Today I write this post whilst lying on my bed. It’s just one of those days.
Couldn’t do a post yesterday, for anyone who follows me on Twitter you would have known this. @JamieKManteaw by the way. I’ll do another later on, as I usually do whenever the situation occurs.
“Dammit” is a song from Blink-182’s second album “Dude Ranch”. Sung by the bassist Mark Hoppus, the track is about a break-up and various feelings that arise from it. A very lazy way to put it, but it is true.
Clips of the video for “Dammit” amongst their other singles appeared in the band’s video for “Not Now” back in 2005 when the trio released their greatest hits compilation and later split up. That got me watching all of their videos because pre-Enema of the State I didn’t know they had anything else.
The video for “Dammit” is really funny. If you’ve just become a fan of the band you may think who the hell is the guy that’s not Travis. That’s their old drummer. That’s besides the point.
Mark and Tom, but especially Mark, act like complete idiots in it. That’s may not come as a surprise looking at their other comedic music videos, but being ten years old and the ‘class clown’ in primary school when I first saw it, I was inspired by their forced stupidity.
Ahh… the first video by Blink-182 that I can actually remember watching on the TV.
I must have been about nine or something. You know when you’re a child you have the tendency to wake up at times of the day which would seem ridiculous to any adolescent. Getting out of bed and watching music TV at six in the morning to watch TV were some of the best times I had before my mum and my sister woke up and didn’t let me watch anything.
I don’t know how I started watching MTV2 and being interested in music, but it’s a good thing I did. It was both that and football that made up my childhood.
I’m sure that I’ve made clear how I came across Blink-182 in previous posts. So I don’t really know what else to say to you.
One thing that may be interesting is that I recently listened to the band’s self-titled album. I had read many times from various reviews that it was a change from their ‘toilet-humour stuff’ to a more personal and darker approach to their music. That is something I can definitely agree with.
Another thing that I noticed was how Tom seemed to dominate the album. Most songs are solely sung by Tom; Mark comes in with a few backing vocals here and there, and has a few songs which only have him at the lead. However from listening to their past material, you can tell that it was pretty much a tag-team thing and the albums had a much more equal contribution by the two.
It was the last single from that album, and then the band broke up a few months later in 2005.
‘I’ve been here before a few times, and I’m quite aware we’re dying.’
Well… shit. Late for two days in a row? I’m sorry. Almost half past nine GMT too? Oh damn.
I apologise. I went out with my friends to Leicester Square today. One of them turned 18 on Wednesday, so we celebrated by going to the cinema, watching ‘Side Effects’ starring Jude Law and Rooney Mara, stuffing our faces at ‘Planet Hollywood’ and finally watching a dance act outside Picadilly Circus Station whilst making fun out of them.
‘Side Effects’ was good. It kinda dragged on for a bit, but I do recommend it for fans of Jude Law and those into psychiatric stuff.
‘All the Small Theeengs’, as sung by Tom DeLonge, was released as the second single from their ‘breakthrough’ album ‘Enema of the State’.
I can’t really say much, I’ve heard it for years and years, you’ve probably all heard it for years and years. Jedward then butchered it a few years ago, but no one cares about them anymore so don’t even try and look for that cover.
It’s just a love song really, it was made to be a song for the radio, and for good reason. Who can’t resist singing to the ‘Na-na, na-na, na-na, na-nanana’ chorus, or just generally making out during the song. You can’t stop that. It’s just instinct. It’s a very nice song, you can’t be angry whilst listening it.
If you want a girlfriend you could probably just play this song for her, then she’s allllll yours. Guaranteed. Coming from someone who doesn’t have one right here.
Mark Hoppus met his wife during the making of the video for the song, so that’s saying something right?
The year was 2005. My mum was driving me to my 11+ tutors house. And the news came up on the radio….. that Blink-182 had just split up.
How did I feel? I don’t think I cared, I was only ten at the time. In fact, I wasn’t even listening at the time. I only heard something about Blink-182, and then ‘I Miss You’ started to play. It was only later that I realised, when the video for ‘Not Now’ started showing on MTV.
I had probably first heard Blink-182 when I was about four due to ‘All the Small Things’, but at the time I would have had no idea who it was by. And I think I liked ‘The Rock Show’ too…. but really I can’t remember. Let’s just say I had a vague idea of who they were.
I think the first video I ever sat down and watched on the TV was the one for ‘Always’. I liked that song, and the girl in it was hot too, so it was a win-win situation. I was probably nine.
But anyway, back to ‘Adam’s Song’.
The video for ‘Not Now’, as you may or may not know, is basically clips of all of their past music videos from ‘Dammit’ to ‘Always’ and miscellaneous footage of antics on tour.
Clips from the video for ‘Adam’s Song’ appear in the video, and I had never really watched Blink videos before. I knew they had a thing for being naked, but I wondered what else they had.
Back then, YouTube didn’t exist. I watched videos on this site Yahoo owned called ‘Launchcast’ or ‘UK Launch’ where you could customise your own radio based on your favourite bands and watch music videos for free. It was good shit. It’s gone now, but at the time I had never been on any other site like it.
‘Adam’s Song’ gives you a strong dose of mood whiplash if you’re listening to ‘Enema of the State’, the album the song is on.
Blink are known for really fast, and poppy punk rock songs with bass chords, brilliant drumming, and tag-team vocals between Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus. Especially by Tom DeLonge.
But here….. you basically have a song about suicide. Which isn’t cool. The song is cool. But suicide is not.
The video is pretty tame compared to other Blink videos too. There are no midgets playing instruments and there’s not an arse in sight. It’s a performance video with a few still-photo flashbacks, but it is a much more serious video.
Maybe that’s what made me like it. It’s not my favourite song of theirs, but it was quite different to anything that I had heard from them.
It’s all fine though, on the album it’s followed by ‘All the Small Things’, and in video chronology terms the video for ‘Man Overboard’ was released after this one. And that video is funny as shit!
The Music in My Ears 