Background
After being expelled from Poway High School in Poway, California for showing up drunk at a basketball game, Tom DeLonge attended Rancho Bernardo High School where he met Scott Raynor at a Battle of the Bands competition in 1992. The two began practicing together and went through a succession of bass players until Anne Hoppus, then-girlfriend of DeLonge's friend Kerry Kay, introduced him to her brother, Mark Hoppus. The two played for hours in DeLonge's garage, showing each other songs they had previously written, and writing new songs together. The band began performing live shows at local high schools in San Diego and eventually recorded two demos on a four-track recorder. With minimal funding, the trio recorded a third demo, Buddha, which was self-packaged and sold at local record stores. The three eventually were playing concerts at local venues such as SOMA, which alerted local independent record label Cargo Music.
Cargo was at the heart of San Diego's music scene, which wasn't particularly thriving but still produced several skate punk acts. Pat Secor, who funded Buddha and was the former boss of Hoppus, pulled for Blink's move to Cargo through a roommate who knew Cargo executives. O, guitarist of local Cargo Music-signed act Fluf, saw potential in the young band and pushed them from the beginning. Eric Goodis, president of Cargo, wanted to diversify the label by incorporating different styles of music. His son, Brahm Goodis, thought Blink and their style of Southern California punk fit the bill and encouraged his father to listen to a tape. Together, O and Brahm Goodis convinced Eric Goodis to attend a live performance of the band.
Goodis invited the three musicians into his office and made the band an offer: he wanted to "start small" by releasing a 7-inch with the band. Blink were more interested in pursuing a full-length release; they had already saved money for a budget and made arrangements with a friend from a local band to record and release one on their own. Upon knowledge of this information, Goodis withdrew his original offer and signed the band on a trial basis. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The Cheshire Cat sessions were to be the last performance with the band for Raynor, whose family had moved to Reno, Nevada. Raynor stayed with his sister for the summer of 1993 in order to rehearse for the recording of their debut album. The band rehearsed in DeLonge's garage, where they wrote "M+M's".
Read more about this topic: Cheshire Cat (Blink-182 album)
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