Dude Ranch (album)
Dude Ranch is the second studio album by the 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 the 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.
Background
The San Diego–based trio Blink-182 released their debut album, Cheshire Cat, in 1995. Released on local record label Cargo Music, the album sold well for an independent release; it had moved over 70,000 units by late 1996. Throughout 1995 and 1996, the trio vigorously toured nonstop and grew in popularity, most notably in Australia, where audiences embraced the band's irreverent sense of humor and stage shows. The trio grew frustrated when fans lamented the inability to purchase Cheshire Cat at their respective local record stores and began searching for larger record labels with better distribution. Likewise, problems had become apparent between the trio and employees at Cargo, who largely considered the band a joke. In contrast, the group had accumulated a genuine buzz among major labels, and a bidding war for the band began in March 1996. Several labels courted the group, sending A&R reps to shows and inviting the band to their offices for lunch meetings. With several labels interested, Blink-182 seriously considered Interscope, Epitaph, and MCA. The band contemplated their options: the three had no qualms signing to a major label, and were wary of purists attempting to define "punk". They felt a great affinity for Epitaph, as many of their favorite acts were signed to the label. Overall, Blink felt they were nothing but honest regarding their ambitions: "I try and tell kids, 'The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Ramones did it, so how come we can't?" guitarist Tom DeLonge reasoned. "If people are bummed, we don't care. It's normally critics. Older critics."MCA at the time was riding out a dead spell, and was derisively referred to in the music industry as MCA—Musicians' Cemetery of America. Despite this, their executives' persistence and sincerity won the band over, as well as their promise of complete artistic freedom. The trio signed a joint venture deal with MCA to distribute their sophomore album with Cargo. Drummer Scott Raynor was happy for the band's signing, but was uneasy with signing to a major label—he much preferred Epitaph, and when the band passed over the label, he began to feel only half-invested in the band. Raynor was not, however, difficult about the band's mainstream growth: "I didn't measure success in terms of oppositional credibility. I loved being on the radio and MTV. We were certified products of pop culture, born and bred in suburbia." Thanks to their established fan base and merchandising, MCA did not intervene much in the band's activities. Although the label had granted the band artistic freedom in their contract, MCA did step in and warn the band when they planned to feature a spoof of the "Macarena" on Dude Ranch, humorously titled "Hey Wipe Your Anus".
To celebrate their signing, the group held a party at the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. At the event, Raynor became inebriated and jumped off a balcony. He broke both his heels and was forced to record Dude Ranch while in a wheelchair. Soon, the band booked time at DML Studios in Escondido, California, where they worked out arrangements for the songs on Dude Ranch. Most of the lyrics for the album had been written over 1995 and 1996, while touring. "I remember writing most of those songs in my living room, sitting on a curb, whatever," recalled DeLonge in 2001. "Back then, each song was pretty much written with a specific girl or event in mind." Demos for the album were recorded with Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals; early versions of "Enthused" and "Lemmings" were released on the "Wasting Time" single and the Lemmings / Going Nowhere split EP, respectively.
Recording and production
The band were afforded more time to record than previous endeavors, and were listening to music such as Jawbreaker, Bad Religion and Lagwagon, which influenced the album. For production duties, the band worked with Mark Trombino, who provided additional piano and keyboards on Dude Ranch. The band were initially slated to record with another producer, but picked Trombino because of his familiarity with the studio itself, his major-label know-how, and the work he had done on Jimmy Eat World's Static Prevails. The band first met Trombino through their friendship with San Diego punk band Fluf. The group spent time trying to amuse Trombino, to no avail. Hoppus' sister, Anne Hoppus, described Trombino as very quiet during the sessions. Trombino, in a retrospective piece about the album, mentioned that he was "excited, but also nervous and intimidated. I felt weird that there were these guys who had sold way more records than I had ever sold and I'm sitting in the producer's chair telling them what to do." Dude Ranch was recorded at Big Fish Studios in Rancho Santa Fe, California in December 1996. Big Fish was a converted guesthouse which had just survived a wildfire months before. However, the gloomy atmosphere did not faze Blink-182 at all, and what was a tragedy to local individuals became fodder for jokes for the group. Bassist Mark Hoppus had just bought a new video camera and he filmed stunts with guitarist Tom DeLonge on the burnt landscape in spare time. Despite this, Trombino was impressed by their work ethic: "They were the most business-centric band I'd ever seen at that point. They had their shit together."Despite the creative boom while writing lyrics for the album, all three members of Blink-182 faced setbacks while recording Dude Ranch. DeLonge was having vocal problems and spent much time recording and re-recording vocal tracks, and Hoppus realized he too was having difficulty singing after losing his voice during a one-off Christmas concert. Hoppus realized the magnitude of the situation and cancelled the final week of recording in December 1996. He quit smoking in order to take care of his voice, which was stressed due to lack of vocal warm-ups, full days of vocal tracks, and the strain of singing for "Dammit", which was accidentally written just outside his vocal range. Meanwhile, Raynor had to record his drum tracks while still in his wheelchair, the result of injuries sustained at the signing party. He would wheelchair up to the drum set and scoot onto the drum throne and play," remembered Trombino in a later interview. "I got the sense that were bummed." Aside from the recording, the band spent time playing Crash Bandicoot and "reading the articles from the shelves and shelves of Playboys that the studio had thoughtfully provided." The group ate lunch nearly each day at Sombrero, a local Mexican restaurant namedropped in "Josie", and Chinese for dinner from Encinitas' Pick Up Stix.
It would be January 1997 by the time the band was able to wrap up sessions for Dude Ranch, eventually amounting to five weeks of recording. For the final touches, Unwritten Law frontman Scott Russo donated a few vocal tracks to "Josie", and Trombino let Blink-182 record a couple of jokes between songs using a sound-effects machine he owned. The group contacted Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise to find someone to remix a few tracks from the album, and he suggested Donnell Cameron of Track Recording Studios. The band went in to Track and re-recorded Raynor's drum tracks for several songs. Representatives from MCA dropped by on occasion and seemed excited by the material they heard. "When we were in there mixing, the A&R person would come by," remembered Cameron. "I don't think the band really knew what they had but certainly the label knew they had so many good songs on the record." DeLonge remembered it differently: " fucking hated pop-punk. They wanted nothing to do with it. They were into Pavement or whatever." A funny story happened upon the executives' first listen to the album, according to Hoppus:
After production completed, the album was mastered by Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. In 2001, Hoppus recalled, "I remember when we finished Dude Ranch I was so proud. That was the first time we could take the time and whatever to make a good record." In addition to the record, Trombino produced "I Won't Be Home for Christmas", a Christmas song recorded during the Dude Ranch sessions.