Arts & Culture

Staying Together For the Kids: Blink-182 is Back!

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Blink-182 fans rejoice! There’s a phrase not a lot of people born this side of 1990 have ever heard. For those of you who didn’t come of age in the early 2000s, or have a love of pop punk like I do, let me give you a refresher on who I’m talking about. The California-based band was founded in 1992, but they didn’t find commercial success until their album released at the end of the millennium, titled, Enema of the State, which features classics such as “All the Small Things,” “What’s My Age Again” and “ Adam’s Song.” These are all great songs that I highly recommend. 

Lead guitarist/vocalist and band co-founder Tom DeLonge has a habit of leaving and coming back to the band over the years. The last time that he left the band was back in 2015, but within the past few weeks, the band announced in hilarious fashion that DeLonge had rejoined the band and that they would be going on tour together next year.

Alkaline Trio

Spinning Singles: Blink-182, “Bored To Death”

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As the number of members in a given band decreases, the worries of a “Ship of Theseus” transformation increase if band members join on or drop out. As such, Blink-182’s decision to slot in Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba in place of former vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge 14 years into their career must have elicited trepidation amongst many long-time fans. In “Bored To Death,” the first single off of Blink-182’s California, which is slated for a July 1 release, fans get a glimpse of Skiba’s contributions to the trio. The new collaborators have seemingly decided to pass on delving into radically new material in their first public debut, instead offering up a song that could easily slot into any of Blink-182’s most middle-of-the-road, polished releases (Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket). “Bored To Death,” however, evidences the darker, more mature tone that Blink-182 has started moving towards as its band members near their mid-40s.