It’s been 2 years since California, Pop-Punk trio Blink-182 was reunited after a four year break up and hiatus. The band comprised of Tom Delonge (guitar/vocals), Mark Hoppus (Bass/vocals), and Travis Barker (drummer) announced the news of their reformation back in February of 2009 at the 51st Grammy Awards, and later awarded their fans with a treat they’ve been waiting for since the band broke up. An American Summer Tour was announced with Fall Out Boy, Weezer, and Asher Roth. Blink took the country by storm, playing all their greatest hits that we all have loved and grew up listening to. The original plan was to tour the U.S., Canada, and later the U.K., then follow through with a new record that has been highly anticipated by die-hard Blink fans. But it’s been a long two years now, and still no record, so what exactly have the guys from Blink-182 been up to?
Following Blink 182’s indefinite hiatus in 2005, Mark Hoppus along with Travis Barker formed a new band by the name of +44 and released a studio album entitled When Your Heart Stops Beating. They received some mainstream success and were even signed to record a second album; however those plans fell through due to Travis Barker’s plane crash back in September 2008. Although this was a tragic accident, it was able to bring Mark, Tom, and Travis back together and later led to the reformation of Blink-182. Mark has been able to stay busy with other endeavors as well, most notably his new talk show, A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus, which focuses on music news, concert coverage, and live performances, premiered back in September 2010 on Fuse. The second season has just begun under the new name Hoppus on Music and can been seen Fridays at 11pm on Fuse.
Tom DeLonge has also been keeping busy with his new band Angels & Airwaves, also nicknamed AVA. With the release of their debut album We Don’t Need To Whisper in 2005, AVA has received widespread success and followed through with their second album I-Empire, which debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 chart in its first week. Since then Tom and AVA have been working on a new project entitled LOVE. The album, which consists of two parts, released the first half last year on Valentine’s Day, and was offered for free. Within the first 48 hours of its release, it hit 500,000 downloads making it the most downloaded album in history. DeLonge describes the album as having more of a progressive feel to it and goes on to explain it “like blending Radiohead and U2 together with these kind of Pink Floyd movements. Things happen unpredictably and take you to these epic soundscapes.”
A film, also entitled Love, is to accompany the album and is set to be released this Fall along with LOVE Pt. II, which will contain 45 extra minutes of music from the film and two new songs. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival back in February and was chosen as one of the “Best of the Fest.” The story takes place in 2039 and focuses on Lee Miller, a United States Astronaut who is stranded alone during a mission to check on the International Space Station. The central theme behind the film is that of love, the need for human connection, and the psychological effects of loneliness and isolation. A box set is scheduled to be released containing the movie and both parts of the LOVE album. The trailer for the upcoming film can be seen here:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxYL6avSDiU
Travis Barker hasn’t let his plane crash keep him off the drum kit either. Barker just released his newest album Give The Drummer Some this past Tuesday (March 16, 2011) and it has a style of its own. Travis takes his thrown on the drums and lays down the beats to infuse his rock style with some hip hop and rap influences. The album features many big name artists throwing down their own verses over Barker’s heavy hitting drum beats. The album opens up strong with its title track “Can a Drummer Get Some” featuring verses from Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Swizz Beatz, and The Game. It continues with other great hits including “If You Want To” featuring Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell; “Knockin” featuring Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, and E-40; “Let’s Go” featuring Busta Rhymes, Lil Jon, and Twista; and even Kid Cudi is featured on the track “Cool Head”. The album also features some special musical guests including Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist, Slash, on “Saturday Night” and Rage Against The Machine guitarist, Tom Morello, makes an appearance on “Carry It” along with RZA and Raekwon of the Wu Tang Clan. Steve Aoki even makes an appearance on the last track “Misfits” to help give the song an electro-house feel to it.
So it seems that individually, the members of Blink-182 have been working hard on their own musical ventures but the big news that everyone wants to know is when is Blink going to get back in the studio and put out a new record?
Back in 2009 Mark Hoppus announced that Blink-182 would release a new single entitled “Up All Night” just before their reunited summer tour, but that project was put on hold until after the tour, and has still yet to be released. Next he announced that Blink was pushing for a new album to be released in either April or May of this year, however Travis Barker’s statements contradicted that stating the album should be out “by the end of this year or early next year.” A couple days later though, Barker said the album is more likely to be released around June or July of this year. Barker also noted that as of now they have about 5 songs already completed and the reason that the album keeps getting delayed is because of each member’s hectic schedules. Tom with Angels & Airwaves, Mark with his new show, and now that Travis has released his album, he will be touring the country with Lil Wayne on the “I Am Still Music” tour. Barker explains that the album will be completed once they all have time to sit down with each other, saying, “when we’re in a room together for more than a month or two, it’s really gonna happen.”
For now though it seems like we will have to just sit back, wait, and hope Blink-182 can stay true to their word and not keep pushing the record back. If you’re in need to fill the void with new music, then make sure to check out each member’s side projects if you haven’t already. In the mean time however, we can just listen to the great songs Blink-182 has to offer that we grew up with and have come to love.
