Right Oh, successful on my end would have been one.
But I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, you know, all right? So Tom continued. I went
into Boxcar Racer thinking I could do whatever I wanted,
and I was going to do a completely different thing
using delay pedals, giant heavy guitar riffs, loops. That changed
me dramatically the first of those experimental rifts, and we're
going to structure the song clips on this one a
(10:47):
little differently just because there is no I mean, there
is a pre to this, but it's just Blink one
A two, and you're quite familiar with them. So the
first of these experimental riffs that really got kind of
crystallized was on All Systems Go, which Tom thought sounded
like quicksand a melodic hardcore band. You could judge for yourself.
This is All Systems Go.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's those night Shot stay shop.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Now, Jake, are you a quick sand guy at all?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I am not. I don't have any opinion on them
either way. I'm not saying I dislike them. I have
no opinion on that band. I do have opinions on
Tom's talking about this being a post hardcore record though.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yes, so let's pocket that just for a sec because
I want to I want to talk about it in
a little more detail once we get into the meat
of the album. So despite that framing that, you know
Tom is wanting to make all these experiments and change
and you know shout out bands like quicksand Tom being
(12:57):
the face of this and Travis Barker only joining late
because Tom didn't want to pay for a studio session drummer.
It was actually Travis Barker who pushed Tom toward this sound.
As Travis told GQ, it was weird because at the
time I was listening to Stanford Prison Experiment, Pitchfork, quicksand Figazi,
all these bands, and Tom was like, what the fuck
is Quicksand he heard it and fell in love and
(13:20):
really dived right into that whole post hardcore genre. We
started writing and had no idea what it was going
to be for I think we were both under the
impression in the beginning that it was going to be
a Blink album. Then it was like, no, let's do
this cool little side project, but we won't put an
album out. Then the label heard it and they wanted
to put it out. So from there they added David Kennedy,
who is from the straight edge hardcore band Over My
(13:43):
Dead Body, and then went on to be an Angels
and Narrowaves with Tom DeLong. Tom was still in control
of material for the most part. He determined the key
and the lyrics, and then Barker worked on the arrangements.
Beyond that, this is kind of where you start to
see the seeds of Travis growing beyond just being an
elite drummer and also being this kind of producer and
mixer and experimenter in the lab and pushing the artists
(14:06):
that he worked with in really cool ways. So, you know,
DeLong said the album was to challenge myself to do
different shit, But he also told Billboard, I knew that
we needed to have a transformational album, and I wasn't
totally sure what that was just yet, So I wanted
to do something on the side and completely get rid
of the standard protocol of how we wrote songs and
(14:26):
how we recorded. So this is again, you know, going
back to being a little dissatisfied during the take Off
your Pants jacket process and Tom wanting to not only
do something different, but you know, to hear him tell
it in retrospect. There was a conscious effort that Boxcar
Racer was going to be something of a transition that
helped Blink one eighty two. We're going to talk about
(14:48):
after we get into the album, how hey you maybe
want to would have wanted to loop Mark in on
that so that things were a little smoother. The band name,
by the way, was actually band Barker was in after
high school, so way back when, and Tom DeLong just
liked the band name, so they kept that. So they
recorded this over about six weeks with Jerry Finn, who
(15:11):
Blink had worked with on anima of the State, take
Off Your Pants and Jacket, and would eventually work with
on the untitled as well. Jerry Finn, of course, has
also worked without Glenn Trio and AFI and Green Day
and just about everyone else. And we talked a little
bit last week's episode talking about the untitled album just
how kind of incredible it is that Jerry was along
for that growth with them from Enema through to box
(15:34):
Car and the self titled. So Jerry Finn's influence or
at least His guiding hand is noticeable on here as
it is untitled. Despite having Tom and Travis and Jerry
Finn and what they thought was a good album, the
album received almost no promotional push. Was released on MCA
(15:55):
in May of two thousand and two. Tom has claimed
lou it's loosely a con album about the end of
the world, which, sure, I don't know if I hear that. Sure, yeah,
we played I Feel So off the top. First of all,
I think it's a terrific opener and gives you know,
it really sets the It's a tone setter, especially if
(16:15):
you are if you are listening to things through a
blink lens, going from take off your pantsy jacket to
box car before you go to untitled. I Feel So
gets you off kind of on the right foot, and
I think has that kind of iconic opening to it.
It also had different lyrics originally, as Tom shared on
Instagram in twenty twenty, he had them written out and
there was a bunch of things scratched out, like the
(16:36):
world seems broken anyway, So there could have been alternate
lyrics that were more or less the same but got
tweaked a little bit. So I Feel So came out
as the first single. The Long co directed the music video,
and it would remain their highest charting single at number eight,
But it was the second single that I think is
(16:57):
the most interesting song on this album in terms of
bridging from take Off Your Pants to Jacket to untitled
and that song is there Is. It would peak at
number thirty two and had a video that was kind
of based on the film Say Anything, but much more notably,
this is I think kind of the emo song on
the album. There is.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
This stacations useless, these why bills are kind.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I've given a lot of thought on this starty hour drive.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
I missed the grind in concrete where are we sat
pastain or not? And it sloly finish, lapping in the
glow of our headlights.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I've given a lot of thought to the nights we
used to have, the days of come and gone our
lives and by so fast.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I faintly remember breathing on your bedroom floor where I
late and told you, but you swear you love me more?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Do you care what I jonah, what you say? Well
you sleep tonight?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well you think of me?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Will I shake this off?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Breten, It's all okay that there's someone out there who feels.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Sus like me.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
There is so Jake. I guess first, you know, we
joked about Tom's aesthetic in that I Miss You video
kind of being held up as oh, yeah, that's what
EMO looks like. Do you feel like that is true?
But also the lyrics from there is.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Oh yeah, and even like the video of like the
sanding homage and he's in the rain and it's just like, yeah,
I think I think you could if you combine the
lyrics of this song with the aesthetics of I Miss You,
then there's your EMO definition. Right, It's Tom. It's just
(19:17):
Tom DeLong is really the answer?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. Now, having said that, and as as much as
some of the lyrics there are pretty straightforward, if a
little kind of optimistic and maybe even a little sweet,
I think that this kind of tips the hand at
you know, that process of blink trying or at least
Tom as a as a songwriter, trying to transition, if
(19:40):
not explicitly, then at least nudge himself as a songwriter
from writing those kind of teen angsty things into uh,
you know, a bit more serious or a bit more
earnest is probably the word. You know, this isn't like
a really deep song or anything like that. But I
do think that the effort is obvious of where he
was trying to go when he's writing a song like this,
(20:02):
and I think, like, for my money, that's if you
can get past the video. I think it's a really
good song, and I think it's you know, I don't
think it's the best song on this album, but I
think it's the probably the most important. If you're like, oh, yeah,
I liked Boxcar or I was influenced by Boxcar or
you know, Boxcar paired with the untitled where my favorite
(20:24):
era of Blink. I think that song is really important.
And I'm guessing based on how you just described that
you kind of disagree, Jake.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I do and I don't. I mean, I don't particularly
like the song, but I do agree with everything you
just said about it, if that makes sense, Like, I
think both those things are true, and I think that
at least up until this point, and I think it
kind of loses the thread a little bit when you
get into some of Untitled and then definitely when you
(20:53):
get into Angels in Airwaves. But like, up to this point,
Tom was really really good at writing these kinds of songs,
like even like the toss off singles like first Date.
Just like he's really good at taking the simplest, dumbest
or not even dumbest, but just like the simplest emotions
(21:14):
and crafting them into pop songs. And like we talk,
that's obviously a skill that a lot of musicians we
talk about have, but I feel like because of his
Tom delongness, he doesn't really get that credit as much,
like even something as simple as the chorus to Always
on the Untitled record, or even the I Miss You
(21:36):
verse or first Date, or like even something as like
kloying as all the small things Like he's a very
very good, simple pop songwriter, and I think this is
a really good example of that of like just much
like the chorus to Always, just running down a list
of emotions that you feel about a person, especially tapping
(21:59):
in to that high school emo emotion or whatever you
want to call it in this song, which I don't
mean as a negative thing, and he's he's just very
very good at it. And I do think that this
song is important in the Tom DeLong canon, so to
speak of, like him getting a big hit and it
(22:21):
being based off his like own sensibilities if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, it's again, it's going back to like the Hey,
history looks fondly on what Tom DeLong said and tries
to do and what he was, you know, pushing himself
to do. Like, Hey, there was a market for this
and the album is pretty good now, I feel so,
And there is were the singles, and I think it's
pretty straightforward why those were the singles, because they fit
(22:50):
the best as a Hey, we're going to attack the
blink audience with these box car singles. But the point
of this was to get a little heavier and get
a little darker. Jake, I know you want to talk
about what genre this falls into it and Tom's insistence
that this is a post hardcore tribute to Pagazi and
Jawbox and refused in bands like that. So we're gonna
(23:10):
play a clip from Letters to God, which is one
of the songs that that would apply to, to prime
the listeners here, and then you can hit us with
your take after this. Letters to God.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Got off guard, all worked up, the airaris as dark
and cold as nine Let me go.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I'm not done. I swear take just one lifetime and I.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Won't lie.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I won't sin.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Maybe I don't want to go.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Can't you wait?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Maybe I don't want to go? I love, I Love.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So there are a couple examples we could have gone
with to kind of try to highlight that, and to
be honest, some of the songs kind of bleed into
each other going back to re listen to them, just because,
like I do feel like the singles kind of dominate
my memory of the album a little more than they should, Like,
I like a lot of other songs on this album,
(25:07):
but for that reason, it kind of sticks out that way.
So I know that you think it's kind of funny
that Tom thinks that this is like a post hardcore
album or at least was heavily influenced by that scene.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, and maybe funny is the wrong word. And it's
definitely a retrospect thing. Like it's not a thing I
thought about when this came out by any means, but
I remember when I went back to this sort of
as I guess as an adult for lack of a
better term, and as a big post like one of
my favorite genres is like late mid to late nineties
(25:39):
DC post hardcore music like your Jawboxes and whatnot and
so I was like, I did listened to this album
in years, and every song that had stuck in my
head on this album other than the two singles, I
thought were just blank songs that i'd like forgotten about.
And then I remember reading stuff and seeing all this like, oh,
(26:00):
I want it to sound like Jawbox and Fugazi kind
of stuff, and I was like, I should go back
to box Car because like, I love that stuff. So
I'm curious hear Tom's take on it. And it's just
it's not that I don't believe him that these are
his influence what he was trying to do, because I
obviously do, because this is louder and harder, so to speak,
(26:21):
than anything Blink had done up to this point, no,
no question, But I just don't hear it, and like
I want to. I want to hear those influences because
I think a Tom DeLong post hardcore record could be
pretty fun, especially with Travis involved, But I just don't
hear it at all. I've always found his in the
(26:42):
very Tom DeLong way he talks about things. That's the
part I've always found kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, I mean I'm somewhere in the middle between you
and Tom when it comes to that. But would you
like to hear Tom's evaluation?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So this is Tom to Billboard. I think it's dope.
It's a mainstream version of the post hardcore punk rock
influences in my life. But it's also very artistic. I
think we did something with the recording of that record
that's never been done for the most part, where the
variances and the volume and sonic scope are just extreme.
That was the first record I crafted, not recorded, crafted
two totally different things. That's Tom's take on it. Okay,
(27:19):
guys again this you know maybe and maybe it's something
too where like I don't know about you, but like
things like variances and and pedal delays and sonic scope
and stuff like that, like those are not the things
that stand out to me because I don't have that
technical an ear. That's something that you know, Steve could
probably speak to better if he liked music. But yeah,
(27:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, I I kind of liked that quote from Tom
in that it was a like this was clearly a
very very deliberate project for him, which, like.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And the mainstream word there as I think the one
that makes what he's saying more accurate.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, I think so, and like and I think again,
this is retrospective. This is not an opinion from when
it came out, but like retrospectively this especially because of
where Blink would go on the untitled record, Like this
just sounds like a Blank record without Mark, Like there
is no there is nothing about this record that does
(28:19):
not sound like a Blink record without Mark. Obviously having
two thirds of the band play on it helps, but
like we talked about plus forty four, and like, half
of that record sounds like a Blink record without Tom,
and half of that record does sound like something different
for Mark and Travis, whereas I don't think that Tom
(28:42):
really accomplished sounding that different from Blink on this record,
keeping in mind that at the time I guess it did,
comparing it to take off your pants and enema, but
he would obviously go very different directions later.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I think that's the important consideration, right, is like
work coming back to this almost twenty years later with
the benefit of knowing where Blink went from there, And
I do think that had we you know, if you
could transport yourself back to that time, then I think,
you know, this would have stood out as a little
different at least now it obviously looks like just such
(29:18):
a like this is such a natural transition from take
off your pants jacket to untitled and then plus forty
four is like a pretty natural transition. Maybe maybe not
exactly where it is, like into neighborhoods, but into the
Skiba era of the band for sure, like it fits
all right. So the idea wasn't just to try this
(29:38):
out once it was successful enough that they decided to tour.
The idea was also to change the live performance. As
Tom this is cobbling together a couple different Tom quotes.
It's a much more powerful emotional experience than it was
with Blink. To play songs and have them showcased to
where it represents what this kind of music is all
about is a welcome experience with Blink. Can't wait until
(30:00):
I get done playing a song so I can say
something stupid. With this band, I hardly talk at all.
And that's something again not to keep going back to
last week's episode about the untitled, but this is the
era you know, post box Car, when Tom and Travis
go back with Mark, that was kind of their peak
as a as a live band, as well, there was also,
as much as Tom doesn't want to admit it, a
little bit of the blink goofiness and rawness. I like
(30:24):
on this song, my first punk song, my John Out Dick.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That's actually a song where I do hear a lot
of that post hardcore DC stuff, and like you know, Tom,
I think has I'm trying to how to phrase this
because I'm trying to compliment him, but he makes it hard.
Sometimes I would love to hear a like hardcore as
it was thought of in the eighties record from Tom DeLong,
(31:47):
like a minor threat style record from Tom DeLong. I
would listened that immediately. But I do think, and we
talked with this last year, like he definitely gets in
his own way and would only get in his own
way more as his career went on, with Angels and Airwaves,
where it's like he Tom DeLong clearly wants to be
the biggest, most important rock star on the planet, which
(32:09):
I think is a good goal to shoot for on
any planet, But like I kind of want him just
to make songs that kind of sound like this.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, I mean it's cool, it's a nice little it's
it's also like a going back and listening to it
and not really remembering that that was coming. Yeah, it
was abrupt. It was abrupt. Okay. So here's another Tom
quote to kind of wrap us up here a little bit,
and this is the Billboard. He said, I just like
(32:41):
what I do because all I'm doing is just celebrating
the shit that I love. So I'm grabbing shapes and
colors from all the music I love and trying to
combine things like here's something from Journey and here's something
from Fegazi. What happens when you put it together? Then
you'll hear it and be like, well, that still sounds
like Descendants, And I'm like, oh, I was trying so hard.
So I do listen to my own stuff lot, but
then I get bored of it and never listen to
(33:01):
it again. So as much as Tom has a lot
of thoughts on and in more recent years has given
a lot more interviews reflecting on this era of his career,
at the time, he did not like listening to this
stuff back. One final note on this album is that
the album the album ends on an instrumental but before
(33:22):
that is a song called Elevator, which features Mark Hoppus
and was originally called nine to eleven or nine to
one one, and it describes Tom following from the building
and Mark seeing it, and it's just it's so weird
that Mark is on this album on just one song,
and then like that song is also weird knowing, like
as an adult that it's about nine to eleven.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I don't know, man, that's a I didn't know that's
what it was about.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Not my favorite track.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I mean, I'm gonna be perfectly honest. I don't get
to the end of this album a lot like this
is an album that I would throw a couple songs
on a playlist and kind of go from there. But
because I agree with you, it does bleed into each other.
So I had no idea that's what that song was about.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
All right. Well, Mark's inclusion on the album brings up
probably the most important point of Boxcar Racer, I think,
which is that it had had a pretty negative effect
on Blink one eighty two's future. We're going to talk
about that after this, all right, Jake. So, Boxcar Racer
(34:36):
sold sixty five thousand copies in its first week. It
hit number twelve on the Billboard charts, and it received
mostly positive reviews. Aaron Scott called it a perfect union
between genres. Others said it showed that Blink could do
more than what they'd offered to date, which was kind
of the point. One person said it confounded expectations. They
did tour a little bit. There was some criticism that
(34:57):
Tom was a bit lost, and like we talked about
Plus forty four, where you know, Mark kind of needs
Tom to push him out of his comfort zone. Tom
kind of needs Marx raining him in a little bit
or editing. I guess they really were very complimentary, which
is why Blink twenty two is one of the most
successful bands ever. The bigger issue and takeaway and legacy
(35:18):
of Boxcar here is that this is credited with causing
an initial rift in Blink twenty eighty two. Mark Hobbas
was only on one track and felt betrayed. It loomed
over the band. Mark and Travis subsequently did Plus forty four,
which you can hear more about on episode seventeen of
this podcast. Here's Tom talking about it to MTV and
(35:41):
this is a long quote. So forgive me. There's no
way I could have done anything in Blink without Mark
and Travis. I mean, I had to compromise all the time,
but that was part of the magic of that band.
It's obvious that the music changed after I went and
did Boxcar. It's obvious that when Travis went and did
the transplants, things change. But in Blink, I was the
(36:01):
one responsible for the way the guitars started sounding, because
I was the one playing that kind of stuff. One
of the craziest things about Boxcar Racer is that it
was the both greatest and the worst thing for Blink.
It was obviously the reason why we made that last
record referring to Untitled, which I thought was a masterpiece,
but it also caused a great division in the band.
It was really hard for Mark. He thought it was
(36:24):
really lame. Travis and I went and did that, but
it was a totally benign thing on my part because
I only asked Travis to play drums because I didn't
want to pay for a studio drummer. It wasn't meant
to be a real band. But even before Blink was finished,
Mark and Travis went out and started Plus forty four,
and I didn't even know until months later. I had
to read about it in the press, and that's what
I didn't understand because the hypocrisy to me seems ridiculous,
(36:47):
and as Mark Hoppus told Krang, it really sucked. I
took it very personally, so Jake, I guess this is
you know, to hear how it all played out. And
the Blink breakup has been dissected a lot of over
the years. But what, like, do you think Blink could
have made the Boxcar'm like, do you think, with the
benefit of knowing how Mark would react to Boxcar that
(37:11):
it could have been avoided and they could have kind
of done this as a together project to transition them
to Untitled.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, I absolutely do, And I think that kindo was
sort of alluding to before. I think this does sound
a lot like sort of the first draft of the
untitled record. I don't know if that's how they think
about it or not, But like like, the song Tiny Voices,
to me sounds almost exactly like the song Obvious from
the untiled record we talked about.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
It sure does, and I get them.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
They meld together in my brain when I hear them
in my head like that everybody will be let down
part of Tiny Voices. My brain paced onto the end
of the chorus of Obvious, And I always think they're
the same song. So I do think that they could have,
you know, with hindsight or whatever, made this a Blink record.
(38:05):
I'm kind of glad they didn't in retrospect because I
think Untitled is so good, and I think that, you know,
having your first draft is always a good thing. That
being said, would it have been better off had they
included Mark this was the next Blank record, and then
they made Untitled after that and stayed together and kept
(38:26):
on that path, Like, yes, obviously I'd prefer that, but
but yeah, I do think this could have been a
Blink record. And but also we know that tensions in
the band were high at that point anyway, that they
would only be a band for three more years after this,
really not counting the sort of the Neighborhood's era. So
(38:47):
I yeah, I think they definitely could have.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, I think so too. And you know, I think
if you if you keep plus forty four and box
Car and things like that separate from Blink, it's super
interesting to and a little abrupt to go from take
off your pants a jacket to untitled. And I think
you know the kind of the if you were looking
at a discography of all the Blink and Blink related projects,
(39:12):
so we'll include Plus forty four and Boxcar, but not
like Angels maybe the first Angels in Airwaves certainly not
whatever that other market band is called that he does
with the mull Time Low God, Yeah, and not like
you know, Travis Barker and low Wayne. But I think
you know it. Actually it all fits together pretty well
chronologically if you even if you were to pretend, Hey,
(39:35):
a couple of these are Blink albums, not Boxcar and
not Plus forty four, which I think makes a lot
of sense. Like you're talking about the growth of guys
in their early thirties and late twenties, and you're talking
about the growth of artists, and you know, it's come
up a number of times over the history of this podcast,
where success is great and there are some bands who
don't struggle with that at all and just lean into
(39:56):
it and are happy to keep doing what made them successful.
And there are are a lot of other artists who
question whether you know that success is fulfilling or if
they should try something new, And there's no there's no
right or wrong answer as long as these guys are
happy with where they went. But there's a huge what
if of you know, Blank one A two is maybe
the most popular band in the world, and Untitled is
(40:18):
a really really terrific album. And had it all clicked
and stuck together a little more, you know, what could
they have done? What could they have continued to do?
And that's kind of you know, I think that's that's
really Boxcar's legacy for the most part. And despite the success,
box Car was intended as only a one time experiment
(40:38):
for Tom, not a full time band. He was offered
a solo deal with Geffen, and Tom and David Kennedy
would pivot and start Angels and Airwaves during Blink's next hiatus,
and then, of course Tom would have eventually leave Blink altogether.
They also Angels and Airwaves used some of some repurposed
box Car songs, which you can only really here on
(41:01):
the first Angels and Airwaves album. I don't think you
can hear it on subsequent ones, but as a refresher,
this is the adventure from Angels and Airwaves. Person, I
(41:23):
have the same last.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Dream Jared, my god, and then, just as the whole.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Walls caused me, when my eyes are.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Raping your son live, I'm the first to.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Know my dear friends, even with your show, pass on and.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Shall be right, your wishes, your writing, son you.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Out here, we comes wage to speak cute.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
To this?
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
I don't know if we do an infinite number of
Blinkards do Angels and Airways episode at some point? But
I never I liked or I like that song, and
I listened to the first album a little bit, but
the subsequent ones weren't really for me. Did you? Did
you mess with the Middle?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I actively dislike that band. Uh, They're they're sort of
in the thirty seconds to Mars World for me, which
I I also really dislike. I never got into that band, and,
like Immilily, was turned off at what they were doing.
I get it, like I know people like it, and
I like, I get it, and it's fine. I'm, as
(43:13):
we've said before, well past the point of people liking
different bands than me upsetting me. Yes, but I sure
don't like that band.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
It's not for you. So Tom and Travis have teased
at different times that they could do something with Boxcar
again together. Travis has said there's an unreleased song. Nothing
has come of it. Tom told Rock Sound Me and
Travis still to this day, talk about doing box Car
all the time. Maybe there's something that already exists that
would be really cool for that band, but I'm not
getting into that here. And then basically from an outsider's perspective,
(43:46):
it seems like Tom and Travis just get a kick
out of trolling people who want to see another box
Car album. Angels and Airwaves, by the way, look, obviously
Blink is still making music. They had nine come out
with Mark Travis and Matt Skiba, and Skiba has said
that that EP that was originally expected in late twenty twenty,
they might have enough material for a whole new Blink album.
(44:09):
Travis is obviously doing lots of stuff as in the
hip hop scene or that kind of hip hop pop
punk fusion with artists like Machine Gun Kelly Travis just
doing a lot of stuff always, and Angels and Airwaves
even released new music in twenty twenty two singles, so
they now have four non album singles out there for
whenever that next Angels and Airwaves album is coming. Tom
(44:30):
also runs the government's UFO division or whatever. So I
will say Tom does seem like in the later interviews,
you know there was a little while there where it
was like okay, secret machines like this is going a
little you know, it just wasn't understandable for mass public
consumption where he was. But I would say in the
last year or two he seems to be in a
(44:51):
good place and at peace with where he is. He
does a lot of charity work, so shout out to Tom.
As much as we joke a little bit about some
of his quotes, he has produced some of the most
important music in our lives and continues to use his
money and platform for good where he can. So let's
not confuse that he's he's a little easy to tease
(45:11):
with being an important artist.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Tom is probably the mainstream music artist that I like
to make fun of the most, while also greatly enjoying
most of his work.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Well, speaking of his work and making fun we're gonna
make fun of you now, Jake.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
We are.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I don't know if this this gimmick won't happen enough
to have introduction music. But we're gonna play a little
game show here, Jake. We're gonna play the blank one
a two game I'm gonna host. You're gonna be the contestant.
Chunky's gonna come out and eat all your points, what
do you do? There are a lot of Blink and
Blink adjacent bands. He talked about a bunch of them.
(45:53):
We've talked about Blank one A two. We've talked about
Plus forty four. We've talked about box Car Racer. We've
done a single on Machine Gun Kelly. We've joked about
Simple Creatures. We've teased angels and airwaves. The list goes on.
We've talked about Lil Wayne and Travis Barker's solo rap
rock record Blink Whin. He two have had their hands
in a lot of things, the transplants, the aquabats, there's
(46:17):
no I mean, if you really wanted to go their
Motion City soundtrack there Blink is everywhere, but at times
it's been difficult to remember when you're going back to
something and you're not going back to it clicking on
the artist itself and it just comes up. It can
be a little hard sometimes to remember which of those
(46:39):
blink or blink at Jason bands a certain song is from.
You expressed earlier that there are a couple songs on
the box Car album that you mistake for Blink songs.
So what we're gonna do here, Jake, is I had
producer Dylan put together a series of very short clips,
and you were going to try to guess which blink
or blink at Jason and act it is. And there
(47:02):
are some there are some stupid ones and some curveballs,
but we're gonna start off. You'll get bonus points also
if you get the the album if it's a Blink song. Okay,
so not all of them are Blank songs. They might
be some of these side side projects and stuff, but
you get bonus points if you get the Blink album.
On top of getting that it's Blink. We're gonna start
(47:25):
you off with an easy one here, Jake, here is
your first clue. I cannot see your house fun here.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
But the same seems to dissipate, So that is that all?
Blame it on my youth. It is not that song,
but it's from that record, but it is.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It's off California.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yeah? That's teenage Satellite?
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Oh wow, I only know the chorus of that song.
I guess well.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
You get one point though, forgetting that it was Blink.
Please for future answers. For future answers, say that it's Blink.
Oh sure, it's very clearly wherever, Yes, all right, here
is your second clue.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's that's not Blink, that's our that's our boy machine
Gun Kelly.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Yeah, I thought i'd off with the easy one. I
the drum solo is too short, Like I thought about
that one to be the closing one where it's difficult
because it's just the drum solo and it would have
been harder to place. But it's too short of a
drum solo. All right, you're two for two.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, I love that album as we did a single
on It's great. All right, here is your third clue. Two.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I'm gonna do so bad on this.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
So here's the thing that is Blink. And this is
going to be the point in the podcast where people
will go you you've talked about how much you like
that album, but you don't like Angels and Airwaves, which
I think is a valid criticism. Anyway, that's a you
know the album, it's off, it's off neighborhoods that love
is dangerous, great song.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
All right, all right, okay, so you got four points
through three questions so far. This is uh, this is good.
All right, here's here's clue number four.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Get on, just.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Just that's Tim Armstrong singing it is? Is that that's
not a transplant song though, is it? It is not
because that guitar riff is another song by another band. Yeah,
this is a Is this a mashup?
Speaker 2 (49:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (49:46):
I don't know what this is.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
It is Catlike Thief by Boxcar Racer.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Oh, there you go. I didn't listen to that forgotten.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Tim Armstrong appearance on on Boxcar Racer. It's I knew that.
I knew that one would trip you up?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Is that not a riff from a different punk band?
I feel like it sounds like an Alto song or something.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yeah, well, there you go. All right, that's okay. You
still got four points through four questions because you got
the Neighborhood out.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Feel like I should have got the band we're literally
talking about today, right, but whatever.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It was intentionally difficult with the Tim Armstrong wrangle. All right, here,
here's your next clip.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
By It's a little Ghosts on the Dance Floor action
by Blankway two from the great album Neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Yeah, I thought I thought i'd give you a little
you know, the Neighborhood's ones are obviously the easiest, and
we're already trying to prime the Patreon group for this
time next year to vote for neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
So next next year, either vote for neighborhoods or vote
for nine, is what I would say.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Oh god, I'm not putting nine on the option list. Man.
All right, here's your next clue.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
I have no idea what that is, so I'm just
gonna guess it's Angels and Airwaves.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Sure is? It is the War by Angels and Airwaves.
Thought i'd make it a little tougher with a with
an instrumental. There, let's keep it rolling. Here's the next one,
shanning in mine.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
I'm feeling side down. Oh I know that one. That's
box Car, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (51:42):
It is box Car? That is the song, And I
I was gonna be really upset if you missed another another.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
That was one of those things of like, I know
I heard this song within the last six days, but
I also was walking around yesterday listening to a blank
met so it's like, did that come from there or
what's happening?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:05):
All right, we're almost done here till hit him with
another one before we get to the two bonus ones.
So this is your last main round one sorry, this
is your last main round one before we get to
the bonus round.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Okay, I am going to guess that's either Skiba Blink
or it's Angels and Airwaves.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
It is neither. Is plus forty four of the song.
Ah okay, all right, well you pass this round. You
finished with eight points into eight questions, you got six
of them correct, and then you got the bonus points
on both Neighborhood's songs. So you've qualified Jake for the
the bonus round. I just made up you have. There's
(52:54):
two two more eclips for you. So this is the uh,
this is the bone, and I hope people are playing
along home and keeping track of their own score because
things are about to get tougher.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
They're playing along with them.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Turn this off, Sty'll hit.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Him, crucify Helloa, make believe that we will never change.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
I hate it. So I'm gonna guess it's Simple Creatures.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's Simple Creatures.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
That is Mark's other project. All right. Last one who
as a way.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
As having my session right still at.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
That is, of course machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker
covering a little misbiz.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, that is machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker covering
Misery Business by Paramore. Jake, you are today's winner. Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Finally, i'd like to thank uh, I don't know, thank
god the boys in Blinkway two for making a great
record called Neighborhoods, which is the second best Blake Way
Too record.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
All right, And Jake, what you've won today is the
right to choose which box Car song goes on the mixtape.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Ooh, I like that prize. Despite really wanting to choose
my first punk song because I genuinely really love it,
I think I have to go with I feel so
because it's also it is a genuinely good song. Despite
the fact I kind of ragged on this album today,
I do like that.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Song all right, so I feel so it is going
on the mixtape. In addition to thanking producer Dylan for
his great work helping me put that game show together,
which I'm sure was it paying the mast to edit
and for almost no payoff whatsoever. To everyone else, thank
you for listening and please great review, subscribe all that
good stuff. If you're not going to head over to
the Patreon or with the Discord, please try to fish
Sometimes I wish it was brave. I wish I was stronger.
I wish I could feel no pain. I wish it
was young, I wish it was shy, wish it was
another episode Columbia House Party, Jake, what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Are you disappointed that I could find no way to
rhyme Columbia House Party with any of those lyrics?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
A little bit? But you know what, Tom didn't work
that hard either, so I feel I also.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Thought about uh singing them in the Skilo tone of
I wish it was a little bit taller. You know,
let's just be honest. It's really hard to do an
intro lyric with this format without falling into the Tom voice.
And I don't want to do that to people. I
don't the people deserve better than me trying to do
(01:07):
the Tom voice.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I think that's fair. You know what, everyone has a
Tom voice impression, and we've all heard him at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I think, yeah, it's like Christopher Walkin.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Exactly like Christopher walking.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's like the entrance exam to go to an acting classes.
Can you do it? Christopher Walkin? Okay, you can. You
can come in. That's a that's it. That's all Kramer
runs his kids.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Can Chris Walking and Tom DeLong.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah. Tom Delong's a vocal warm up though. It's like
the lemon face lion face. But you're doing where are you?
And I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for this off
the rails.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
If he doesn't TV episode.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, this is the this is the way to break through, Jake.
Today we're discussing a two thousand and two side project
that was in retrospect the beginning of the best version
of Blink onwent eighty two and the beginning of the
end of Blink one eighty two. It's the first Blinks project,
one too dark in moody for what Blink was at
the time, and one that, while not elite on its own,
(02:06):
holds up well alongside Blink's self titled if you're tracking
the entire history of the band and their artistic growth.
Today we're talking about the lone album from Boxcar Racer.
Boxcar Racer.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sometimes I wish I was brave, I wish I was stronger,
I wish I could feel no pain. I wish I
was long, I wish I was shy.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I wish I was honest, which I was not.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Because I blow.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Dale Show Dale Show Counts, John Tim Dale shows, John Day.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Lets start up that start up Dal.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Joe Dale, jow Dale, Us John Jail, John Dale, Jos
John's Day.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's start up, that start up, that's start of.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Of course, is I Feel So, which is one of
the two or three box Car songs every Blank fan
remembers and probably occasionally forgets, whether it's a Blink song
or a Boxcar song. Jake, I know you have some
hot takes about box Car, and you know, I think
this might end up being a little bit of a
shorter episode through the meat of it because some of
(04:06):
these topics came up last week when we talked about
the Blink untitled, because again we're we're kind of doing
these out of order, and box Car came in between
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and the untitled. But
you have some thoughts on box Car Racer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Do you not? I do?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Box Car at least when it came out kind of
came in a weird spot for me as a Blink
fan in that like I was into it, and I
was into sort of like a darker take on Blink.
But it's a record that just never stuck with me,
even like when it came out, like I remember seeing
the video where I feel so and being like, that's
(04:42):
kind of a cool song. And then I bought the
CD and I listened to it, and then I just
kind of put it away. And that's kind of been
my attitude towards box Car forever, in that every now
and then I'll go back to it, being like, maybe
it's time to give box Car another go, maybe I'll
like it this time, and and I just kind of
forget about it immediately, except for one song, which I
(05:03):
think sounds like a Blink song, But we'll talk with.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That in a bit. Oh, we're going to talk about
songs that sound like that fall into the vague, which
Blink or Blink side project?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
This is?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That's I got a little sub dispecial for you at
the end.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh that's what this is, okay. I saw that in
the run sheet.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was curious, Yes, the mystery clips parentheses, Dylan has
these separately. That's that's going to come at the end
of the episode. Until then, you know, there's not a
lot for me here beyond. I was a huge Blink fan.
I liked this album when it came out. I was
very worried at the time that it would mean that
it meant Blink was breaking up, which eventually yes, but
(05:40):
we got a couple more albums out of them. I
was also a little confused at the time because, like
I was in high school and the idea of two
thirds of a band breaking off to do a side
project that also included a feature from the third person
in the band. I didn't really understand why this wasn't
just a Blink one eighty two album. We are, of
course going to talk about all that, not a yeah.
(06:00):
I mean, I don't have a ton of connection to
it from the time, Like I distinctly remember listening to
it with my friend Charlie, who I've mentioned on the
podcast before, back in the region. You know, we would
have been in his dad's office, probably on some bean
bag chairs, listening to this and for whatever reason, you
remember these weird things. Charlie's favorite song off this album
(06:21):
was cat Like Thief. I don't know why I remember that.
I vaguely remember it in an MSN status, But there
you go. That's I don't stay in touch with Charlie
all that much, other than we have an annual Christmas
tradition of messaging each other or calling each other on
Christmas every year. We've been friends since we were like
five years old, and I wish that we were still
a little closer because there are a lot of this
(06:45):
era of music connections that bring up Charlie memory. So
shout out to Charlie out on the East Coast. Yeah, anyway,
that's my big box card connection is my friend Charlie
being back from overseas and listening to it with him
and not understanding why it wasn't just a Blink album
since Mark, Tom and Travis were all on there somewhere.
And of course, not to give too much away before
(07:07):
the break here, but we will as always be talking
about nine to eleven. Of course after this, all right, Jake,
(07:29):
would it really be a Columbia house party staple and
a Columbia house party arc if there wasn't some attachment
to nine to eleven?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Does seem to come up a lot?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I guess when you're talking about music in the early
two thousands, Yeah, fair enough, kind of a relevant cultural moment,
or not cultural moment, just an everything moment. So if
you were Blink one eighty two, you were about to
tour Europe and nine to eleven happened. Obviously, that tragedy
changed a lot of things about how the world was operating,
(08:00):
and especially things like travel and whether it made sense
safety wise and feasibility to tour. So Blink calls off
their European tour. They call off another tour because of
Tom's persistent back issues, which were based around a herniated
disc where at certain times he couldn't stand for more
than like one song at a time without needing to
(08:21):
sit down, and he was in a lot of pain.
So during the recording of Take Off Your Pants a Jacket,
which we discussed in detail back on episode sixteen, Tom
would mess around with a lot of acoustic stuff. At
that time, he felt very trapped by Blink's sound. As
he told music Radar, I was getting kind of bummed
out in the studio. It's probably my fault because I
never said but I just wanted to get in there
(08:43):
and try things out. But you feel like you can't
because the band is paying for studio time. It's almost
like you have a canvas and all of these paints,
but somebody says, no, don't touch those now, We've just
got to get the blue on the canvas, And you say,
but there's red, No get the Blue done. Maybe they'll
be time for Red later. And with box Car, I
just wanted to do that. So this is uh box Car,
(09:06):
I guess is Tom's red album, whereas Take Off Your
Pants and Jacket is Tom's blue album.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I think I definitely enjoy listening to Tom talk
about his music than I enjoy listening to Tom's music.
But I do think that I he does seem like clearly,
he seems like he's very clearly a guy with bigger
ideas than perhaps his career to this point had allowed
him to pursue. Like he's clearly a big thinker for
(09:36):
better or worse or just better. He's clearly a.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Guy that better.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, And he's clear on a guy who's like comfortable
sitting still, so to speak, which is fine and more.
Incredibly successful musicians who got successful doing one thing should
think like that. In my opinion, even if I don't
always like the result, I respect his sort of desire
(10:01):
and his especially at this point in like the Blink fandom,
like they were as big as they'd ever been at
this point. Then to be like, I'm not satisfied with this,
I want to do something else, like I don't like.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Credit to them. Yeah, I mean, neither of us can
relate to doing that in the middle of at certain
points in what looked like potentially successful careers.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Right Oh, successful on my end would have been one.
But I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, you know, all right? So Tom continued. I went
into Boxcar Racer thinking I could do whatever I wanted,
and I was going to do a completely different thing
using delay pedals, giant heavy guitar riffs, loops. That changed
me dramatically the first of those experimental rifts, and we're
going to structure the song clips on this one a
(10:47):
little differently just because there is no I mean, there
is a pre to this, but it's just Blink one
A two, and you're quite familiar with them. So the
first of these experimental riffs that really got kind of
crystallized was on All Systems Go, which Tom thought sounded
like quicksand a melodic hardcore band. You could judge for yourself.
This is All Systems Go.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's those night Shot stay shop.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Now, Jake, are you a quick sand guy at all?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I am not. I don't have any opinion on them
either way. I'm not saying I dislike them. I have
no opinion on that band. I do have opinions on
Tom's talking about this being a post hardcore record though.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yes, so let's pocket that just for a sec because
I want to I want to talk about it in
a little more detail once we get into the meat
of the album. So despite that framing that, you know
Tom is wanting to make all these experiments and change
and you know shout out bands like quicksand Tom being
(12:57):
the face of this and Travis Barker only joining late
because Tom didn't want to pay for a studio session drummer.
It was actually Travis Barker who pushed Tom toward this sound.
As Travis told GQ, it was weird because at the
time I was listening to Stanford Prison Experiment, Pitchfork, quicksand Figazi,
all these bands, and Tom was like, what the fuck
is Quicksand he heard it and fell in love and
(13:20):
really dived right into that whole post hardcore genre. We
started writing and had no idea what it was going
to be for I think we were both under the
impression in the beginning that it was going to be
a Blink album. Then it was like, no, let's do
this cool little side project, but we won't put an
album out. Then the label heard it and they wanted
to put it out. So from there they added David Kennedy,
who is from the straight edge hardcore band Over My
(13:43):
Dead Body, and then went on to be an Angels
and Narrowaves with Tom DeLong. Tom was still in control
of material for the most part. He determined the key
and the lyrics, and then Barker worked on the arrangements.
Beyond that, this is kind of where you start to
see the seeds of Travis growing beyond just being an
elite drummer and also being this kind of producer and
mixer and experimenter in the lab and pushing the artists
(14:06):
that he worked with in really cool ways. So, you know,
DeLong said the album was to challenge myself to do
different shit, But he also told Billboard, I knew that
we needed to have a transformational album, and I wasn't
totally sure what that was just yet, So I wanted
to do something on the side and completely get rid
of the standard protocol of how we wrote songs and
(14:26):
how we recorded. So this is again, you know, going
back to being a little dissatisfied during the take Off
your Pants jacket process and Tom wanting to not only
do something different, but you know, to hear him tell
it in retrospect. There was a conscious effort that Boxcar
Racer was going to be something of a transition that
helped Blink one eighty two. We're going to talk about
(14:48):
after we get into the album, how hey you maybe
want to would have wanted to loop Mark in on
that so that things were a little smoother. The band name,
by the way, was actually band Barker was in after
high school, so way back when, and Tom DeLong just
liked the band name, so they kept that. So they
recorded this over about six weeks with Jerry Finn, who
(15:11):
Blink had worked with on anima of the State, take
Off Your Pants and Jacket, and would eventually work with
on the untitled as well. Jerry Finn, of course, has
also worked without Glenn Trio and AFI and Green Day
and just about everyone else. And we talked a little
bit last week's episode talking about the untitled album just
how kind of incredible it is that Jerry was along
for that growth with them from Enema through to box
(15:34):
Car and the self titled. So Jerry Finn's influence or
at least His guiding hand is noticeable on here as
it is untitled. Despite having Tom and Travis and Jerry
Finn and what they thought was a good album, the
album received almost no promotional push. Was released on MCA
(15:55):
in May of two thousand and two. Tom has claimed
lou it's loosely a con album about the end of
the world, which, sure, I don't know if I hear that. Sure, yeah,
we played I Feel So off the top. First of all,
I think it's a terrific opener and gives you know,
it really sets the It's a tone setter, especially if
(16:15):
you are if you are listening to things through a
blink lens, going from take off your pantsy jacket to
box car before you go to untitled. I Feel So
gets you off kind of on the right foot, and
I think has that kind of iconic opening to it.
It also had different lyrics originally, as Tom shared on
Instagram in twenty twenty, he had them written out and
there was a bunch of things scratched out, like the
(16:36):
world seems broken anyway, So there could have been alternate
lyrics that were more or less the same but got
tweaked a little bit. So I Feel So came out
as the first single. The Long co directed the music video,
and it would remain their highest charting single at number eight,
But it was the second single that I think is
(16:57):
the most interesting song on this album in terms of
bridging from take Off Your Pants to Jacket to untitled
and that song is there Is. It would peak at
number thirty two and had a video that was kind
of based on the film Say Anything, but much more notably,
this is I think kind of the emo song on
the album. There is.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
This stacations useless, these why bills are kind.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I've given a lot of thought on this starty hour drive.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
I missed the grind in concrete where are we sat
pastain or not? And it sloly finish, lapping in the
glow of our headlights.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I've given a lot of thought to the nights we
used to have, the days of come and gone our
lives and by so fast.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I faintly remember breathing on your bedroom floor where I
late and told you, but you swear you love me more?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Do you care what I jonah, what you say? Well
you sleep tonight?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well you think of me?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Will I shake this off?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Breten, It's all okay that there's someone out there who feels.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Sus like me.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
There is so Jake. I guess first, you know, we
joked about Tom's aesthetic in that I Miss You video
kind of being held up as oh, yeah, that's what
EMO looks like. Do you feel like that is true?
But also the lyrics from there is.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Oh yeah, and even like the video of like the
sanding homage and he's in the rain and it's just like, yeah,
I think I think you could if you combine the
lyrics of this song with the aesthetics of I Miss You,
then there's your EMO definition. Right, It's Tom. It's just
(19:17):
Tom DeLong is really the answer?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. Now, having said that, and as as much as
some of the lyrics there are pretty straightforward, if a
little kind of optimistic and maybe even a little sweet,
I think that this kind of tips the hand at
you know, that process of blink trying or at least
Tom as a as a songwriter, trying to transition, if
(19:40):
not explicitly, then at least nudge himself as a songwriter
from writing those kind of teen angsty things into uh,
you know, a bit more serious or a bit more
earnest is probably the word. You know, this isn't like
a really deep song or anything like that. But I
do think that the effort is obvious of where he
was trying to go when he's writing a song like this,
(20:02):
and I think, like, for my money, that's if you
can get past the video. I think it's a really
good song, and I think it's you know, I don't
think it's the best song on this album, but I
think it's the probably the most important. If you're like, oh, yeah,
I liked Boxcar or I was influenced by Boxcar or
you know, Boxcar paired with the untitled where my favorite
(20:24):
era of Blink. I think that song is really important.
And I'm guessing based on how you just described that
you kind of disagree, Jake.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I do and I don't. I mean, I don't particularly
like the song, but I do agree with everything you
just said about it, if that makes sense, Like, I
think both those things are true, and I think that
at least up until this point, and I think it
kind of loses the thread a little bit when you
get into some of Untitled and then definitely when you
(20:53):
get into Angels in Airwaves. But like, up to this point,
Tom was really really good at writing these kinds of songs,
like even like the toss off singles like first Date.
Just like he's really good at taking the simplest, dumbest
or not even dumbest, but just like the simplest emotions
(21:14):
and crafting them into pop songs. And like we talk,
that's obviously a skill that a lot of musicians we
talk about have, but I feel like because of his
Tom delongness, he doesn't really get that credit as much,
like even something as simple as the chorus to Always
on the Untitled record, or even the I Miss You
(21:36):
verse or first Date, or like even something as like
kloying as all the small things Like he's a very
very good, simple pop songwriter, and I think this is
a really good example of that of like just much
like the chorus to Always, just running down a list
of emotions that you feel about a person, especially tapping
(21:59):
in to that high school emo emotion or whatever you
want to call it in this song, which I don't
mean as a negative thing, and he's he's just very
very good at it. And I do think that this
song is important in the Tom DeLong canon, so to
speak of, like him getting a big hit and it
(22:21):
being based off his like own sensibilities if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, it's again, it's going back to like the Hey,
history looks fondly on what Tom DeLong said and tries
to do and what he was, you know, pushing himself
to do. Like, Hey, there was a market for this
and the album is pretty good now, I feel so,
And there is were the singles, and I think it's
pretty straightforward why those were the singles, because they fit
(22:50):
the best as a Hey, we're going to attack the
blink audience with these box car singles. But the point
of this was to get a little heavier and get
a little darker. Jake, I know you want to talk
about what genre this falls into it and Tom's insistence
that this is a post hardcore tribute to Pagazi and
Jawbox and refused in bands like that. So we're gonna
(23:10):
play a clip from Letters to God, which is one
of the songs that that would apply to, to prime
the listeners here, and then you can hit us with
your take after this. Letters to God.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Got off guard, all worked up, the airaris as dark
and cold as nine Let me go.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I'm not done. I swear take just one lifetime and I.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Won't lie.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I won't sin.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Maybe I don't want to go.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Can't you wait?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Maybe I don't want to go? I love, I Love.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So there are a couple examples we could have gone
with to kind of try to highlight that, and to
be honest, some of the songs kind of bleed into
each other going back to re listen to them, just because,
like I do feel like the singles kind of dominate
my memory of the album a little more than they should, Like,
I like a lot of other songs on this album,
(25:07):
but for that reason, it kind of sticks out that way.
So I know that you think it's kind of funny
that Tom thinks that this is like a post hardcore
album or at least was heavily influenced by that scene.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, and maybe funny is the wrong word. And it's
definitely a retrospect thing. Like it's not a thing I
thought about when this came out by any means, but
I remember when I went back to this sort of
as I guess as an adult for lack of a
better term, and as a big post like one of
my favorite genres is like late mid to late nineties
(25:39):
DC post hardcore music like your Jawboxes and whatnot and
so I was like, I did listened to this album
in years, and every song that had stuck in my
head on this album other than the two singles, I
thought were just blank songs that i'd like forgotten about.
And then I remember reading stuff and seeing all this like, oh,
(26:00):
I want it to sound like Jawbox and Fugazi kind
of stuff, and I was like, I should go back
to box Car because like, I love that stuff. So
I'm curious hear Tom's take on it. And it's just
it's not that I don't believe him that these are
his influence what he was trying to do, because I
obviously do, because this is louder and harder, so to speak,
(26:21):
than anything Blink had done up to this point, no,
no question, But I just don't hear it, and like
I want to. I want to hear those influences because
I think a Tom DeLong post hardcore record could be
pretty fun, especially with Travis involved, But I just don't
hear it at all. I've always found his in the
(26:42):
very Tom DeLong way he talks about things. That's the
part I've always found kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, I mean I'm somewhere in the middle between you
and Tom when it comes to that. But would you
like to hear Tom's evaluation?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So this is Tom to Billboard. I think it's dope.
It's a mainstream version of the post hardcore punk rock
influences in my life. But it's also very artistic. I
think we did something with the recording of that record
that's never been done for the most part, where the
variances and the volume and sonic scope are just extreme.
That was the first record I crafted, not recorded, crafted
two totally different things. That's Tom's take on it. Okay,
(27:19):
guys again this you know maybe and maybe it's something
too where like I don't know about you, but like
things like variances and and pedal delays and sonic scope
and stuff like that, like those are not the things
that stand out to me because I don't have that
technical an ear. That's something that you know, Steve could
probably speak to better if he liked music. But yeah,
(27:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, I I kind of liked that quote from Tom
in that it was a like this was clearly a
very very deliberate project for him, which, like.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And the mainstream word there as I think the one
that makes what he's saying more accurate.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, I think so, and like and I think again,
this is retrospective. This is not an opinion from when
it came out, but like retrospectively this especially because of
where Blink would go on the untitled record, Like this
just sounds like a Blank record without Mark, Like there
is no there is nothing about this record that does
(28:19):
not sound like a Blink record without Mark. Obviously having
two thirds of the band play on it helps, but
like we talked about plus forty four, and like, half
of that record sounds like a Blink record without Tom,
and half of that record does sound like something different
for Mark and Travis, whereas I don't think that Tom
(28:42):
really accomplished sounding that different from Blink on this record,
keeping in mind that at the time I guess it did,
comparing it to take off your pants and enema, but
he would obviously go very different directions later.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I think that's the important consideration, right, is like
work coming back to this almost twenty years later with
the benefit of knowing where Blink went from there, And
I do think that had we you know, if you
could transport yourself back to that time, then I think,
you know, this would have stood out as a little
different at least now it obviously looks like just such
(29:18):
a like this is such a natural transition from take
off your pants jacket to untitled and then plus forty
four is like a pretty natural transition. Maybe maybe not
exactly where it is, like into neighborhoods, but into the
Skiba era of the band for sure, like it fits
all right. So the idea wasn't just to try this
(29:38):
out once it was successful enough that they decided to tour.
The idea was also to change the live performance. As
Tom this is cobbling together a couple different Tom quotes.
It's a much more powerful emotional experience than it was
with Blink. To play songs and have them showcased to
where it represents what this kind of music is all
about is a welcome experience with Blink. Can't wait until
(30:00):
I get done playing a song so I can say
something stupid. With this band, I hardly talk at all.
And that's something again not to keep going back to
last week's episode about the untitled, but this is the
era you know, post box Car, when Tom and Travis
go back with Mark, that was kind of their peak
as a as a live band, as well, there was also,
as much as Tom doesn't want to admit it, a
little bit of the blink goofiness and rawness. I like
(30:24):
on this song, my first punk song, my John Out Dick.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That's actually a song where I do hear a lot
of that post hardcore DC stuff, and like you know, Tom,
I think has I'm trying to how to phrase this
because I'm trying to compliment him, but he makes it hard.
Sometimes I would love to hear a like hardcore as
it was thought of in the eighties record from Tom DeLong,
(31:47):
like a minor threat style record from Tom DeLong. I
would listened that immediately. But I do think, and we
talked with this last year, like he definitely gets in
his own way and would only get in his own
way more as his career went on, with Angels and Airwaves,
where it's like he Tom DeLong clearly wants to be
the biggest, most important rock star on the planet, which
(32:09):
I think is a good goal to shoot for on
any planet, But like I kind of want him just
to make songs that kind of sound like this.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, I mean it's cool, it's a nice little it's
it's also like a going back and listening to it
and not really remembering that that was coming. Yeah, it
was abrupt. It was abrupt. Okay. So here's another Tom
quote to kind of wrap us up here a little bit,
and this is the Billboard. He said, I just like
(32:41):
what I do because all I'm doing is just celebrating
the shit that I love. So I'm grabbing shapes and
colors from all the music I love and trying to
combine things like here's something from Journey and here's something
from Fegazi. What happens when you put it together? Then
you'll hear it and be like, well, that still sounds
like Descendants, And I'm like, oh, I was trying so hard.
So I do listen to my own stuff lot, but
then I get bored of it and never listen to
(33:01):
it again. So as much as Tom has a lot
of thoughts on and in more recent years has given
a lot more interviews reflecting on this era of his career,
at the time, he did not like listening to this
stuff back. One final note on this album is that
the album the album ends on an instrumental but before
(33:22):
that is a song called Elevator, which features Mark Hoppus
and was originally called nine to eleven or nine to
one one, and it describes Tom following from the building
and Mark seeing it, and it's just it's so weird
that Mark is on this album on just one song,
and then like that song is also weird knowing, like
as an adult that it's about nine to eleven.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I don't know, man, that's a I didn't know that's
what it was about.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Not my favorite track.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I mean, I'm gonna be perfectly honest. I don't get
to the end of this album a lot like this
is an album that I would throw a couple songs
on a playlist and kind of go from there. But
because I agree with you, it does bleed into each other.
So I had no idea that's what that song was about.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
All right. Well, Mark's inclusion on the album brings up
probably the most important point of Boxcar Racer, I think,
which is that it had had a pretty negative effect
on Blink one eighty two's future. We're going to talk
about that after this, all right, Jake. So, Boxcar Racer
(34:36):
sold sixty five thousand copies in its first week. It
hit number twelve on the Billboard charts, and it received
mostly positive reviews. Aaron Scott called it a perfect union
between genres. Others said it showed that Blink could do
more than what they'd offered to date, which was kind
of the point. One person said it confounded expectations. They
did tour a little bit. There was some criticism that
(34:57):
Tom was a bit lost, and like we talked about
Plus forty four, where you know, Mark kind of needs
Tom to push him out of his comfort zone. Tom
kind of needs Marx raining him in a little bit
or editing. I guess they really were very complimentary, which
is why Blink twenty two is one of the most
successful bands ever. The bigger issue and takeaway and legacy
(35:18):
of Boxcar here is that this is credited with causing
an initial rift in Blink twenty eighty two. Mark Hobbas
was only on one track and felt betrayed. It loomed
over the band. Mark and Travis subsequently did Plus forty four,
which you can hear more about on episode seventeen of
this podcast. Here's Tom talking about it to MTV and
(35:41):
this is a long quote. So forgive me. There's no
way I could have done anything in Blink without Mark
and Travis. I mean, I had to compromise all the time,
but that was part of the magic of that band.
It's obvious that the music changed after I went and
did Boxcar. It's obvious that when Travis went and did
the transplants, things change. But in Blink, I was the
(36:01):
one responsible for the way the guitars started sounding, because
I was the one playing that kind of stuff. One
of the craziest things about Boxcar Racer is that it
was the both greatest and the worst thing for Blink.
It was obviously the reason why we made that last
record referring to Untitled, which I thought was a masterpiece,
but it also caused a great division in the band.
It was really hard for Mark. He thought it was
(36:24):
really lame. Travis and I went and did that, but
it was a totally benign thing on my part because
I only asked Travis to play drums because I didn't
want to pay for a studio drummer. It wasn't meant
to be a real band. But even before Blink was finished,
Mark and Travis went out and started Plus forty four,
and I didn't even know until months later. I had
to read about it in the press, and that's what
I didn't understand because the hypocrisy to me seems ridiculous,
(36:47):
and as Mark Hoppus told Krang, it really sucked. I
took it very personally, so Jake, I guess this is
you know, to hear how it all played out. And
the Blink breakup has been dissected a lot of over
the years. But what, like, do you think Blink could
have made the Boxcar'm like, do you think, with the
benefit of knowing how Mark would react to Boxcar that
(37:11):
it could have been avoided and they could have kind
of done this as a together project to transition them
to Untitled.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, I absolutely do, And I think that kindo was
sort of alluding to before. I think this does sound
a lot like sort of the first draft of the
untitled record. I don't know if that's how they think
about it or not, But like like, the song Tiny Voices,
to me sounds almost exactly like the song Obvious from
the untiled record we talked about.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
It sure does, and I get them.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
They meld together in my brain when I hear them
in my head like that everybody will be let down
part of Tiny Voices. My brain paced onto the end
of the chorus of Obvious, And I always think they're
the same song. So I do think that they could have,
you know, with hindsight or whatever, made this a Blink record.
(38:05):
I'm kind of glad they didn't in retrospect because I
think Untitled is so good, and I think that, you know,
having your first draft is always a good thing. That
being said, would it have been better off had they
included Mark this was the next Blank record, and then
they made Untitled after that and stayed together and kept
(38:26):
on that path, Like, yes, obviously I'd prefer that, but
but yeah, I do think this could have been a
Blink record. And but also we know that tensions in
the band were high at that point anyway, that they
would only be a band for three more years after this,
really not counting the sort of the Neighborhood's era. So
(38:47):
I yeah, I think they definitely could have.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, I think so too. And you know, I think
if you if you keep plus forty four and box
Car and things like that separate from Blink, it's super
interesting to and a little abrupt to go from take
off your pants a jacket to untitled. And I think
you know the kind of the if you were looking
at a discography of all the Blink and Blink related projects,
(39:12):
so we'll include Plus forty four and Boxcar, but not
like Angels maybe the first Angels in Airwaves certainly not
whatever that other market band is called that he does
with the mull Time Low God, Yeah, and not like
you know, Travis Barker and low Wayne. But I think
you know it. Actually it all fits together pretty well
chronologically if you even if you were to pretend, Hey,
(39:35):
a couple of these are Blink albums, not Boxcar and
not Plus forty four, which I think makes a lot
of sense. Like you're talking about the growth of guys
in their early thirties and late twenties, and you're talking
about the growth of artists, and you know, it's come
up a number of times over the history of this podcast,
where success is great and there are some bands who
don't struggle with that at all and just lean into
(39:56):
it and are happy to keep doing what made them successful.
And there are are a lot of other artists who
question whether you know that success is fulfilling or if
they should try something new, And there's no there's no
right or wrong answer as long as these guys are
happy with where they went. But there's a huge what
if of you know, Blank one A two is maybe
the most popular band in the world, and Untitled is
(40:18):
a really really terrific album. And had it all clicked
and stuck together a little more, you know, what could
they have done? What could they have continued to do?
And that's kind of you know, I think that's that's
really Boxcar's legacy for the most part. And despite the success,
box Car was intended as only a one time experiment
(40:38):
for Tom, not a full time band. He was offered
a solo deal with Geffen, and Tom and David Kennedy
would pivot and start Angels and Airwaves during Blink's next hiatus,
and then, of course Tom would have eventually leave Blink altogether.
They also Angels and Airwaves used some of some repurposed
box Car songs, which you can only really here on
(41:01):
the first Angels and Airwaves album. I don't think you
can hear it on subsequent ones, but as a refresher,
this is the adventure from Angels and Airwaves. Person, I
(41:23):
have the same last.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Dream Jared, my god, and then, just as the whole.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Walls caused me, when my eyes are.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Raping your son live, I'm the first to.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Know my dear friends, even with your show, pass on and.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Shall be right, your wishes, your writing, son you.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Out here, we comes wage to speak cute.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
To this?
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
I don't know if we do an infinite number of
Blinkards do Angels and Airways episode at some point? But
I never I liked or I like that song, and
I listened to the first album a little bit, but
the subsequent ones weren't really for me. Did you? Did
you mess with the Middle?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I actively dislike that band. Uh, They're they're sort of
in the thirty seconds to Mars World for me, which
I I also really dislike. I never got into that band, and,
like Immilily, was turned off at what they were doing.
I get it, like I know people like it, and
I like, I get it, and it's fine. I'm, as
(43:13):
we've said before, well past the point of people liking
different bands than me upsetting me. Yes, but I sure
don't like that band.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
It's not for you. So Tom and Travis have teased
at different times that they could do something with Boxcar
again together. Travis has said there's an unreleased song. Nothing
has come of it. Tom told Rock Sound Me and
Travis still to this day, talk about doing box Car
all the time. Maybe there's something that already exists that
would be really cool for that band, but I'm not
getting into that here. And then basically from an outsider's perspective,
(43:46):
it seems like Tom and Travis just get a kick
out of trolling people who want to see another box
Car album. Angels and Airwaves, by the way, look, obviously
Blink is still making music. They had nine come out
with Mark Travis and Matt Skiba, and Skiba has said
that that EP that was originally expected in late twenty twenty,
they might have enough material for a whole new Blink album.
(44:09):
Travis is obviously doing lots of stuff as in the
hip hop scene or that kind of hip hop pop
punk fusion with artists like Machine Gun Kelly Travis just
doing a lot of stuff always, and Angels and Airwaves
even released new music in twenty twenty two singles, so
they now have four non album singles out there for
whenever that next Angels and Airwaves album is coming. Tom
(44:30):
also runs the government's UFO division or whatever. So I
will say Tom does seem like in the later interviews,
you know there was a little while there where it
was like okay, secret machines like this is going a
little you know, it just wasn't understandable for mass public
consumption where he was. But I would say in the
last year or two he seems to be in a
(44:51):
good place and at peace with where he is. He
does a lot of charity work, so shout out to Tom.
As much as we joke a little bit about some
of his quotes, he has produced some of the most
important music in our lives and continues to use his
money and platform for good where he can. So let's
not confuse that he's he's a little easy to tease
(45:11):
with being an important artist.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Tom is probably the mainstream music artist that I like
to make fun of the most, while also greatly enjoying
most of his work.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Well, speaking of his work and making fun we're gonna
make fun of you now, Jake.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
We are.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I don't know if this this gimmick won't happen enough
to have introduction music. But we're gonna play a little
game show here, Jake. We're gonna play the blank one
a two game I'm gonna host. You're gonna be the contestant.
Chunky's gonna come out and eat all your points, what
do you do? There are a lot of Blink and
Blink adjacent bands. He talked about a bunch of them.
(45:53):
We've talked about Blank one A two. We've talked about
Plus forty four. We've talked about box Car Racer. We've
done a single on Machine Gun Kelly. We've joked about
Simple Creatures. We've teased angels and airwaves. The list goes on.
We've talked about Lil Wayne and Travis Barker's solo rap
rock record Blink Whin. He two have had their hands
in a lot of things, the transplants, the aquabats, there's
(46:17):
no I mean, if you really wanted to go their
Motion City soundtrack there Blink is everywhere, but at times
it's been difficult to remember when you're going back to
something and you're not going back to it clicking on
the artist itself and it just comes up. It can
be a little hard sometimes to remember which of those
(46:39):
blink or blink at Jason bands a certain song is from.
You expressed earlier that there are a couple songs on
the box Car album that you mistake for Blink songs.
So what we're gonna do here, Jake, is I had
producer Dylan put together a series of very short clips,
and you were going to try to guess which blink
or blink at Jason and act it is. And there
(47:02):
are some there are some stupid ones and some curveballs,
but we're gonna start off. You'll get bonus points also
if you get the the album if it's a Blink song. Okay,
so not all of them are Blank songs. They might
be some of these side side projects and stuff, but
you get bonus points if you get the Blink album.
On top of getting that it's Blink. We're gonna start
(47:25):
you off with an easy one here, Jake, here is
your first clue. I cannot see your house fun here.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
But the same seems to dissipate, So that is that all?
Blame it on my youth. It is not that song,
but it's from that record, but it is.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It's off California.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yeah? That's teenage Satellite?
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Oh wow, I only know the chorus of that song.
I guess well.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
You get one point though, forgetting that it was Blink.
Please for future answers. For future answers, say that it's Blink.
Oh sure, it's very clearly wherever, Yes, all right, here
is your second clue.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's that's not Blink, that's our that's our boy machine
Gun Kelly.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Yeah, I thought i'd off with the easy one. I
the drum solo is too short, Like I thought about
that one to be the closing one where it's difficult
because it's just the drum solo and it would have
been harder to place. But it's too short of a
drum solo. All right, you're two for two.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, I love that album as we did a single
on It's great. All right, here is your third clue. Two.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I'm gonna do so bad on this.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
So here's the thing that is Blink. And this is
going to be the point in the podcast where people
will go you you've talked about how much you like
that album, but you don't like Angels and Airwaves, which
I think is a valid criticism. Anyway, that's a you
know the album, it's off, it's off neighborhoods that love
is dangerous, great song.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
All right, all right, okay, so you got four points
through three questions so far. This is uh, this is good.
All right, here's here's clue number four.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Get on, just.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Just that's Tim Armstrong singing it is? Is that that's
not a transplant song though, is it? It is not
because that guitar riff is another song by another band. Yeah,
this is a Is this a mashup?
Speaker 2 (49:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (49:46):
I don't know what this is.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
It is Catlike Thief by Boxcar Racer.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Oh, there you go. I didn't listen to that forgotten.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Tim Armstrong appearance on on Boxcar Racer. It's I knew that.
I knew that one would trip you up?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Is that not a riff from a different punk band?
I feel like it sounds like an Alto song or something.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yeah, well, there you go. All right, that's okay. You
still got four points through four questions because you got
the Neighborhood out.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Feel like I should have got the band we're literally
talking about today, right, but whatever.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It was intentionally difficult with the Tim Armstrong wrangle. All right, here,
here's your next clip.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
By It's a little Ghosts on the Dance Floor action
by Blankway two from the great album Neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Yeah, I thought I thought i'd give you a little
you know, the Neighborhood's ones are obviously the easiest, and
we're already trying to prime the Patreon group for this
time next year to vote for neighborhoods.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
So next next year, either vote for neighborhoods or vote
for nine, is what I would say.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Oh god, I'm not putting nine on the option list. Man.
All right, here's your next clue.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
I have no idea what that is, so I'm just
gonna guess it's Angels and Airwaves.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Sure is? It is the War by Angels and Airwaves.
Thought i'd make it a little tougher with a with
an instrumental. There, let's keep it rolling. Here's the next one,
shanning in mine.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
I'm feeling side down. Oh I know that one. That's
box Car, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (51:42):
It is box Car? That is the song, And I
I was gonna be really upset if you missed another another.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
That was one of those things of like, I know
I heard this song within the last six days, but
I also was walking around yesterday listening to a blank
met so it's like, did that come from there or
what's happening?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:05):
All right, we're almost done here till hit him with
another one before we get to the two bonus ones.
So this is your last main round one sorry, this
is your last main round one before we get to
the bonus round.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Okay, I am going to guess that's either Skiba Blink
or it's Angels and Airwaves.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
It is neither. Is plus forty four of the song.
Ah okay, all right, well you pass this round. You
finished with eight points into eight questions, you got six
of them correct, and then you got the bonus points
on both Neighborhood's songs. So you've qualified Jake for the
the bonus round. I just made up you have. There's
(52:54):
two two more eclips for you. So this is the uh,
this is the bone, and I hope people are playing
along home and keeping track of their own score because
things are about to get tougher.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
They're playing along with them.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Turn this off, Sty'll hit.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Him, crucify Helloa, make believe that we will never change.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
I hate it. So I'm gonna guess it's Simple Creatures.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's Simple Creatures.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
That is Mark's other project. All right. Last one who
as a way.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
As having my session right still at.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
That is, of course machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker
covering a little misbiz.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, that is machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker covering
Misery Business by Paramore. Jake, you are today's winner. Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Finally, i'd like to thank uh, I don't know, thank
god the boys in Blinkway two for making a great
record called Neighborhoods, which is the second best Blake Way
Too record.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
All right, And Jake, what you've won today is the
right to choose which box Car song goes on the mixtape.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Ooh, I like that prize. Despite really wanting to choose
my first punk song because I genuinely really love it,
I think I have to go with I feel so
because it's also it is a genuinely good song. Despite
the fact I kind of ragged on this album today,
I do like that.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Song all right, so I feel so it is going
on the mixtape. In addition to thanking producer Dylan for
his great work helping me put that game show together,
which I'm sure was it paying the mast to edit
and for almost no payoff whatsoever. To everyone else, thank
you for listening and please great review, subscribe all that
good stuff. If you're not going to head over to
the Patreon or with the Discord, please try to fish
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