16 years ago two teenagers were seated ‘bored to death’ after exhausting the recommended daily allowance of video gaming; the inevitable repercussion of a one sided series of playoffs on Winning Eleven (PES for the uninitiated) that had lost its novelty. They decided to watch some TV, the vanquished grabs the TV remote and flips through the channels, he settles on MTV; (back when Music Television actually played music) there’s a music video on, he exclaims, ‘Oh I really like this song!’ he's seen it before, the video parodies the ubiquitous boy band era of the 90s and has a very catchy tune to it, the other kid moves his gaze to the television, the video is amusing, but the first kid was right, it was a really good song!
That kid? Me…The song?...All The Small Things…and the Artists? A punk rock band from California, USA. That day, the trio of Tom de Longe, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker better known as Blink-182 waltzed into my life and have never left, and even if Efe Bazuaye might not recall that moment or even deny he didn’t get his ass handed to him on such a day, I remember it with the clarity of a few moments ago.
Like most kids, I was part raised by the music of my generation and Blink-182 played their part in my oblique journey to adulthood; from the shy teenager I was, to the more self-assured young adult I became, Punk rock delivered something other genres didn’t ; It dealt with the unspoken issues adolescents faced, and the daily internal battles we waged on ourselves, Punk bands like Blink-182, Simple Plan, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Jimmy Eat World, Wheatus, Weezer etc. told me I wasn’t the only one facing these kaleidoscopic feelings of melancholy, anxiety, anger, timidity, awkwardness and happiness, they taught me that it was okay to be myself and it was okay to not be perfect or have all the answers, that it was okay to be different, that these myriad of things I felt were just necessary ingredients in the messy cocktail popularly known as life. They told me it was alright to fuck up! I was gonna fuck up in my teens, my twenties and well into my thirties. They addressed these issues with a certain levity and amusement that just made it all make sense. From dying inside cause of that crush you couldn’t utter any words to, to having the perfect imperfect girlfriend, from being an outsider looking in to being revered within your circle of friends, from the highs of unbridled joy to the murky depths of melancholy, it showed me how to see joy in the little things, throw in electronic guitars, Chuck Taylors' and skateboards and I was hooked.
And although I got on the Blink-182 bandwagon 2 albums late, with Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997) coming out years before Enema of the State (1999) I backtracked on them, coming across on some of the earlier releases by serendipity or otherwise. The latter albums; Take of your Pants and Jacket (2001), Blink-182 (2003) and Neighborhoods (2011) I easily followed. I'd imagine I was one of the most excited people (every fan does right?) when my good friend Peter E. Igwe told me that Blink-182 were back with a new album, I was ecstatic when he said and I quote “Blink-182 got an album out and shit just toppled Drake’s”.
On July 1, 2016 Blink-182’s 7th studio album; California was released and it goes without saying that I’ve since gotten my mitts on a copy. Listening to it, seems like they never left, we just seemed to pick up right were we left off, and despite the change in personnel the band retains its peculiar sound. It's fun to grow with a band cause at this point in my life Blink are still very much relatable as they were when I was 16, they're talking about old and new stuff that are now applicable to me, there's noticeably some nostalgia and a ton of reminiscing but also an acceptance of the way things are now, everything has changed but still remains the same, we're older but face a lot of relative issues to our present lives as we did when we were younger - New Age, New Problems!
I already have favourites on the new album like Cynical, Rabbit Hole, Bored To Death, Sober, Kings of the Weekend, California, Los Angeles but in truth I like every song. It's definitely one of my favourite Rock albums.
It’s been one hell of a ride these past few years, with the band seemingly separating in 2005, coming back for Neighborhoods in 2011 and the departure of its second original member (after Scott Raynor in 1998) Tom DeLonge in 2015 after being unable to continue with the band due to other commitments, Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba replaces him and is impressive, I will miss Tom though (his voice cannot be replaced) and I thank him for the very fond memories.
As I write this listening to California and reminiscing about earlier Blink-182 songs like The Rock Show, First Date, Always, Feeling This, Josie etc. I definitely feel 16 again and I’m asking myself ‘What’s my age again?’ The gang may not be all back together, but the essence of Blink-182 is certainly not lost and I’m glad Efe grabbed that remote on that fateful day many years ago…and more importantly, glad I didn’t blink, I could have missed this.
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