Blink-182 is one of the larger success stores to come out of the county here (San Diego County, California). Although, back in the 90s, us San Diegans knew them as simply “Blink” (until they added the “182” in 1995).
The band was originally:
- Mark Hoppus: Rancho Bernardo (a San Diego city community on the border with Poway)
- Tom Delong: Poway (a San Diego County city)
- Scott Raynor: Poway
Then they changed out their drummer for Travis Barker in 1998, who was then known as the drummer of The Aquabats (a ska-punk band out of Orange County, California). I even remember seeing The Aquabats when they’d come down to San Diego and play Soma.
Incidentally, Soma is also the venue where a friend and I filmed an interview with Blink-182 backstage (for a local music TV show we were trying to start called Inside Out Television). But I remember that none of the footage was usable because Mark and Tom were joking the whole time and didn’t really answer any of the questions. Scott was fine, as he was the one who set up the interview for us. So naturally, when they got rid of Scott, I was shocked to hear that because he seemed like the serious one while Mark and Tom weren’t. But I bet that off-camera, Mark and Tom were actually the hard-working and business-minded band members. I mean, their continued success had to come from somewhere. I don’t deny that.
The Name Change
Due to a legal issue, Blink had to change their name to Blink-182 (which they got from the movie: Turk-182). I know there is a lot of online debate over what the “182” means. But I know, for a fact, that it came from Turk-182. I know this because I heard it from a recording engineer that I worked with a lot (Jeff Forrest of Doubletime Recording Studio) that he was there when they came up with the idea for the new name (the Turk-182 movie was playing in the other room while they were recording in his studio).
Blink-182’s 90s Albums
The first release was their demo tape “Flyswatter” (self-released in 1993). They then released their second cassette tape, “Buddha” which later became available on CD and is now streaming via Kung Fu Records. Then they got signed to San Diego label, Cargo Records, and released “Cheshire Cat”. Immediately following that, they got signed to major label, MCA, who kept Cargo on as a co-label for “Dude Ranch” and more.
Blink-182’s 90s Music Videos
The “M+Ms” video was filmed at San Diego’s legendary 90s punk rock venue, Soma, as well as other locations around San Diego (like Belmont Park). The playing footage was filmed inside of Soma and the shootout scene was filmed behind the venue (I made a video revisiting the Soma/shootout location and the Belmont Park locations.
Additionally, after the ousting of Scott Raynor (their original drummer) he took some of his payout and invested it in the restart of Soma at their current location on Sports Arena Boulevard (rummer has it). I hear that he was instrumental in it as he also used family connections to do the renovation that needed to be done on the new Soma because it was converted from a movie theater. I cover that more in a video on my San Diego Coast page in the “Sports Arena” section.
The “Dammit” video was also featured on a punk rock music video compilation that I released in 1998 called Parental Advisory Explicit Punk. I have a page on that here.