Turning rebellion into money

Dying Scene have compiled a list of the richest punks. They're using 'punk' in the divider-in-Target-CD-rack sense than any meaningful sense, so Blink 182 come out at the top of the list.

[via Louder Than War]

Blink 182: Who can imagine what the new record will sound like?

Blink 182 are, lest we live in any prelapsarian fantasy, busily recording their first album in six years. That makes it sound like we're in for a treat, doesn't it?

Tom DeLonge [told a film crew] "No one really knows what to expect from the next Blink record, [but] I don't think anyone thinks it's going to be a straightforward rock record. ... [It's] probably the most ambitious songwriting and art that we've ever made."

Actually, Tom: I think most people do know what to expect from a new Blink 182 record. A gentle sinking feeling. Men on the cusp of Middle Age pretending that they're actually teenagers. A straightforward rock record buried underneath as much noodling as the record company is prepared to stand.

But then, you say "it's the most ambitious art we've ever made" - and let's not laugh here, shall we, for all by-products of a culture are art, even if the art is little more than sticking two egg-box cups on a toilet roll tube, painting it bright blue and calling it a dragon.

Can teenage rebellion pay the mortgage? That's a question for Mr Durst.

Bookmarks - Internet stuff: Vampire Weekend and Blink 182

There's a wonderful extract from a Vampire Weekend profile in the New Yorker being shared by Kempa.com. For some reason, Vampire Weekend are interviewing Tom DeLonge. He turns up with a camera crew in tow, too - making a "Blinkumenary", he explains. Then he starts to pitch some mashed-up social networking music company he seems to be running:

“I term it an ‘operating system,’” DeLonge said. “You could sell music, you could sell movies, you could sell advance tickets, you could do advertising, you could do automated V.I.P. parties. We’re gonna be putting in live auctions, e-commerce.” He continued, “We’re doing it with the White Stripes.”
[...]
DeLonge [...] talked about video blogging: “Do you want to do normal blogs – or do you want to do it in the dark and have lasers going and make it look like you’re from space? And not call it a blog, call it a space cam?”

[Massive thanks to Michael M for spotting this]

Blink 182 afraid of being heard

Blink 182 have written a brand new song. Well, I say "brand new"; experience suggests it'll be the same song with a different name. Although I could be being unfair - it might be a seven minute mock-rock-opera. They're too afraid to play it in public, so nobody knows:

Bassist Mark Hoppus explained: "We might possibly play it, but probably not, though. finished recording it yet, and we really don't want the first time that people hear our new song to be a YouTube version of us playing it live. We want it to be the actual song, and we haven't gotten the chance to finish it yet, so we'll probably leave it out of the set until we actually release it."

"We don't think anyone will want to buy the song if they get to hear it first. And, besides, it's unfinished. And if people hear the half-finished thing, they might, you know, conclude it's the same song that we've been churning out for the last oh-god-is-it-really-17-years and not buy it when we have 'finished' it in some way. No, we'll just keep it over here. There is too a new track. There is. You just can't hear it. It's like a kitten. You can't touch the kittens before they're ready. Mother would tell me that. 'Don't touch the kittens' she'd scream. 'Leave those kittens alone'. At the top her lungs. Then she'd drag me down the street, calling all the neighbours to look: 'Look, look, Mark touched the kittens and now their Momma is going to reject them. Because Mark couldn't follow the rules. I should reject him, the way the momma cat will reject the kittens'. Only... uh... on YouTube. Can I have a popsicle, please?"

Blink 182 had split? I thought I'd had them shipped off in a container

The highlight of last night's Grammys, if you measure events in terms of people seizing a stage to deliver news that nobody could care about, would have been Blink 182 announcing their reunion:

Travis Barker — wearing a sling on his injured left arm — and estranged guitarist Tom DeLonge walked out together, with Hoppus joking, "Isn't it great to see the Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder back together again?" after the unlikely pairing performed a medley of the Bros' "Burning Up" and Wonder's "Superstition." Barker added, "We used to play music together, and we decided we're going to play music together again," as DeLonge stood awkwardly to the side. Hoppus also yelled, "Blink-182 is back!"

The auditorium then fell silent, as the entire audience fired up Wikipedia on their Blackberries to try and remind themselves which one was Blink 182 and which was Green Day, before going "oh...".

Barker out

Travis Barker has been released from hospital; he's been getting treatment for burns following his escape from the fatal plane crash.

You don't say

More sensitive coverage of the Travis Barker plane crash, with ContactMusic breathlessly panting:

BLINK-182 rocker TRAVIS BARKER was screaming with pain immediately after the tragic plane crash which left him with serious burns, according to a police officer at the scene.

A man with serious burns screaming with pain, you say? Whoever would have thought?

Barker plane crash: Death sounds

You have to wonder: was there anyone, anyone at all, at South Carolina ABC affiliate WOLO TV, who paused for a moment before flinging out an audio recording of Travis Barker screaming for help as four of his friends and colleagues burned to death? Any single moment where someone thought that, perhaps, the audio added nothing to the story and might be better off left unheard? A single moment where someone with the power to take an editorial judgement might have considered how they'd feel if it was their anguish being served up between commercials?

Travis Barker 'seriously burnt' in fatal plane crash

Travis Barker and his partner in TRVSDJAM, Adam Goldstein, have been seriously injured in a plane crash following a gig in Columbia, South Carolina.

The pair, relatively, were lucky: The other four people on board died in the accident. Their private lear jet overshot a runway on take-off, hitting the airport's communication aerials, before bursting into flames on the neighbouring highway.

CNN firther reports:

Lexington County Coroner Harry O. Harman said all the dead in Friday's crash were Californians.

He identified them as pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills; co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad; Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City; and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles

Producerobit: Jerry Finn

Jerry Finn - who has been pronounced dead several times online over the last few weeks - actually passed on Thursday 21st, reports Billboard.

The 39 year-old had worked with most of the figures in the post-Green Day "punk" scene - his big break had been engineering on Dookie - but after a list of credits including AFI and Blink 182, he took on the perhaps surprising role as producer for Morrissey's You Are The Quarry. This year, his last major production work would be for Morrissey again, on Years Of Refusal.

Finn suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in July and was taken off life support earlier this month. There are plans for a memorial fund in his name.

Travis Barker powers up for drink battle

Travis Barker is upset that Rockstar - the nasty Red Bull type "energy drink" - used his face on a promo website, implying that he endorsed their product. He's suing, of course.

It's a pity Rockstar didn't ask first; an endorsement from a man who knows a thing or two about cloying, sickly products would have been a perfect fit.

Whigfield: Travis Barker

Travis Barker isn't, contrary to the Whigfield doing the rounds, dead. He's nowhere near as interesting as that.