Blink-182 California

Blink 182 are back with their follow up album to Neighborhoods. This will be the first album the band has released without Tom Delonge as well as the first album that will feature alkaline trio's Matt Skiba. Said to be released April 28,2016 due to a leaked images from Blink-182's site.

1. Cynical
2. Bored to Death
3. She's Out of Her Mind
4. Los Angeles
5. Sober
6. Built This Pool
7. No Future
8. Home Is Such a Lonely Place
9. Kings of the Weekend
10. Teenage Satellites
11. Left Alone
12. Rabbit Hole
13. San Diego
14. The Only Thing That Matters
15. California
16. Brohemian Rhapsody

Friday, July 22, 2016 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena*

Saturday, July 23, 2016 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas*

Tuesday, July 26, 2016 El Paso, TX Don Haskins Center*

Thursday, July 28, 2016 Oklahoma City, OK Chesapeake Energy Arena*

Friday, July 29, 2016 Dallas, TX Gexa Energy Pavilion*

Saturday, July 30, 2016 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center*

Sunday, July 31, 2016 Houston, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion*

Tuesday, August 02, 2016 Atlanta, GA Lakewood Amphitheatre*

Wednesday, August 03, 2016 Greenville, SC Bon Secours Arena*

Friday, August 05, 2016 West Palm Beach, FL Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre*

Saturday, August 06, 2016 Tampa, FL MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre*

Monday, August 08, 2016 Nashville, TN Ascend Amphitheater*

Tuesday, August 09, 2016 Cleveland, OH Blossom Music Center*

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center*

Friday, August 12, 2016 Camden, NJ BB&T Pavilion**

Saturday, August 13, 2016 Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach**

Sunday, August 14, 2016 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center**

Tuesday, August 16, 2016 Virginia Beach, VA Farm Bureau Live**

Friday, August 19, 2016 Mansfield, MA Xfinity Center**

Sunday, August 21, 2016 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Amphitheatre**

Tuesday, August 23, 2016 Syracuse, NY Lakeview Amphitheatre**

Wednesday, August 24, 2016 Darien Center, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center**

Thursday, August 25, 2016 Scranton, PA The Pavilion at Montage Mountain**

Saturday, August 27, 2016 Hershey, PA Hershey Park Pavilion**

Sunday, August 28, 2016 Pittsburgh, PA First Niagara Pavilion**

Tuesday, August 30, 2016 Clarkston, MI DTE Energy Music Theater**

Friday, September 02, 2016 Hartford, CT Xfinity Theatre**

Saturday, September 03, 2016 Bangor, ME Darling's Waterfront Pavilion**

Sunday, September 04, 2016 Saratoga, NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center**

Thursday, September 08, 2016 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center*

Friday, September 09, 2016 Tinley Park, IL Hollywood Casino Amphitheater*

Saturday, September 10, 2016 Noblesville, IN Klipsch Music Center*

Sunday, September 11, 2016 St. Louis, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheater *

Tuesday, September 13, 2016 Denver, CO Pepsi Center*

Thursday, September 15, 2016 Boise, ID Taco Bell Arena*

Friday, September 16, 2016 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena*

Saturday, September 17, 2016 Seattle, WA Key Arena*

Sunday, September 18, 2016 Vancouver, BC Abbotsford Centre*

Tuesday, September 20, 2016 Portland, OR Sunlight Supply Amphitheater*

Thursday, September 22, 2016 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre**

Saturday, September 24, 2016 Phoenix, AZ Ak-Chin Pavilion**

Sunday, September 25, 2016 Albuquerque, NM Isleta Amphitheater**

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheater**

Thursday, September 29, 2016 Irvine, CA Irvine Meadows Amphitheater **

Saturday, October 01, 2016 Los Angeles, CA Forum**

* - with A Day To Remember & All American Rejects

** - with A Day To Remember & All Time Low

California was recorded January through March at Foxy Studios (John Feldmanns studio) in Woodland Hills, California.

Feldmann is the groups first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. Prior to his involvement, the trio began writing together some months earlier & completed dozens of songs. They decided to shelve them upon working with Feldmann to start fresh & they proceeded to record another 28 songs; in all, the group recorded upwards of 50. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start & complete multiple songs in that timeframe.

Hoppus considered the music on the album wide-ranging, commenting, "We tried to capture the energy & not worry so much about all the knobs." This includes songs he felt sounded like the group circa 1999, "super-fast late-Nineties-punk-rock-sounding songs," as well as more progressive songs "that are like nothing we have ever done before." Overall, he considered the record "really rich with sing-along melodies & sing-along choruses," which was what he preferred most when listening to bands. Feldmann considered the music not a "huge departure" from the Blinks usual sound, as hoped to make a "classic Blink record." To familiarize himself, he listened to all of the bands catalogue prior to recording. Lisa Worden, music director at Los Angeles radio station KROQ, compared its sound to the second Blink album Dude Ranch & commented, "It sounds like Blink but its not anything that we’ve heard before. For fans of the band, they’re going to be super happy with it."

Hoppus considered his lyrical content more or less the same as prior releases: "The topics are universal. There is a lot of angst that could be teen angst or it could be angst of everyday life. I still have the same emotions I had 20 years ago – I get frustrated or I get excited. I still feel like Im falling in love with my wife." Though in the past he preferred to ruminate on his lyrics for days on end, Feldmanns speedy process gave Hoppus little time to process them. Despite this, he felt he wrote "some of the best lyrics Ive written in a long time for this record, because I didnt have a chance to go & overthink things." - "Bored To Death" was the first song the band recorded with Feldmann on the group's first day of work with him. "Home Is Such a Lonely Place" is a ballad with "clean arpeggiated finger-picking guitars with strings underneath it." - "Built This Pool" is a short joke song with homoerotic lyrics.

The albums artwork was created by English street artist D*Face. Barker was a fan of his work, having bought many of his pieces at his galleries in the past. According to D*Face, the trio "wanted the artwork to represent California, but with a subversive side to show that its not always great & theres always something under the surface, in the underbelly." The artist was particularly busy, & employed pre-existing but unfinished illustration for the album cover. He also offered two alternate pieces that were rejected, but later posted on NMEs website. Skiba & Barker were pleased, but Hoppus was not as immediately receptive, according to the artist. While he did not admit to being a fan of the group, D*Face was happy with the commission, commenting, "To have a band with such a great legacy & talent like Blink ask to work with you is a great honour & privilege."

The title California is representative of the bands home state & was picked after the band members realized they had written multiple songs relating to its cities & culture. The title was also inspired by the season & Feldmanns studio: "It was a perfect California winter & it was sunny & hot every single day. Johns studio, its basically indoor-outdoor with palm trees everywhere." Though he refrained from dubbing it a concept album, Skiba considered the songs linked thematically: "big & bright & huge & dark & twisted, everything that California is." - "The title of this album was one of the most difficult things Ive done in my entire life," said Hoppus. Alternate titles for the album included No Future, which was dropped because it seemed too negative & the joke titles OB-GYN Kenobi, Nude Erection & No Hard Feelings. D*Face also reported that the titles Los Angeles & Riot were nearly used.

1. -> "Cynical" -> 1:55
2. -> "Bored To Death" -> 3:55
3. -> "Shes Out Of Her Mind" -> 2:42
4. -> "Los Angeles" -> 3:03
5. -> "Sober" -> 2:59
6. -> "Built This Pool" -> 0:16
7. -> "No Future" -> 3:45
8. -> "Home Is Such A Lonely Place" -> 3:21
9. -> "Kings Of The Weekend" -> 2:56
10. -> "Teenage Satellites" -> 3:11
11. -> "Left Alone" -> 3:09
12. -> "Rabbit Hole" -> 2:35
13. -> "San Diego" -> 3:12
14. -> "The Only Thing That Matters" -> 1:57
15. -> "California" -> 3:10
16. -> "Brohemian Rhapsody" -> 0:30

Total length -> 42:36

"We all wanted to write the best record that we could and everybody was really focused. We’d show up at eight in the morning and stay until two in the morning all week long. And I think that crucible that we lived in for those two months really created something special. It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that’s all we wanted to do is play rock music."

— Mark Hoppus

Travis Barker will be premiering Blink 182's new track ‪Rabbit Hole‬ on Apple Music tomorrow June 8th at 9:30amPST with Zane Lowe. LISTEN LIVE ON apple.co/beats1radio

There are rumors & Ive heard from some radio stations that they will.... that the tracks B182 scraped before putting these songs on this album they will put on an album & release soon after 'California' then release an EP.

Former kings of pop-punk return with a new album and new member. Surrounded by controversy (at least within the pop-punk community) does it live up to its promise? Louder Than War’s Dave Beech reviews.

Growing up, the music of Blink-182 was never more than the press of a play button away from me. Yes, it was juvenile and simplistic and even at times, glaringly misogynistic, but to a ten year old on the cusp of puberty, it was music that opened doors and provided me with an identity.

Times and taste change. I grew older and Blink split up, a messy divorce which lead to side-projects, both well received and otherwise. The period that followed was turbulent for those involved and it was this point that I lost interest. My tastes changed further and even the inevitable reformation and 2011’s considerably matured Neighbourhoods did little reignite that original spark.

Why then, over fifteen years after first falling in love with the band, should the prospect of a new album be as exciting as it is? In short, it wasn’t. At least not at first.

Dogged by delays in recording and an ever-growing turbulence between members, the then-untitled eighth album didn’t really harbour any appeal further than mild curiosity. Then there were rumours, then speculation, then solid fact. Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba had replaced Tom DeLonge as the band’s guitarist and work began on entirely new material.

The resulting record is their strongest since 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Fitting in to the Blink cannon arguably far easier than the aforementioned Neighbourhoods, California builds on everything that made the band great in the first place, without getting bogged down by nostalgia. Skiba’s integration is effortless and is something that has allowed the band to move forward, creating an album that feels fresh and exciting, but first and foremost, vital.

Its release is undoubtedly going to be met with a certain degree of resentment from purists, but those that balk at the idea of a DeLonge-less Blink-182 record need only listen to the opening three tracks to know they’re in safe hands.

Cynical kicks off proceedings with two minutes of indentikit Blink instrumentation, though the introduction of Skiba’s vocal offers something a little more palatable than DeLonge’s idiosyncratic whine, while the previously released Bored to Death feels like a natural progression from 2003’s self-titled offering.

Though much of California feels familiar in a welcoming sense, there’s a maturity present too, something evident in an expanded palette of instruments as much as in the direction of the tracks themselves. Bored to Death for instance features subtle strings and synth, while Left Alone leans heavily on the latter. The strong emphasis on electronics is something else for which the band has felt criticism, but it’s worth noting that they were experimenting with synths as far back as 2003, and it’s only now that they feel a natural part of their make-up.

That Blink-182 have managed to successfully balance a legitimate energy and freshness with enough tropes to still feel like Blink-182 is impressive, and there isn’t really a bad song on the record. Sober has an unashamedly sing-song pop melody, likewise with the Good Charlotte-esque Home Is Such A Lonely Place, and there are a couple of occasions where the band veer into later-Goldfinger territory – something brought about due to frontman John Feldmann’s on production duties. These aren’t negatives however, and feel more like subtle references to the genre Blink-182 once dominated and are now slowly moving away from.

Both a love letter to the band’s home state and the experiences it afforded them, and a love letter to life itself, California is a record steeped in vigour and vitality. It understands that life is fleeting, and, for all its peaks, troughs, triumphs and near misses, is something to be grabbed by both hands.

Even bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus can’t believe how big 2016 was for the band, “As long as Blink has been around and with all the drama we have a number one album, we have the biggest tour of our career and we have a GRAMMY nomination. It’s insane to me,” reports Billboard.

Particularly interesting is that fans are requesting new songs, as well as the old, Hoppus shared, “We started touring before the album came out. We had a single that came out, we leaked another song, leaked another song. I think that by the time that the album actually hit there were three songs out and we had already kind of started touring. And people were asking for more and more new songs.

“With a brand-new record, typically people still want to hear mostly old stuff and maybe one or two songs from a new album, but on this tour specifically, people were asking every single show for more and more new songs. So by the end of the tour we were playing probably about almost half of the album as part of the tour.”

Said drummer Travis Barker: “I think that’s the biggest compliment and reassurance is we’d play our set and people would be screaming and it’d be something like, ‘Play more new s—.’ People are even calling out, ‘Play ‘California,’’ ‘Play ‘Sober,’’ naming songs off the new album. Usually people, even me, I’m guilty, when I go see someone I’m like, ‘I want them to play this record or stuff from this album.’ That was when we really knew that we won and made an incredible album, when fans that had been with us for years and years came out on this tour and would request more new material.”

Regarding the upcoming deluxe album of California Blink-182 says the release will feature new songs and mixes that practically make it a new album. During the recording sessions, Barker expressed his concern. with producer John Feldmann.

“I was like, ‘Dude, we got a problem, the deluxe album might even be better than California.’ It’s a good problem to have, but, oh s—, it’s incredible. It’s kind of like a mind f— because it should almost be a new album. But it just goes to show how natural and organic things are happening and how fun this process has been because it’s not hard to go write great songs and make fun music that we love creating and listening to. And the results are great. The deluxe album will be neck-and-neck with California. It’s in no way fillers.”

Cynical
Bored to Death
She's Out of Her Mind
Los Angeles
Sober
Built This Pool
No Future
Home is Such a Lonely Place
Kings of the Weekend
Teenage Satellites
Left Alone
Rabbit Hole
San Diego
The Only Thing That Matters
California
Brohemian Rhapsody

Parking Lot
Misery
Good Old Days
Don't Mean Anything
Hey I'm Sorry
Last Train Home
Wildfire
6/8
Long Lost Feeling
Bottom of the Ocean
Can't Get You More Pregnant
Bored to Death (Acoustic)