This Is Growing Up (Drowned Youth: Part VII) (Flyswater - Blink 182)

Member Name: Tcraze84

Product:	Flyswater - Blink 182
Date:	02/08/01 (419 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hard-edged U.S. punk, blink-182 in their original style.

Disadvantages: Poor sound quality, not readily available.

Let's face it. You - and everybody else, for that matter, have no doubt got a veritable archive of embarrassing memories from your childhood. I have too, y'know. I never went down the "Eating worms/mud/spiders" route as a little 'un, no. I was far too introverted as a child to even consider that, actually. Unfortunately though, growing up - and the progression through youth into adolescence holds little in the way of lessened embarrassments. In fact, as you get older, the amount of cringe-worthy memories you hold now only seem to hark back to the days when you were old enough to really have known better. You should've. You thought you did. But you didn't, did you?

In fact, if there's one youthful activity that virtually every single child in the country pursued, it's the forming of your own band. Am I right? Sure. No doubt it still continues, but at a younger age, every child dreams of musical celebrity status. You were probably never confident enough to go it alone, so instead, you dragged in a few mates, snap up a bog-standard £25 keyboard, a set of drums, an acoustic guitar you found in your garden shed with a few strings snapped and a karaoke machine, tape recorder and not a lot else. And that would've been considered a quality set-up. Your band dreamed of stardom, right? You got scribbling, knocked up a few laughable lyrics, made up the backing track as you went along and attempted to sing. You then dreamt of sending it off to the record company, believing they would jump at the chance to listen and offer you a deal, there and then. It doesn't happen that way. Hardly ever, anyway.

And yes, it's another blink-182 opinion to add to my repertoire, if you hadn't already guessed. I haven't finished yet though, obviously. The introductory-type bit may have actually made some kinda sense for once though. Maybe. Heard of blink-182? Oh look. Hyphenated and everything. Don't know what I'm
going on about? You should. Of course you've heard of them. They're big. Very, very, internationally-famous rock star-type big. You knew that though.

Every band has to start somewhere. And to many deluded "fans", blink-182 started with the single 'All The Small Things' back in 1999. You know what I'm going to say now, don't you? They didn't. Nope. By their own admissions, they've been crappy since 1992. Remember how you cringed at your mockery of pop music domination a few paragraphs back? Ah yes. This is going to somehow lead to something vaguely interesting soon.

Now. Enough short paragraphs, too. Right then, blink-182's discography. Don't argue, this is it. Final, definite, done. Argue and you're wrong. Research and you're right. Go. Flyswatter (demo). Buddha (demo). Cheshire Cat. Dude Ranch. Buddha (re-release). Enema Of The State. The Mark, Tom and Travis Show. Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. And that's it. Eight titles. They don't all count really, though - not by a long way. EP releases haven't been included either, for obvious reasons, because they don't count. In fact, even having this category on dooyoo is a bit pointless in itself. Flyswatter is NOT an album. You can't buy it. Don't ask, don't try. You can't. If every band's demo tapes were included on this site, it would be ridiculously crowded, so basically Flyswatter should not be here. Full stop. Don't believe me? This is what Tom DeLonge (guitar, vocals) has to say about it (from a Yahoo! chat transcript in 1999):

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"Flyswatter was an awfully recorded cassette that we copied ourselves and recorded on a boombox. Only 30 copies were made and it will never see the light of day if I have anything to do about it".
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Read. Repeat. Comprehend. Understand.

Flyswatter is therefore, in effect, no more of an album than the compilation tape you did last summer for your mother's [belated] birthday present (complete with dodgy tape cover you knocked up on Microsoft Publisher). Get it? Not an album. It's not, dammit. It's just a tape. Well, 30 tapes actually, but that's just a meaningless statistic because you can't buy it and it's never going to be re-released either. Never. Just a band playing in their garage nearby to their stereo with the 'record' button pressed. It's not an album. It's nothing to the normal fan. To the hardcore blink-182 fans, it's virtual gold-dust you downloaded from the internet. I'm not sure why, exactly. It's a piece of history, that's my guess. This is a band at their lowest ebb, at their earliest recorded stage, it's blink-182 (then known without the '182' bit and before all the legal wrangles, when they were simply known as just "Blink") in their late teens. Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Scott Raynor. That's it, folks. If you can't get that, then don't try to argue. Almost every single teen band (as mentioned in paragraph #2) has recorded something that is technically comparable to Flyswatter. Understand yet? They recorded and copied it themselves, they sketched and coloured the sleeve themselves (http://www.blink182.com/discography/covers/flyswa t.gif).

Album?

It's not an album. It's not - it's just a demo tape, dammit. Want more conclusive, definite blink-182 stuff? Here; try the definitive, ordered Flyswatter tracklisting. It doesn't matter, but if you feel the urge to order your pirated MP3 files, this is how to correctly do it:

01. Reebok Commercial
02. Time
03. Red Skies
04. Alone
05. Point Of View
06. Malboro Man
07. The Longest Line
08. Freak Scene

That'
s it. Eight songs, in meaningless, yet definite how-they-would've-wanted-it-if-they-didn't -hate-it order, on a technically non-existent album. Argue? Please don't - because you'll be wrong. Oh yeah - replying to a comment on another opinion on this category - the song 'Transvestite' isn't on here, but on the original Buddha demo. Confusing, but you know it makes sense.

What's it like then? For the hardened fan, it's almost compelling. I said almost. Otherwise, it's laughable. For most, a look to the past blink-182 goes as far as 'Cheshire Cat' (1994) or the 1998 re-release of 'Buddha' (which has a slightly different tracklisting from the demo version, by the way). Flyswatter therefore, is as far back chronologically as you could possibly get. Bear in mind this was done in 1992. Their first album was released in 1994, therefore two years worth of improvement before a proper release surfaced. Sound quality doesn't help either, though. It was recorded on a boombox, as mentioned, so what do you expect? The recording itself is distant and unpolished. No production, no tidying-up or smoothing in the studio, uh uh. Not even any voice coaching. See past the awfully distorted audio quality and questionable singing though, and somewhere, somehow, there's a rough diamond in Flyswatter. It's blink-182 as a punk band, not a watered-down pop-punk outfit, with all their raw potential untapped within it. This is how they started, and is simultaneously the band at their best - and worst. If that makes any sense, you'll understand what I'm saying.

Opening with 'Reebok Commercial', featured on both versions of 'Buddha', already a distinct style and presence is evident. Thrashing guitars, frantic basslines and simplistic percussion set the scene for the remaining seven tracks, yet the lyrical content perhaps hints at an alternative route than the other songs, with hints of cor
porate dislike and jealous tones - both contradicting each other throughout the strained vocal performance: "Material things are now more and more.../I won't covet the things owned by your store". I'm not going to read too much into either lyric or instrumental content throughout the tracks though. Why? Simply because there's not an awful lot to be read - this is both Hoppus' and DeLonge's first attempts at songwriting, and at times, it shows.

Meanwhile, whilst the far more accessible style of the band today spawned an influx of similarly-styled bands - the likes of New Found Glory and The Ataris to name but two, the content on Flyswatter takes influence from some of the late eighties/early nineties U.S. bands - the likes of The Descendents and Screeching Weasel (who the band incidentally covered later on 'Buddha'), for example.

However, following track 'Time' is somewhat more polished, with a catchy ska-like guitar introduction and DeLonge's trademark whining vocals - though for the release of Buddha, the roles were reversed, with Hoppus taking over. A hybrid of frantic bass and percussion coupled with a bouncy ska feel, 'Time' is neither here nor there, yet remains perhaps the standout track on the "album" and an interestingly alternative take on a song that has no doubt been listened countless times on the 1998 'Buddha' re-release, with Hoppus on lead. Yet the lyrical content perhaps remains almost thought-provoking, yet simplistic and almost childlike in nature, with a one-two rhyme scheme: "When the clock strikes two/There's just so much to do", for example - though combined with the style of the song itself, doesn't seem misplaced.

'Red Skies' takes on an altogether different style though - slower, much more methodical in both build-up and vocal, almost Emo in style. DeLonge again remains behind the microphone, though instead of t
he higher-pitch usually associated with him is a deeper, depressed-sounding almost distorted monotone output, in stark contrast to the upbeat nature of the preceding 'Time'.

The mood remains much the same for 'Alone', though. As the title suggests, this sees a slightly defiant, if not dejected, side of DeLonge; "You can do what you want to/I need some time alone", "Don't talk to me/Don't notice me" - hardly standard fare by today's blink-182 standards, but refreshing and interesting enough in direction. A virtual blurred pace of vocals combined with a hauntingly atmospheric, yet strangely familiar main guitar riff and 50-second introduction completes the package. Cue change of direction for the next song - 'Point Of View', then. Another ever-present on Flyswatter and both 'Buddha' releases; at just 1:18 in length, 'Point Of View' is a frenzied affair; moving the mood back to more positive standing. An almost ear piercing distorted main guitar riff opens, leading into DeLonge in vocal sprint-mode again, the backing instrumentals similarly, with little letup throughout, yet retaining a simple rhyme scheme. This then, in stark contrast to the two preceding tracks, and those that follow; the concluding songs end on a relatively downbeat key, with only the ska-like "tacked-on" introduction and light-hearted nature of 'Marlboro Man' as an exception to the rule and with it, the return of a more upbeat DeLonge on vocals providing any real alternative, yet somewhat tongue-in-cheek content.

As mentioned though, the finale of Flyswatter itself is a much more downbeat affair. 'The Longest Line' (a cover of an old NOFX song) sees lines such as "I must have done something wrong/Or maybe pissed off God" and "I must have fucked with some witch/In turn she cursed me, cursed my life" to continue this theme. Meanwhile, final track 'Freak Scene
9; doesn't get a whole lot more positive in content, backed by thrashing guitars and similarly aggressive attitudes: "Sometimes I don't thrill you/Sometimes I think I'll kill you/Just don't let me fuck up will you?/Cause when I need a friend, it's still you". As stated, this is certainly not the usual style you would associate with the band, not by a long way. An ending of this nature therefore leaves somewhat of a question mark hovering over the conclusion with regards to mood and emotion of the band. The rest, as they say, is history.

And er, that's about it. Tape. Coloured pencils. Boombox. Home recording. Eight Songs. Three guys. Flyswatter.

It's good. It's also, realistically dreadful, but good nonetheless and yet Punk enough with it not really give a damn anyway. The band hate it. That doesn't mean you should, though. You might. I don't. And in some ways I wish I could now just say "£12.99, Amazon.co.uk" and for you all to rush off and buy it, just to test your curiosity (or lack of) for it. In many other ways though, I don't. Leave it as it is, without any production, or tarted-up re-release malarkey and you have a unique insight into the surprisingly humble beginnings of a superb band. It's not going to be released though. Ever. Ever. Never. Downloading therefore is your only chance of getting your grubby mitts on this, though it's not particularly widespread at the moment, either. Best bet would probably be through the Morpheus program or some above-average fan website with a decent download directory.

It's not exceptional. It's not lyrical genius; it's not genius in any sense of the word. What it is however, is merely three refreshingly modest, albeit star-struck youths, staring future international fame and fortune directly in the face - without ever really knowing it.

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