today, right here in studio A of our recording spot, a mighty battle was waged. the fight was between the new signature model bass, named “like a boss,” and the O.G. recording bass “lettuce.” first, a little back-story.

lettuce was one of the original mark hoppus prototype basses when fender and i started collaborating on ideas. something special happened in the fender custom shop when they created that bass. it just sounds incredible. it has appeared on take off your pants and jacket, the untitled blink-182 album, motion city soundtrack, new found glory, socratic, something for rockets, the fall out boy remix, our lunar activities, koopa, pretty much everything i’ve recorded bass on in the past 8 years. nothing beats it. ever.

then today, the newest prototype signature model bass arrived at the studio. we named it “like a boss.” it has the new pickup configuration, and plays like no other. so we decided to have a shoot out between the two warriors. one at a time we tracked each bass, using an ampeg svt-classic head, playing through an 810 cabinet. we set up a sennheiser e902 mic, and ran the signal through a neve 1073 mic-pre. no di, no eq, no compression, straight into pro-tools. i played the first verse and chorus of “feeling this.” chris holmes recorded it, and here are the results. no one but chris knows which track is which bass. so here’s your chance to vote. will lettuce reign supreme? will a newer model ascent to the throne? we shall see, my friends. we shall see.

hello to you. it’s been a long time since i’ve posted anything here on the himynameismark site. i haven’t had it in me. these past two months have been the hardest times that i can remember, and i hope that we never see anything like this ever again. first losing our dear friend and longtime producer jerry finn, and then the plane crash that happened in september, taking our friends chris and che. even two months later, i still can’t believe what happened, and it’s too much to talk about. but let me say that i think about little chris every single day, and the world is not the same without him. he is one of the best people i’ve ever known. we travelled the world together, spending countless hours on busses and planes, in hotel lobbies and dressing rooms. we worked together, laughed, and played jokes on people. when i saw him in the studio, no matter if it were with blink-182, +44, or an unknown band i was producing, chris would walk right in, introduce himself, make some jokes, and make sure everyone was taken care of. he made everyone feel at home. like they were family. every person he met was a friend for life, and he could talk to anyone. it didn’t matter if it was the biggest star in the world or someone waiting to get into a show, little chris treated everyone as a friend. he was a dear friend to me. i’m so sad that he is not here right now. there are just no words.

i’m also so thankful that travis and DJ AM made it out of the plane that horrible night. travis is a brother to me, and since the crash he has gone through more than i can even imagine. from the day after the plane went down, when i saw him in the burn unit out in georgia, to the hospital here in LA, to seeing him at home, his recovery is nothing short of amazing. every day gets a little better. and not only is he my brother, but also the best drummer and musician i’ve ever seen. the man was born to play drums, and it is great to see him starting to get back into the studio and behind his kit.

as for me, i have been getting back to work as well. a couple of weeks ago i went into the studio with our lunar activities, to finish up their record. chris holmes and i recorded three more of their songs, and they are in the final mixing stage right now. then last week i went out to new york city to introduce all time low at the 2008 woodie awards for mtvu. the day i got back into town i went right into the studio with my friend richard gibbs, who scores films. he had a rough idea of a song for the movie he is currently working on, and he wanted me to come in and collaborate with him on it. we spent five straight days in the studio and came up with a really fun track for a movie called “fired up,” that comes out next year. it’s good to be singing again, and getting back into it. now this week chris holmes and i are working on a theme song for a tv show. today it passed the first round of approvals, and now it goes up to the big time producer people for their thoughts. hopefully it’ll be seen on a television near you very soon. check local listings.

in the midst of everything else that has happened lately, tom, travis, and i have all spoken together. first through a number of phone calls, and then a couple of weeks ago we all hung out for a few hours. they’ve all been great, very positive conversations. we’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. it’s a good thing. obviously the first question for a lot of people will be “does this mean a blink-182 reunion?” the answer is none of us know. we haven’t talked about it at all. right now it’s just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect, and let the past be the past. the events of the past two months supersede everything that happened before. life is too short.

yes indeed today is my 36th birthday. old, old, old. God help me, i am old. and grey. and did i mention i’m old? anyway, thanks to everyone who has been sending their kind wishes. there’s a lot going on this next year. lots of recording, lots of travel, europe, asia, hopefully australia, my first trip to south america, maybe even antarctica. music and the road in the ocho. i’m also working on a collaboration album that i hope we can announce soon. very excited about that. the koopa record starts tracking in a few weeks. socratic record to be released soon, as well as our lunar activities. i know everyone is anxious for updates on +44, and i’ll keep you up to date on everything going on in +44 land. oh yeah and the they only want album from our friend chris holmes! he’s a dark character… disturbed. oh yes, and the ocho will see the return of the podcast very soon. you’ll even get some free tracks from bands. so subscribe and be in the know.

anyway, there you have a lot of empty promises for this year. but until then, happy birthday to me.

this past week i went back to indiana to visit. while out there, i took a photo of this sign. my family used to roll deep in this area back in the 1800’s, so they got to name a road after themselves. two hundred years later i come along and stand on top of a rental car in the rain taking this picture.

while we were there, we went to the olympia candy kitchen, where my grandparents hung out when they were in high school. they also make some of the best chocolates ever. if you order from them, check out the maple creams. yes sir…

shout out to all my new friends at the warsaw, IN applebees.

in any case, it was a fun trip. i’m back now, listening to koopa demos, getting ready to record their new album next month. they’re going to be playing a show at SXSW next week, as are our friends in our lunar activities. watch for both of those bands if you are in the area. by the way, i thought that the band name “koopa” was a really cool name, coming from the characters in the mario bros games. turns out two of the guys in the band are brothers, and their last name is koopa. all of a sudden they are just that much less clever…

here is a recent review of our our friends our lunar activities. check it out. these guys are on the up and coming

it turns out i wasn’t able to make it to barcelona this week, as travis and i were called back into the studio to record a song for a movie. more details on that later on.

also, i just heard the second round of mixes of the socratic record, and they sound awesome. i truly cannot wait for this record to come out. i hope you all enjoy it as much as i do. this is quickly becoming one of my favorite records of 2008, and not just because i produced it. the band wrote an amazing record. very different from anything else out there right now. check it out when it’s released.

there is a lot more production work on the horizon, and a lot more songwriting. cool. bring the awesome.