Search Results for: mark hoppus

They might have called their new album Sticks and Stones so that if critics trashed it they could retort by sneering, sticking out their tongues and saying, “names will never hurt me.” But that’s not the reason. For New Found Glory, names are as dangerous as flung fists, and throughout the record they reveal how damaged they’ve been by barbed words. “On the cover of the record we have a little girl beating up a guy,” guitarist Steve Klein explained recently. “When we were younger, relationships with girls were a lot easier. You could hit each other and it would… Read more »

Two of the bands most responsible for the commercial popularity of melodic punk rock in the 1990s have come together for the coast-to-coast Pop Disaster tour, which touched down Wednesday at the nearly sold-out Forum after two big outdoor shows the previous weekend in Irvine. Both groups approached the show with a workmanlike greatest-hits mentality that was just a tad disappointing. If there was any doubt, Green Day – playing in the middle slot, after Jimmy Eat World – proved it is the better of the two veteran bands with a supertight showcase of its many hits. The San Francisco… Read more »

With nearly a decade of hits to their name and a command of large audiences that would put Tony Robbins to shame, Green Day are a hard act to follow. No wonder, then, that Blink-182 took a page from one of rock’s biggest bad boys Wednesday night in an attempt to avoid being overshadowed. Facing an opening-night Pop Disaster Tour crowd that had expended most of its energy during Green Day’s set, Mark, Tom and Travis found that even their onstage fireballs were no match for the ones their elder peers had singed the Centennial Garden with less than an… Read more »

A few clarifications on the spelling of Box Car Racer: Tom DeLonge’s and Travis Barker’s side project is three words, not two. And it absolutely does not spell the end of Blink-182. “Blink will never break up,” DeLonge said Wednesday before a Box Car Racer show at West Hollywood’s legendary Whisky A Go-Go. “We love what we do way too much for anything ever to happen to Blink, and we are so blessed by the man upstairs to even have that in our lives. That’s our passion. This is just part two of that.” Box Car Racer are a sequel… Read more »

Blink-182 side project Boxcar Racer played their debut show Monday night, exhausting their supply of songs as well as their frontman, singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge. Halfway through the band’s 40-minute set at the Mira Mesa Epicentre, a sweat-drenched DeLonge moaned, “F-, I’m tired. I’m out of shape.” Though more likely he just wasn’t used to being the sole focus of attention. Peering from behind a curtain of hair that hid his eyes, early on DeLonge said of the club’s low ceiling beams: “I like the rafters. It kind of hides my face from you guys.” Still, without Blink-182 singer/bassist Mark Hoppus… Read more »

Singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge has gone hippie, boy band and even naked for Blink-182 videos, but for the first clip with his new side project, he’s sticking with punk rock. The video for Boxcar Racer’s first single, “I Feel So,” is performance-based with “an old-school punk aesthetic,” according to the band’s MCA Records spokesperson. DeLonge and his bandmates – Blink drummer Travis Barker, Over My Dead Body guitarist Dave Kennedy and bassist Anthony Celestino – filmed the clip on Thursday at a studio in Burbank, California, with director Nathan “Karma” Cox, whose résumé includes videos for Linkin Park and System of… Read more »

Perhaps because it’s so hard to honor someone with a fart joke, Blink-182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge has formed a side project called Boxcar Racer to pay tribute to the bands that influenced him. The group, which also includes Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Over My Dead Body guitarist Dave Kennedy, will release its still-untitled debut album on May 14. DeLonge wrote all of the material, played guitar and bass, and sang almost all of the vocals. “This record is directly influenced by the bands that mean the most to me – Fugazi, Refused and, of course, Blink-182,” DeLonge told MTV.… Read more »

Blink-182 guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker have used the band’s brief downtime to write and record a new record of more experimental material under the name Boxcar Racer. Rhythm guitarist Dave Kennedy, an old pal of DeLonge’s, and formerly of the San Diego straight-edge hardcore outfit Over My Dead Body rounds out the lineup. The side project’s debut is due out in mid-May on Blink’s label, MCA Records, and Blink’s other member, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, sings on one track. Boxcar Racer will also tour shortly after the release. The album was recorded at Los Angeles’ Larabee East Studios… Read more »

Blink 182 has finally unveiled the video for the song “First Date,” which was shot in Vancouver last August. In typical Blink fashion, the group does its best to infuse comedy into the clip. “We shot it in Canada over the summer and I think it’s our best video by far,” explained Mark Hoppus. “I think it’s the funniest video…it’s just a video with a lot of character. We’re ’70s stoners just cruising the streets of Southern California…We’re ’70s stoners propelled into the future.” “First Date” was directed by Emmit and Brendan Malloy. New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert makes… Read more »

Blink-182’s Travis Barker and A Perfect Circle’s Josh Freese will perform at this year’s Drum Day L.A. festival at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles Saturday (December 8). The event, sponsored by drum manufacturer DW, will also feature a drum circle for all-comers and the Guitar Center’s Drum Off Grand Final. Others appearing include King Crimson’s Bill Bruford, Alanis Morissette drummer Gary Novak, Elton John skin man Curt Bisquera, and Zoro, the basher in Lenny Kravitz’s group. While Barker’s participating in the Drum Day, he opted against joining his Blink-182 bandmates at the Billboard Music Awards earlier this week.… Read more »