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Liner Notes (April 15th, 2023)

Posted by Jason Tate
Blink-182

This week’s newsletter has thoughts on last night’s Blink-182 performance at Coachella as well as some other random comments on music and entertainment I consumed over the past week. As always, there’s also a playlist of ten songs worth your time, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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A Few Things

  • Last night, Blink-182 returned to the stage to perform with Tom DeLonge for the first time in almost eight years. And the return at Coachella was live-streamed on YouTube. While I feel awful for the fans that had their shows postponed due to Travis’s injury, this being the return, to a massive hometown crowd and the entire thing being streamed so that fans across the globe could experience it together … was such a perfect treat. I texted a few friends to let them know it was happening, sat down on the couch, and experienced a new Blink-182 memory that I’ll carry with me for years to come with a whole bunch of fans in the Blink-182 thread on Chorus. It was an incredible evening. The band sounded as good as I think I’ve ever heard them with Tom. Mark sounded incredible. Tom sounded like he wanted to be there. Travis was an animal behind the kit. Seeing the smiles on the band’s faces, seeing how happy Mark was, and hearing the banter back and forth again was everything I could have hoped for. I sat there with a stupid grin on my face. Just an hour of being happy. An hour of hearing some of my favorite songs being played by one of my favorite bands and getting to nerd out with a bunch of like-minded fans just losing our shit like it was 2001. There’s a magic this band has always had that just hits different. A mixture of fun times with band members that we’ve grown up emulating and songs that we’ve spent countless hours listening to. And for those of us they’ve infected, it’s been an almost lifelong obsession now. Last night was a beautiful entry into the pantheon of Blink memories. With all the band drama, the health scares, and the years adding up on all of us, to see the band at this level deliver on that stage, with all of us experiencing it together, was truly special. Maybe it’s because I turned 40 a few weeks back. Perhaps it’s a combination of the collective trauma of the past few years. Or maybe it’s just an elder emo being over dramatic on a Friday evening, but I couldn’t help but be a little choked up seeing this all play out. The adoration for the songs that have meant so much to me over my life, the happiness radiating from the stage, and the shared experience with other Blink fans, was one more addition to the scrapbook of memories I’ve had with Blink-182. And they absolutely crushed it. If you missed it, the show is currently up on Archive.org. Blink-182 for life.
  • This collection of words, interviews, and essays from Steve Jobs is incredible. Gorgeous and well-presented but full of so many insightful and poignant passages. The kind of thing I could see myself returning to many times over the years and the kind of thing I think everyone in the business world would also be wise to study.

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • Magnolia Park’s deluxe edition of Baku’s Revenge came out on Friday, and I think they’re one of the most exciting bands in pop-punk right now—a clear homage to the past while putting their influence and spin on it.
  • The new Hippo Campus EP continues to showcase a band capable of writing clever and catchy indie pop rock with the best of them. I think it suits them best when they lean into that Hellogoodbye adjacent sound.
  • Waterparks are such a weird band. They can move between “damn, that’s an undeniably catchy and well-written song” and “What he hell was that, and what did he say?” at a faster speed than any band I listen to. Their new album continues this tradition. I think I lean more toward liking this than not.
  • The new album Daughter came out two weeks ago and is a gorgeous addition to the band’s catalog. I’ve been listening to it early in the morning while drinking coffee and preparing for my day.
  • The other release from yesterday I enjoyed was from Initiate. It’s a fast punk album, not unlike early Refused.
  • Leah Marie Mason showed up on my Apple Music weekly playlist, and her latest EP is a nice little country-pop entry that has put her career firmly on my radar.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 54 different artists, 73 different albums, and 528 different tracks (542 scrobbles). New Found Glory was my most-played artist, and Blink-182’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket was my most-played album (I scrobbed the live set last night, which gave it a boost). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • In a funny, nostalgic twist, Hannah and I watched the first two American Pie movies over the past week. It’d been years since we’d seen them and it was very problematic walk down memory lane. Those movies, how the kids dressed, and their soundtracks, were a pretty big influence (and probably not in a good way) in high school.
  • Reviews were mixed for Carnival Row, but I liked the first season, and after three episodes of the new one, I must say, I’m liking this season so far as well! I’m always here for more original content and I think they do it well.
  • The whole season of Poker Face was incredible and they could just keep making that for years and I’d be more than fine with that.

Random and Personal Stuff

  • Hannah’s had to work some today so I’ve been trying to get a few things done around the house, run a few errands, and now spend some time putting this newsletter together. The weather is slowly starting to turn, fingers crossed, and I can see some blue skies out there. I’m more than ready for the summer to finally arrive.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

  1. Blink-182 – Don’t Leave Me
  2. Magnolia Park – Addison Rae
  3. Initiate – Waste Your Life
  4. Waterparks – Funeral Grey
  5. The New Death Cult – High + Low
  6. Pinkshift – To Me
  7. Leah Marie Mason – Me or My Hometown
  8. Hippo Campus – Moonshine
  9. Daughter – Dandelion
  10. Jedha – Midwinter

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by ComedownMachine in the “blink-182” thread.

Fitting.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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