Blink-182 is spotlighting their new untitled album with the first single, “Feeling This,” which guitarist Tom DeLongesays is the first song they wrote for the project. DeLonge revealed that “Feeling This” is a very complex song: “The song just started spinning and spinning left of center. You can listen-there are, like, 10 different parts of that song, you know, and you wouldn’t know that’s the same song if you never heard the song before, ’cause it keeps changing and changing. I mean, there’s probably, like, 60 tracks of instruments on that song, you know, and probably 10 to 12 tracks… Read more »
Even though the RIAA continues to go after Internet file-sharers, millions of music fans keep downloading songs. Naturally, this hurts album sales, which were down around 12 percent for the first half of 2003. To try to convince people to actually buy albums again, record companies have offered value-added packaging such as the ever-popular bonus DVD, which typically contains backstage footage, exclusive interviews, videos and maybe a live recording or two. But adding a DVD can be costly. Labels typically pay between one and two dollars per extra disc, which means as much as an additional $2 million for an… Read more »
Who says a dollar doesn’t get you anywhere these days? Come November, a buck will be enough to get you into a Blink-182 show when they embark on a rare club tour. “We’re paying for this [show] ourselves,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge said recently. “It’s a chance for us to just come back together because we always play gigantic stages. Mark, Travis and I are always like 30 feet away from each other so we get to come back closer and remember what it’s like. It’s so much fun to play in the smaller places.” The DollaBill Tour launches November 6… Read more »
Blink-182 recently spent the night in jail. No, not as inmates. That was their teenage years (Tom DeLonge when he was 18, Travis Barker 15, to be specific). The older, more mature Blink-182 were only behind bars for the sake of work. The punk trio shot their latest clip, for the new single “Feeling This,” at the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail north of downtown Los Angeles. “The idea is that it’s a very institutionalized school,” singer/bassist Mark Hoppus explained on the set. “It’s kind of a combination of prep school and reform school, and it’s very repressed and kids are… Read more »
Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong is turning to Charles Manson for salvation, and he’s bringing Kelly Osbourne and members of Blink-182, Green Day and AFI along for the ride. When he finishes this year’s Vans Warped Tour, Armstrong will put the finishing touches on the upcoming stop-motion animated film “Live Freaky! Die Freaky!” in which Manson surfaces in a post-apocalyptic wasteland to guide a group of survivors who are desperately searching for a spiritual leader. Armstrong is producing the film for his Hellcat Pictures company. The movie was written and directed by John Roecker, an independent filmmaker in Los Angeles who… Read more »
Quarterback sacks and goal-line stances aren’t the only kinds of hits you’ll find on “Madden 2004.” Blink-182, Outkast and Nappy Roots will contribute new songs to the football video game’s soundtrack, while Joe Budden, AFI and the Roots offer previously released tunes, according to an Electronic Arts spokesperson. In the case of Blink-182, “Madden 2004” will be the first place to hear “Action,” a song off the trio’s forthcoming Use Your Erection I and II, while the Roots remixed their “Rock You,” off last year’s Phrenology, exclusively for the soundtrack. While piloting the Patriots, leading the Lions, guiding the Giants… Read more »
Being nominated for a Grammy hasn’t changed the boys of Bowling for Soup. At all. The pop-punk foursome are up to their old tricks on a just reissued version of their 2002 breakthrough, Drunk Enough to Dance. The album, which spawned the Best Pop Performance Grammy-nominated single “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” and sold nearly 200,000 copies, has been augmented with a typically tongue-in-cheek take on A Flock of Seagulls’ new wave staple “I Ran (So Far Away)” as well as the new tracks “Punk Rock 101” and “Star Song.” “We thought we were working on the follow-up to… Read more »