Blink-182 are working with producer Jerry Finn at Rolling Thunder studios in San Diego, recording the follow-up to 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. "People are going to trip out on this record," says singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge. "We're assembling each song in a completely different manner than we have before. We sat down and started mapping out the architecture of how we're actually going to do this, and we came to plan a few core concepts that revolve around a cohesive mixture of punk rock and good drum-n-bass and hip-hop beats. But a lot of it is played like emo-core bands, where there's a lot of definition between the parts of the song and a lot of emotion so it's that kind of vibe."

Slated for a fall release, the new record is being influenced by albums that have been spinning in Blink's stereos of late, which in DeLonge's case includes recordings by the Cure, DJ Shadow and the Cars. Among the songs in the works so far are "Down," "Obvious," "I Want a Horse's Penis in My Butt" and "I Miss You." "We did 'I Miss You' with brushes and a snare drum and it's like a jazz hip-hop beat," DeLonge says. "It's looped and all acoustic, with an acoustic bass guitar. It's kind of in the vein of 'Love Cats' by the Cure."

DeLonge says another new song, "I Should Have Got Caught," sounds like a cross between the Cure and the Descendants. "It's kind of got this fast punk rock beat but with these guitar tones like the early Cure stuff where it's really dry and then it's got these gigantic anthemic choruses," he says. "It's a song about a guy not telling a girl he likes her and then years down the road looking back and saying 'Fuck, I missed my only chance. I wish you would have caught me with those feelings.'"

Fans waiting for DeLonge, bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker to finish the new set can get an earlier Blink fix with the release of the DVD/VHS Riding In Vans With Boys, which DeLonge says is due in June. The film follows San Diego band Kut-U-Up on last year's Blink-182/Green Day tour and includes live footage of Blink-182, as well as the backstage hijinks of Green Day, Jimmy Eat World and Saves the Day.

"We grabbed these guys in this garage band that have no fans and said, 'Hey, what would it be like if you got put on the biggest tour of the year?,'" says DeLonge. "We thought it would be cool to put a band nobody likes and knows of on this tour and give them all the money they want for drugs and alcohol and see what happens and we videotaped it."

COLIN DEVENISH
(April 17, 2003)