+44 feat. Matt Skiba blink-182 aren’t too far off releasing their new album “California” (out July 1st) and have been teasing fans by pre-releasing a handful of songs from the album to get us pumped up or increasingly worried about the new direction without former guitarist and founding member Tom Delonge. But they nailed it with the first released single “Bored to Death” and have just released the official music video for the track.

The video takes us back to High School with an obviously bored (to death) teenager thinking about the time he had over the weekend with his partner when they got up to mischief and attended a blink-182 concert. While attempting to encompass the old feeling/memories the band had for us growing up, it didn’t resonate with me as much as a lot of their previously released music videos and I thought I’d do my own rendition of the Top 7 blink-182 Music Videos of All Time starting with…

#7 – Feeling This

It felt like we were waiting longer than 2 years for new music from the boys following 2001‘s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket (during this time Tom and Travis started Box Car Racer and put out a few videos for that side project) but in 2003 we were greeted by a brand new music video on Channel [V] in Australia and that video was “Feeling This”. Around this time the band was the official go to act for teenagers across the globe and the video helped to fuel the fire of the teenage angst and rebelliousness we were all struggling with. A real fuck you to the system, without using those exact words. Admit it, you wanted to have a Mohawk as big as Travis Barker‘s in this clip too!

#6 – All The Small Things

At a time when pop stars and boy bands were dominating the music industry, one band dared to take a stand and rip into those acts who were popular at the time. Parodying such artists’ video clips as Britney Spears, All Saints, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera and 98 Degrees, this was the video which made blink a household name. Years later, One Direction were even victims to their parody when they shot a video on the exact same beach.

#5 – First Date

Continuing on the comedy theme “First Date” flashed back to life in the early 70’s and introduced fans to the band’s alter-egos including Tom Delonge‘s hilarious criminal Boomer who for undisclosed reasons was sent to jail at the end of said video. If you didn’t lose your shit when the nerdy chick falls off the bike at the 1:48 minute mark, you have no soul.

#4 – What’s My Age Again?

What’s better than seeing you favourite bane running naked through the streets, not giving a fuck about anything or anyone in their way? Not much and that’s how it felt watching these guys do just that in this one. It was also the first time we caught a glimpse of the babe’n naughty nurse from the cover of 1999‘s Enema of the State. I wouldn’t be surprised if spontaneous nudie runs were the end result of fans watching this clip and trying to re-enact it with their best mates too.

#3 – Josie

Before puberty hit you harder than a sack of potatoes, there wasn’t too many female celebrity crushes that came to mind for young teens, however when Alyssa Milano featured in blink’s video for “Josie” a strange feeling overtook your body and you too believed you could pick up up the hottest girl in school if you tried hard enough… or you’d end up in the back of a van with one of the nerdy guys who had a fascination for you.

#2 – Stay Together For The Kids

Hard hitting songs about family troubles, divorce and depression were far and wide around the time “Stay Together For The Kids” was released but for a generation who’s majority of parents called it quits, the song and video became an unofficial anthem for dealing with ones issues at the time. I can remember being glued to the tv screen waiting for this clip to come on everyday afternoon to escape the harsh reality I was dealing with at home and school. The first video which brought different fans from different walks of life together to get though life helping each other out.

and the winner is:

#1 – The Rock Show

Admit it, when you saw what blink-182 did with all that money to make a music video, it made you want to start a band so you could do the exact same thing. Between smashing up cars and tvs, releasing caged birds from a pet store, giving a homeless man a make-over then taking him to a strip club and just throwing as much of it away as possible it was hard to pick what you’d want to do first (or how you’d do it better). Nowadays we see videos with half naked women, twerking and photo shopped to the max, we need more videos like this, which cost a lot of money, only because the artist/band do whatever the fuck they want with it.

With a career spanning over 24 years it was hard to collate all they’ve done in that time and narrow it down to the above mentioned videos. Honourable mention should go to 2011‘s “Up All Night” which was the first video the boys made together following their first initial break up and brought back elements of why we loved them all those years before. In comparison its a much better, meaningful video than “Bored to Death“, but hey thats my opinion! Did I get it right or fail completely? Let us know.

Until next time, rock the fuck out

Browny (@brownypaul)

…oh and one last clip, nothing wrapped up the original blink-182 saga better than their collection of memories for break-up single “Not Now”. Years on (and especially now they’ve gone in a new direction) this song still captures the times we loved watching this band get older, progress as musicians and make us laugh better than our best mates ever could!