Producer Mark Trombino recalls the sessions for blink-182's "Dude Ranch"

The first words uttered on Blink-182’s second full-length LP, 1997's Dude Ranch, are spit out with a self-protective speed. “I know I’m pathetic / I knew when she said it,” bassist Mark Hoppus hisses. His partner in crime, guitarist Tom DeLonge, chimes in with his own sad-sack line before Hoppus can take a breath: “A loser, a bum’s what she called me when I drove her home.” They share in the inadequacy. It’s the self-deprecating Beavis and Butt-Head dynamic of a certain kind of friendship, two pop-punk delinquents managing to laugh at how much they’re always fucking up, and how they’re probably the last people you’d ever want to date.