002 Apple Shampoo

"On this episode of blink-155, we're talking about Apple Shampoo, one of the best songs on the best blink-182 album."

## Episode Summary

### Housekeeping

* Josiah expresses concern that listeners will be mad at them because of the volume of content about each song available on line, they will miss something.
* Sam is still learning how to pronounce Tom's last name. He used to say Tom "Delonj" with a soft g, like a wealthy French aristocrat.

### Initial Thoughts

* Sam describes Apple Shampoo as a stand out on Dude Ranch, if not the greatest song in the entire 155 song cannon.

### Main Discussion

* Josiah selected this song because the last episode was a Tom song and didn't want to make too esoteric a choice this early on. It also was the first single on Dude Ranch.
* Most people come to the album through Dammit, so then Apple Shampoo is an unassuming, hidden gem. It is decidedly a terrible first single because nothing repeats and there is no chorus.
* This song is proto Garnier punk, before the Transplants made the leap. Perhaps it was this song that made Travis Barker think that shampoo was punk.
* The Australian CD single cover art features the bunny logo but superimposed as a skateboarder doing a 50/50 grind. The bad graphic design is very hip. The CD is currently on Discogs for $179.53
* Josiah suggests that blink-182 predicted the current wave of ironic baggy khaki skateboard aesthetic
* The song does everything that blink does well; slow start, sing-along part, gets really fast, and a sing-along with a slur.
* Sam and Josiah are both very uncomfortable trying to discuss the r-slur. They contextualize its use within 90s skate punk culture, where the word was used a lot more frequently.
* Mark has said that this song is about Elise from Dancehall Crashers
* Mark being tired of playing shows in 1997 is heartbreaking but also relatable. However, Mark has always been fairly transparent about wanting to be a pop rock person.
* All actual videos of blink playing Apple Shampoo on Youtube are all perfect shitty VHS rips and Mark is always doing huge punk jumps. Now, he just has a dad pose on stage, bumming around.

### List of Covers

Sam picks:

1. Skakin Nickle, run through an extreme Op Ivy lens. Refers to himself as "acoustic doomska." Very Planet X records, Ghost Mice, Defiance Ohio. (They also listen to a few seconds of his Dammit cover, which was uploaded 15 days prior to this ep).
2. Makukadu [??]: 26 views over 2 years, 2/3s of the frame is empty. Josiah thinks its so bad its charming and Sam thinks its like a piece of Jandek, outsider art, "weird Canada shit"
3. Luke electric: barely recognizable as Apple Shampoo, this track is not mastered. Could have also said it was Louie Louie, it was just the GCDC chord structure. Josiah called it pitiful.

2. Full beard, Fox Racing shirt, fender guitar, blink posters in a child bedroom (they describe him, but don't play his cover)
3. From the Who Sampled website, Chad Neidt, who looks kinda like Tom Green in the worst possible way. Video has 900K views and its every blink-182 album in a minute. Looks like a fuck boy with an acoustic guitar that ruins every campfire he's every been to.

### Final Thoughts

Josiah: didn't have as strong a reactions as he did to Dumpweed. The song is possibly too good to really have a strong opinion about, it just blends in perfectly into Dude Ranch. The use of the r-slur makes him uncomfortable, but mostly in reflecting on his own usage of it. It ages the song. Otherwise, if it came out today, it would be better than any song by a "defend pop punk" band.

Sam: This is one of the best of this era of Mark Hoppus songs, sometimes got a little too sincere, great big harms.

## Bands/People/Places Mentioned

* Simple Plan - the riff for I'm Just a Kid sounds very similar to Apple Shampoo
* Black Eyed Peas - use the r-slur much more recently than blink
* Weird Al - The song is poetic in a perfectly 90s self-deprecating way, sincere and charming but also as if Weird Al wrote the song
* Ryan Dyck/B-lines -
* Dancehall Crashers (DHC) - there is supposedly a DHC song that is a response to Apple Shampoo called "Nothing Left to Say" which is so terrible, Sam and Josiah feel Mark dodged a bullet.
* Green Day/Gilman - unlike blink, Green Day is always trying to stay in touch with their roots by playing shows at Gilman.
* 5 Seconds of Summer - Josiah has a soft spot for them, also produced by John Feldmann
* Alan Cross - Craig Kilborn has an "Alan Cross vibe" and Sam and Josiah think Cross definitely has opinions on blink.
* Mark Duplass/Duplass brothers - Josiah's favourite genre of Youtube covers ("not really the best for playing on a podcast") is kid who lives with his parents and just does a guitar cover turn with the speakers turned up really loud. Loud guitar covers on Youtube by a guy who's too old to be doing it could be a pitch for a Duplass brothers movie.

## Other Notable Items

* Josiah admits that he spent 10 to 20 years of his life never shampooing his hair. His recent shaved head hairstyle is due to the severe psoriasis he caused.
* Josiah has often thought idea of getting a blink-182 tattoo that was the blink bunny with Blinky's head (from the Matt Groening comic) but was worried people would think it a ska tattoo because the bunny looks like he's skanking. Upon closer inspection, Sam and Josiah decide the bunny is actually forming a swastika. A "Ska-stika"
* Josiah suggests that 90s merch always had racing stripes because everyone was doing sick punk jumps and needed the extra speed.
* First discussion of the difference between Scott and Travis drumming (from 001 - Dumpweed). Travis makes you feel like you're at a Long and McQuade drum clinic.
* Josiah wonders why there are no boundaries in ska, why is blink loved by ska people?
* Josiah thinks that maybe 174 - Dammit will be their final episode.