Cut the skin to the bone

Fall asleep all alone
Hear your voice in the dark

Lose myself in your eyes
Choke my voice, say good night
As the world falls apart

I haven’t posted very much on Postblink since last November’s election. School got very hectic for a bit and only got more hectic with the passing of a family member. Since then, I’ve missed putting out my thoughts on several new albums, movies, and other forms of entertainment. That was a temporary absence.

I transferred my personal blog from LucasJ.Net to Postblink in July of 2006. It has since contained numerous rantings, a few random attempts at playing music, and random thoughts about music, movies, tv, politics, and more. See, the year prior to that summer of drunken shenanigans, I had met up with these kids that were all trying to learn their instruments – except the drummer. He had pretty much gotten his shit down. We were spending many a Friday night and Saturday morning in this small green room. I could barely walk around in it, else lose the top of my head to a ceiling fan. We were playing a lot of blink-182 covers and I slowly fell in love with this band who’s name became synonymous with fart and dick jokes in the 90′s.

At some point that winter we had decided it would be a good idea to play some blink-182 covers at our high school talent show. At some point during that decision we had also decided that I would sing – big mistake right? Don’t let your ears be frightened. I never sang. Unfortunately (depending on your perspective) I had surgery to correct some nerve damage caused by a broken ankle the previous year and had enough trouble walking around. Standing up even for a few minutes of music was out of the question. I was pretty bummed.

Luckily for the other guys, I had a friend who was pretty stoked about music and liked what we were doing. I then suggested he take my place.

Essentially one winter had changed my thoughts on music. I began listening to the self-titled blink-182 religiously. Regardless of what you thought of the 3 piece punk band from SoCal, you had to respect their self-titled work. The recording tecniques and production values were amazing. Producer  Jerry Finn, who passed last August, had forged this group into a music machine.

But I jumped aboard the blink-182 boat too late. They announced their hiatus in early 2005 and shortly after we began to hear rumors of a new Tom DeLonge project. Angels and Airwaves came, followed by Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s +44. I saw Angels a few times and, while I enjoyed what they were doing, they weren’t blink. I caught +44 and The Matches at a club up in Minnesota that will forever be one of my favorite shows ever. I was feet away from Mark Hoppus and was watching Travis Barker dominate his set with one hand while his other sat in an arm brace with a ciggarette.. But of course, it still wasn’t blink.

Postblink was born sometime in the midst of all of this. During a sober moment in that summer of 2006 I had been listening to blink-182 all day. I decided, for some reason, to purchase a new domain. Postblink just seemed to fit. Of course, I didn’t even realize at the time that the music scene was changing drastically. Pop punk bands with effiminite lead vocalists began cranking out bubble gum lyrics to a generation of 12 year old girls. And the nerve of it all! More than half of them did it all while listing blink-182 as their biggest influence. Yeah, times were definitely post-blink. Flavor of the month bands began getting air time on the radio. Warped Tour began to die for many people. I remember watching girls come back from the front of a crowd watching My Chemical Romance with bloody noses, being carried to the med tent.

Things have gotten a little ridiculous in the “punk” scene. Of course, you can argue that the genre is wide and undefinable – whatever.

My point is that things have gotten a bit sad in that department for me. But of course, this past winter we found out that the members of blink-182 had began talking again. Rumors ran rampent. Then, in the days leading up to the Grammys, David Kennedy let loose that blink-182 had began recording a new album. Of course, Mark, Tom, and Travis showed up on stage at the Grammys to announce they were, in fact, back together.

And now the summer of 2009 looks a little more sunny and a little less bubbly. I don’t know that blink will influence a new generation of bands that will overcome the likes of Metro Station, but I am hopeful. And perhaps I’ll see you on their tour this year.

Postblink will stay Postblink. I will badger the hooligans that contribute to the site to do so more this summer. It may start slow for a just a bit, until school is done.

But hey – if you’re bored you can always go check out my friends at the adventuresofbradandjordan.