Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) has announced the launch of the Tom DeLonge Starcaster®, the sophomore signature guitar in honour of the melodic-punk icon. DeLonge was drawn to the Starcaster® only recently, first using it on stage in 2022. It was then stage-tested on the 2023/2024 Blink-182 Reunion Tour. Keep reading in the article below to find out more about the new signature guitar.
Multi-platinum, award-winning band blink-182 will be back on the road in the summer of 2024 with a stadium and arena tour through North America. Following the massive success of their colossal global outing and recent headlining festival performances at When We Were Young Festival, Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker will hit some of the biggest venues nationwide next year, debuting their new album One More Time … for the first time in the U.S. and Canada.
Tom DeLonge may have just played his hand and could be reuniting with Blink-182 after more than seven years out of the band! He updated his Instagram account this weekend and added that he “plays in Blink -182” – a mention of his former platinum selling pop punk band that had not been there in ages. Coupled with the fact that the band members had openly discussed reuniting following Mark Hoppus’ recent battle with cancer, and more recently Travis Barker’s health scare, and even current Blink frontman Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio saying publicly that he wasn’t even sure he was in the band (Blink) anymore, and signs point to yes!
Lansdowne Street in Boston, MA in October. It’s either extremely noisy and busy or it’s completely silent, in this instance it was the former rather than the later. Because we have Angels & Airwaves playing at the House of Blues the very same night that the Red Sox are facing the Houston Astros in the ALCS championship series… On the exact same street. We have baseball fans and music fans thrown together and it was pure magic. It’s gonna be a fun night, let’s dive right in.
Finn McKenty, The Punk Rock MBA is back again with another video at his popular YouTube channel critiquing musicians and bands. What matters the most? Vocal ability? Good looks? Star power? Specifically, he has a chart to analyze the talents of popular singers and bands such as Hayley Williams (Paramore), Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Tom Delonge (Blink-182), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Fronzilla, Andy Black, Phil Anselmo (Pantera/Down), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Rob Zombie, Oli Sykes, M Shadows, Brendon Urie (Panic At The Disco) Austin Carlile (ex of Mice & Men), Gwen Stefani, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande, Lil Peep, Charli XCX and more! Finnposts new videos every week and just launched a brand new podcast too!
“There was so much more we wanted to accomplish as a band” said Living With Lions’ lead vocalist Chase Brenneman after previous singer Stu Ross left in 2012. With such a bold statement, it is a clear indication that Island (No Sleep/Redfield), their first full-length album featuring former guitarist Brenneman on vocals, was meant to be ground-breaking.Continue reading
Matt Skiba is very busy these days. He’s fronted Alkaline Trio for close to two decades and also dabbled in side projects like Heavens and The Hell. In case you didn’t know, he’s also currently filling in for Tom Delonge in Blink 182.
And because apparently the devil makes good use of idle hands Skiba just released KUTS (Superball Music) with The Sekrets. The Sekrets almost being a supergroup for the Alternative Press crowd as it also features AFI bassist Huntar Burgan and My Chemical Romance’s Jarrod Alexander on drums.
Are you still with me? Good, because if you are a fan of any of those aforementioned groups then you are in for a pleasant surprise with KUTS.
The formula here hasn’t drastically changed. It’s simple, yet effective songwriting mated to a bright, but not overbearing mix. And that’s not to say that 2012s Babylon or Haven’t You EP weren’t good, but The Sekrets are starting to stretch their sound a little more as opposed to sticking with traditional pop-punk compositions. While there still are bits pf punk fire from time to time like on opener ‘Lonely and Kold’ and ‘She Said’ it seems that Skiba and his cohorts have been revisiting their The Smiths, The Cure, and Echo & The Bunnymen LPs.
This more post-punk approach really sets in on the second half of KUTS. Songs like ‘Way Bakk When’ and ‘Hemophiliak’ shift The Sekrets’ emphasis to melancholy as opposed to two minutes of aggression. ‘Never Believe’ and ‘Vienna’ close out the album and finds Skiba further channeling Johnny Marr with simple but haunting music to compliment his almost world-weary vocals.
Skiba finds a way to honor some of his musical heroes without it coming across as just a love letter to the late 70s and early 80s. But then again the man has time for what seems like 400 other musical projects. Not sure how he does it, but hopefully he won’t stop soon.
8.0/10
HANSEL LOPEZ
Former Blink 182 frontman Tom DeLonge is streaming the music video for “New World,”off of his forthcoming album odds and ends, out April 20, 2015. Watch it below.
Blink 182
The ongoing saga of whether Tom DeLonge had quit or was dismissed from Blink 182 keeps getting interesting. It originally began as the band’s publicist, Mark Hoppus and band drummer Travis Barker said he had left the band ‘indefinitely.’
In a statement, Barker explained:
Matt Skiba of the Alkaline Trio will join Blink-182 in replacement of Tom DeLonge at the 8th annual Musink Music and Tattoo Festival. “We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason. A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio we got an email from his manager explaining that he didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinetly, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors.” Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus plan to honor all Blink-182 commitments including the Musink Festival and are excited to have singer/guitarist Matt Skiba join them for this project. “No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.” Additionally, Skiba will continue to make new music and tour with the Alkaline Trio.
Photo Credit: Simone Joyner/Getty Images
But DeLonge rebutted in a statement of his own:
LETTER TO THE FANS
Where to begin?
The truth is always a good place. Let’s go there.
I love Blink and am incredibly grateful for having it in my life. It has given me everything. EVERYTHING. I started this band, it was in my garage where I dreamed up the mischief.
So what have I been doing behind the scenes? Well, I’ve tried to make things work. I’ve tried to help move this band down 50 different paths using my people, or other people, and people we don’t even know. I tried to put forth ideas about how we can grow and challenge ourselves to become a better band. I’m not sitting around waiting for someone else to do the work. I’m not wired that way.
The big reset was when I tried to put together a band summit in Utah where we’d talk and work things out. It quickly was narrowed down to three hours in someone’s dressing room in a shitty casino. What I hoped would be a positive get-together away from everything turned into an awkward meeting in a smelly convention hall dressing room. But it was there that I told Mark and Travis that as long as we talked, and things were good between us as real friends, that I would be engaged and work passionately. I’d mirror our personal relationship. Exact words.
Then, the EP was the test. Months later, we’re recording those songs. I was in the studio for two months and they came in for around 11 days. I didn’t mind leading the charge, but we had all agreed to give it 100%. And this time- no baggage.
Despite that, we still somehow managed to self-sabotage.
At one point, squabbling and politics forced me to pull the EP down at a time when 60,000 fans were trying to purchase it. And that blew my mind. I’d been trying so hard but that moment ultimately broke my spirit. I then realized that this band couldn’t lose the years of ill will.
It was after that episode that I promised myself I would never be in that position again – to rely on the words we said to each other.
I remember asking one of them on the phone, “did you try your best? Like we all agreed to?” He was silent.
Are they at fault?
Am I? Of course. I’m nuts.
But there’s three of us – we’re all accountable. At the end of the day, we’ve always been dysfunctional, which is why we haven’t talked in months. But we never did. In the 8 years we have been together it has always been that way.
Over the past two and a half years, while a recording partner was being sought for a new Blink record, I launched a media company. I just put out a new Angels & Airwaves record and as some of you know, there’s a lot more coming – comics, books, a film, etc. The books will all come with music. This is a wheel that’s already in motion. So you can imagine my frustration when I was handed a 60-page Blink contract saying I couldn’t release an Angels album for 9 months and that the Blink album had to be recorded in 6 months, which was impossible for me. Doing so would force me to breach several artist contracts. Authors, Concept Artists, Animators… Many people.
They did eventually drop the Angels provision, but the part about having to finish a Blink album in 6 months remained. All of these other projects are being worked, exist in contract form– I can’t just slam the brakes and drop years of development, partnerships and commitments at the snap of a finger.
I told my manager that I will do Blink 182 as long as it was fun and worked with the other commitments in my life, including my family.
But Mark and Travis know all of this.
I wrote this same letter to them a year ago. But it created a massive argument, the biggest one yet actually. I just wanted us to do things we all agreed on. But that was their moment to dig in. From their view I was controlling everything. In reality, I was scared to put myself out there again. To repeat the EP experience.
I also wrote all of this to their managers this past December (who told me my bandmates weren’t angry and agreed with some of my ideas of how to grow the band).
So you can imagine my surprise when a press release went out yesterday—without my knowledge—about the band’s future. This is new to me. It’s not in my nature to fuel negativity about the legacy of the band on something as trashy as the Internet world.
But I guess that’s another example of how I differ from most. I follow the light… I follow passion and I make art. I hang with my son, my daughter and my wife.
At the end of the day, all of this makes me really sad.
Sad for us.
Sad for you- that you’re witnessing this immaturity.
I know them very well, and their current actions are defensive and divisive.
I suppose they’re doing this as a way to protect themselves from being hurt.
Like we all do.
And even as I watch them act so different to what I know of them to be, I still care deeply for them. Like brothers, and like old friends. But our relationship got poisoned yesterday.
Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit.
–
Tom
Blink 182 has been confirmed for the 8th Annual Musink Festival at the OC Fair & Event Center on March 20-22, 2015. They will be headlining the Sunday date with Yelawolf and Prayers.