Blink 182
They Came To Conquer... Uranus

A REAL GEM

If there's one thing I love to do, it's to dig into the most hidden past of certain artists to unearth their roots and bring them to the surface! Today I bring you a review of a vinyl containing three tracks, a vinyl dated 1995, produced and "distributed" by Grilled Cheese (Garage Music)... a Blink 182 vinyl! The title of this gem is "They Came To Conquer... Uranus". This relic was the second work that Tom, Mark, and Scott (Travis didn't even know about the group's existence yet) recorded after the legendary, elusive, and poorly recorded 1993 demo, "Flyswatters".

"They Came To Conquer... Uranus" is a punk/poprock product, like almost all the products Blink 182 would offer us in the future, but this time there's something different in the air; maybe it's just that it's always and anyway moving to listen to the first steps of a famous or non-famous group, maybe it's that it's interesting to see with what care a young group, unaware of unexpected success, puts a vinyl complete with graphics into circulation (the cover is one of the most trashy things I've seen in my life), but in my opinion, we have to admit that this is truly a good album, well recorded, nostalgically dated, and blissfully unaware that it has laid the foundations of a genre that's loved, hated, but in any case listened to by everyone: PUNK/POPROCK done right!

The three tracks, "Wrecked him", "Waggy", and "Zulu" are fast, incisive, relentless, and very lively, the style of Blink 182 was about to explode in all its "personal/energetic/absurd/poetic"; that the monstrous drumming of Travis is missing, well, you can feel it, but Scott shouldn't be underestimated, one of the technically best members back then, compared to Mark's bass and Tom's guitars, which are nice, catchy but technically lacking. So, if you're in the mood for a bit of jumping around, these three tracks are for you! "Waggy", the one with a slightly more serious text, is my favorite.

Blink 182 have now disbanded, an era has ended; they made us laugh, dance, mosh, headbang, have fun, and in some cases reflect ("Adam's song" and "I miss you" are examples) with music that didn't ask for much, just a bit of attention that, in my opinion, it deserved and received. We can continue with discussions indefinitely: "this isn't punk", "Green Day are better", "too commercial" etc. etc., the fact remains that Blink wasn't planned, this vinyl and other self-produced works recorded in Scott's bedroom are proof... as far as I'm concerned, if someday I want to have fun, have light thoughts or feel slightly sad, rest assured that these ("Wrecked him", "Waggy", "Zulu") and other pieces will be present in my audio system.

p.s.
Sorry for the mini-review, but it's all I had to say on the subject.

p.p.s.
You won't find this vinyl anywhere! If you want the songs, download the mp3s!

p.p.p.s.
The most beautiful and at the same time trashy cover of DeBaser is this one!