Blink-182: "Dude Ranch" альбомының тарихы

Dude Ranch is the second studio album by American rock band Blink 182, released on June 17, 1997, by Cargo Music and MCA Records, making it their major record label debut. MCA signed the band in 1996 following moderate sales of their 1995 debut Cheshire Cat and their growing popularity in Australia. Dude Ranch was the band's final recording released on Cargo and the last to feature their full original lineup as drummer Scott Raynor was dismissed from the band in 1998. The band recorded the album from December 1996 to January 1997 at Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, California with producer Mark Trombino. With lyrical material written on their nonstop tours over the previous years, as well as completed songs, the band recorded with Trombino in sessions that lasted for five weeks. During production, the members of Blink 182 were plagued with difficulties only made worse by the rushed schedule: bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom DeLonge, co vocalists for the band, were having vocal problems and Raynor had to record his drum tracks with injuries to both feet. The album was released in the summer of 1997 and was a success, reaching number 67 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top Heatseekers chart. The second single, "Dammit", became a rock radio hit single and helped the band gain mainstream credibility as they toured worldwide on the Vans Warped Tour. The band toured exhaustively behind the album, creating tensions which led to the firing of Raynor in mid 1998. Three more singles were released, with "Josie" gathering MTV play and charting highly in Australia. Dude Ranch eventually grew in sales and was certified platinum in the US by the end of the decade.

According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Dude Ranch is an album of "juvenile, adrenaline fueled punk pop." Billboard magazine's Doug Reece described it as "a collection of machine gun quick, energetic punk songs—sometimes with a puerile slant—about such topics as girlfriends, broken hearts, and fights with one's parents." Greg Simpsons at Punknews. org too labeled it skate punk, stating that the album "set [the] blueprint for their style of poppy, goofy skate punk that they would later bring to the masses." DeLonge considered the album a step up in terms of songwriting, with "Dammit" proving the breakthrough to him. The distinctive riff of "Dammit" was created when Hoppus was forced to skip over the missing two strings on an acoustic guitar. "Waggy" was a word Hoppus created while belching, prompting him to name the song with it. "Josie" makes further reference to Dance Hall Crashers and the band Unwritten Law ("My girlfriend likes UL and DHC"). Art direction for the album was headed by MCA in house graphic artist Tim Stedman, with Stedman and designer Ashley Pigford crafting the visual package.

Dude Ranch was released on June 17, 1997, jointly through Cargo Music and MCA Records. It was initially set to be released in a dual deal between Cargo and MCA subsidiary Way Cool Music. The record, at first, largely passed without notice from audiences outside their established fan base. Dude Ranch was promoted by the label through board sport magazines and tie ins between surf shops and record stores. At retail, MCA and Cargo organized midnight sales promotions on the West Coast. MCA's marketing strategy involved waiting until after the band's Warped Tour performances wrapped in order to have a retail story to back up radio promotion efforts. and was added to the playlist of Los Angeles based radio station KROQ, after which the song began to be played across the country. Radio wise, "Dammit" achieved great commercial success, peaking at number 11 on the US rock charts in 1998. The year end Billboard Airplay Monitor Report (BDS) stats indicated that "Dammit" earned top spins at many key radio stations. In addition, its success knocked Dude Ranch onto the all genre Billboard 200 album chart for the first time, where it peaked at number 67 in February 1998. On January 24, 1998, Billboard reported that Dude Ranch sold more than 268,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Dude Ranch, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 9, 1998, yielded three more singles, which did not attract the same commercial success as "Dammit". "Apple Shampoo" was the second single release from Dude Ranch, released in October 1997. "Although it didn't have the impact of "Dammit", it hardly mattered as the former was still receiving heavy play on radio and TV stations across the nation", wrote journalist Joe Shooman. Its music video also received MTV airplay and the single charted at number 31 in Australia. For the single release of both "Dammit" and "Josie", the songs were remixed and remastered by Tom Lord Alge. The unreleased Dude Ranch cut "I Won't Be Home for Christmas" was released as an international single in 2001, only successful in Canada, but charting for six non consecutive weeks at number one. Dude Ranch was certified platinum by the RIAA on November 8, 1999. As of June 30, 2001, Dude Ranch sold 1,100,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Beginning in the summer of 1997, Blink 182 would enter an extended period of touring. The group had played a handful of dates on the Vans Warped Tour 1996, a lifestyle tour promoting skateboarding and punk rock music. However, upon Dude Ranch release and popularity, Blink 182 would play every date of the 1997 tour worldwide with influences Pennywise, NOFX, and Social Distortion. "The Warped Tour is really more of a traveling band barbecue," commented DeLonge. "You hang out with the other bands all day, you play your set, and then hang out again." In late 1997 and early 1998, the band would be on the road for nine months straight, only coming home to San Diego for days at a time before striking out on the next tour. "When we did our longest tour stretch, it was right when I started dating my fiancée," recalled DeLonge. "We were all new and in love, and I had to leave. It was just, 'Hey, I'll see you in nine months.' It was really hard." In addition to the hefty touring schedule, the trio grew tired of other commitments, including interviews and TV appearances due to the success of "Dammit". Desperate for a break, the overworked band began to argue and tensions formed. The tension came to a head in February 1998 as the band embarked on SnoCore 98, described as "a winter version of the Warped Tour." Sharing the stage with Primus, the band was enjoying more success than ever before, but the drama between the musicians had grown substantially. The band reached a low point when the band engaged in a fight on a Nebraska date after SnoCore's conclusion. Shortly after the conclusion of SnoCore was a short minitour along the western coast, most notably Southern California, the band's favorite place to play. The tour ended with the band headlining a sold out show at the Palladium in Hollywood, California, where the band had dreamed of performing at for years. Raynor suffered a "tragic loss" during the West Coast minitour and flew home, forcing the band to find a fill in drummer: Travis Barker of the ska punk support band The Aquabats. Barker learned the drum tracks for the band's set in only 45 minutes prior to his first show. To offset personal issues, Raynor began to drink heavily and it began to affect the band's performances. Following a largely successful Australian tour in the spring, Hoppus and DeLonge presented an ultimatum: quit drinking or go to an in patient rehab. Raynor agreed to both and informed the band of his decision after taking the weekend to mull options. Despite this, he felt no malice toward his former bandmates and conceded they were "right" to fire him.

Dude Ranch was the band's first leap into the mainstream and proved to be a pivotal moment for the trio. While subsequent albums sold more copies, Dude Ranch has proved influential in other ways. Lindsay Zoladz provides context for its place in the band's canon in a 2019 piece for The Ringer: "For a lot of pop punk fans who felt the whiplash of Blink's sudden late '90s transformation from Warped Tour upstarts to genuine TRL heartthrobs, Dude Ranch came to develop a mythic, almost Edenic glow. It was their final punk record, the one they made before they went pop." while original Panic! at the Disco guitarist Ryan Ross has cited the album as his first influence: "I wanted to learn how to play like Tom DeLonge [on Dude Ranch]." The musician Day Wave has said the album made the band his grade school heroes; likewise, the Wonder Years frontman Dan Campbell wore out his copy of the album: "I played Dude Ranch to death," he laughed in a 2022 interview. Some writers, like Chris Payne at Billboard, have suggested hints of the album's impact in groups like Cloud Nothings. In a 20th anniversary piece celebrating the album, Maria Sherman, writing for MTV News, commented that on Dude Ranch the trio "found a subversive way to embrace lameness as something to be commended—a language all outsiders could understand." At least three full length album covers of Dude Ranch have been released. In 2019, American musician Colleen Green issued a cassette only cover of Dude Ranch in her signature lo fi style. Green's cover was widely celebrated: "There's a sepia quality to Green's covers, as if they've been filtered through translucent gobs of memory," wrote
Randall Colburn for The A. V. Club. It's Never Over Til It's Done, a charity album supporting Black transgender communities, was released in 2020 and contained covers by bands like Joyce Manor, Adult Mom, and Rozwell Kid. Another "concept cover album" by American musician Cameron Hurley (under the name new. wav) saw release in 2023, this time in the high energy and sonic style of the band's later work with Barker and producer Jerry Finn. The album's title is also the namesake for one Blink 182 cover band.