171 - Always

"Welcome to blink-155, recently evolved into the internet’s, like 7th or 8th blink-182 podcast. That’s right, I discovered that, in August, a new blink-182 podcast came on the scene: blink-182 Chile Live, a Chilean blink-182 podcast.”

## Title Pun

Australia has their own version of comedy parody artist, Weird Al Yankovich. He changes songs to make them impart life lessons. They’re not really funny, they’re about growth as a person and sort of about imparting his knowledge, his wisdom. With the Australian Weird Al, things are a little backwards when you go down undah to Chile or Australia. The Weird Al that they have over there, his name is backwards from the way that you’d say it here. He’s like a parody artist who’s trying to impart wisdom and that’s why his name is: Al Wise.

## Episode Summary

### Housekeeping

Blink-182 Chile Live plays in the background while Sam and Josiah rehash the Mark Hoppus/Discord incident. They wonder what they would do if they were Mark Hoppus during COVID. Sam would develop a concerning hobby, like getting into crossbows and Josiah would do basically what he's doing now but with less credit card debt.

### Initial Thoughts

Josiah thinks Always has a First Date-style chorus, in that its bad and feels almost insulting. Tom writes amazing verses and pre choruses but can't do a chorus. There is still enough to the song to make it good.

Sam reiterates the revelation from a previous episode that good blink-182 songs are just sped up Cure songs. This song is the definition of that but not sped up enough so is still quite bad. Unlike First Date, he does not feel compelled to shit on it, but does make a fart sound in his mind during the chorus.

This is followed by an extensive discussion on the merits of shitting at home versus shitting at work and the best and work workplaces Sam and Josiah had to shit.

### Main Discussion

**Music Video**: This is a hard song to separate from the music video, which invented an whole genre of tumblr posts (picture stills from the video in sepia tone with lyrics written in many different fonts). Tom looks decrepitly emo. Australian singer, Sophie Monk, plays the girlfriend and the video was shot on The Wiggles set. Tom apparently describes the video like this: "It's like doing an algebraic formulation on paper when you watch it. It's the same kind of feeling but its rad."

Josiah has been too scared to discuss Tom's Free Masonry on the pod (including his new neck tattoo) and Sam just doesn't know what Free Mason's are. They decide that they could have gotten Tom on the pod if they joined the Free Masons and all you need to know, you can learn from the Simpsons Stonecutters episode.

Clip: Tom audio clip

Clip: Video from studio...

Clip: Live 2014 video from Redding Festival, Tom looks exactly like Leo Dehoe

**Lyrics**: The first few lines are not terrible and beginning each sentence with 'and' is interesting. "Are you ready" is a very Angels and Airwaves line. Tom is always promising something huge is going to happen but they get their hearts broken every time with bad choruses. "Come on" is a terrible start to the chorus that devolves into Tom sounding like he's being a creep.

Clip: Video by Acoustic Spear Chucker shows how to play the song with hand drawn tabs on loose leaf paper.

### List of Covers

1) Nightcore: DJ Cloudchaser

2) Chopped and screwed: Lil Fro aka Fuck a Zan

Soundcloud Remix Section

3) CHLLNGR

4) Sleepy Boi “Always Too Sleepy”

5) Dabba Bootleg Remix

6) NUMIK - Anime dubstep category

7) It’s Marlo - Hardstyle edit - Song fits organically with all the remix format

Breathy acoustic Youtube Section

8) Ashley Pantzare, classic youtuber set up, ring ight, maybe a yeti with a pop screen, high gain, hard S’s

9) Gretta Rose Stanley - very messy room. Causes Sam and Josiah attempt to sing in a middle of the throat Jack Johnson voice

10) Shelby Seebs - wearing a Holister hoodie

11) Richard Corps 88 [?]

12) Billyn’Rubians - Outdoor music video. Has a Tim Armstrong acoustic guitar. Looks like Cousin Greg.

13) Sean Dorsit - 2006, possibly 40 but dressed like a teen skateboarder. Very Scottish.

14) Triple Z Robix - Powerful normie energy, half zip, collection of model airplanes on the wall.

Misc.

15) The Man 23 - guitar and singing cover, palm muting energy.

16) Captain Jonas - Curly moustache, alt country cover, ramshackle sound, feels like he’s sipping moonshine

17) Trina Melodia - piano cover

18) DJ Topie - one year old cover, artwork is a bejeweled knock-off nike sandal slides

19) Saxl Rose - double screen thing from music video, sax cover. Legitimately cool person.

20) Coastlands band (Andy Ramirez of the Nation)

Sam and Josiah decide the line “here I am, I’m trying” makes all the covers invincible and that this may be the best cover section of all time. Sam suggests that the song translates well to other genres because its a foundation we all understand: "everyone smiles, everyone laughs, everyone loves blink 182." They go back and forth on whether blink-182 actually deserves credit for that and decide that both blink's willingness to put out something so simple and people doing interesting covers that show different angles of the song deserve credit.

### Final Thoughts

Even though he was feeling like he had nothing left to say about blink-182, Sam was slapped in the face with why they continue to do this project and why this project works and is rewarding.

Josiah suggests that maybe everything does have merit if you listen to it enough or focus on it from a different angle. He is becoming Robin, which is a scary but exciting development. You either die Dead Tooth Guy or live long enough to see yourself become Robin.

## Bands/People/Places Mentioned

* The 80s-type production value (rickety/trashy sounding drums) make it sound like STOMP. This reminds Sam of a Warped Tour-esque STOMP band: Street Drum Corps.
* Travis claims the song was inspired by Missing Persons and Sam and Josiah agree the drums sound very Terry Bozzio. They also decide Frank Zappa is cringey because trying to be funny and rock at the same time is nearly impossible.