re: Weezer or blink 182

In Blink's most popular period, from Dude Ranch to Pants and Jacket, their songs had a really cool undercurrent of melancholy. Which I never think they've gotten credit for.

Yes, they indulged in cheap scatalogical humor, but if you listen to the lyrics, particularly on Dude Ranch, those were jokes that hid the fact they were terrified of the adult world. Those albums are about a very specific time in your life when you're no longer a kid but you're not grown up either. You don't want to be treated like a child anymore, but you also turn from the responsibility of being a grown up. You indulge in sophmoric humor because you know that time is coming to an end (What's My Age Again? is the best example)

However, Blink's problem is that there comes a point when you DO grow up, and Blink never did. they just kept churning out songs about this same feeling, but now they were looking back and trying to recreate a feeling they no longer had. It became a puppet show, and no longer an honest expression of where they were in their lives.

OTOH, they chose to keep to the formula for fairly adult reasons. The band ceased to be an artistic expression and it became their grown up jobs. So their refusal to grow up artistically actually was them growing up professionally, paradoxically. Fascinating career and the implications of "selling out". I think both sides of the Blink argument make valid point, as DeLonge left the band over becoming essentially a human jukebox.

Weezer has two good albums, and one is about Cuomo's desire to sleep with adolescent Japanese girls.

The Descendents are a great comp to Blink, both are even pop punk bands (though the definition of pop punk was a little harsher in the mid-80s). And the Descendents did grow old... maybe not gracefully, but honestly. Their newest album feels like adults with jobs and kids trying to hold on to their ideals, not trying to nostalgically cash in on a time that has long since passed.

The Descendents have even gone back and changed some of the lyrics to some of their older songs when they play them now due to the lyrical content. They are rightly embarrassed by some of the misogyny and while they don't try and pretend it didn't happen, there's no reason to perpetuate it now.

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More to your point, I read an article one time talking about Carousel and how Tom Delonge is exploring the realization that high school was a playpen, not a prison...and that the real, adult world is in fact much scarier, more restrictive, and depressing than what he just left. Those kinds of sobering moments that everyone can relate to are what I miss about Blink.

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Agreed. I've always loved Carousel and it absolutely encapsulated life for me in college through to now. Just barely scraping by and realizing that growing up freaking sucks. School wasn't the worst thing ever like I thought it was at the time. I mean, it's such a perfect synopsis of that feeling, that angst, the regret, the longing, the jealousy, etc.

"I talk to you every now and then
I never felt so alone again
I stop to think at a wishing well
My thoughts send me on a carousel
Here I am standing on my own
Not a motion from the telephone
I know not a reason why
Solitude's a reason to die

Just you wait and see
As school life is a
It is a woken dream
Aren't you feeling alone?
I guess its just another
I guess its just another
I guess its just another night alone

Now as I walk down the street
I need a job just to sleep in shade
Buying food every once in a while
But not enough to purchase a smile
A tank of gas is a treasure to me
I know now that nothing is free
I talk to you every now and then
I never felt so alone again

Just you wait and see (just you wait and see)
As school life is a
It is a woken dream
Aren't you feeling alone?
I guess its just another
I guess its just another
Night alone"

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Why are you putting these bands in the same boat

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it seemed to generate decent discussion to pass the time and I felt like although Weezer is more alt rock and less pop rock like blink they both have a lot of cross over fans so I was looking to here those people's opinions. I liked the result

They have a Deluxe California album coming out in 2 weeks.
11 new songs so basically a whole new album.
The songs that have come out so far are even better than the July album.

Blink and it's not even close. All of their albums up until the last last one have been classics for me. I was a huge fanboy in college. Not sure why but they resonated with me in a fun way. Spinoff question: which spinoff band of your favorite?
1. Box Car Racer
2. +44
3. Angels and Airwaves

I'm going +44. Such a cool album

Slayer

Hmm..I'd like to hear both versions. Probably give blink the first crack at it.

If I sat down and listened to both bands full discography again, I would probably pick Blink 182. Blink 182 is gold old entertainment, even if mark and tom play their guitars for shite relative to any group of dudes that call themselves a band.

Blink 182 and Weezer both went through stages where they made shitastic music, but Weezer's was truly awful.