Best Record in the World?

Since Tom DeLonge pulled the plug on blink-182 in February 2005, the other two members -- Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker -- haven't said much about their breakup...until last week. Barker spoke to MTV.com about how DeLonge compared his new band, Angels and Airwaves, to the Who.

"I have to say you're definitely seeing what the real Tom was like, and that's the only comment I'll make about him or his band," Barker said. "But everything happens for a reason. If the blink breakup didn't happen, we wouldn't be here right now, and we [Barker and Hoppus, who formed Plus 44] wouldn't have been able to make the record we did.... It's the best thing in the world." It is unclear when the Plus 44 disc will be released by Interscope.

"They are working on it right now," says Dvora Vener, who handles publicity for Hoppus and Barker. The delay of the Plus 44 release has created confusion...and faux bootlegs.

"Because of our silence, all these people online started to make up their own shit," Hoppus says. "They made their own songs and posted them, saying they're our songs. The stuff that's out there [on the Internet] now isn't really Plus 44."

Barker says, "It's kind of flattering that some kids would go out there and post songs under our name. I mean, at least it means that people are excited to hear our stuff."

The tentative title of the Plus 44 album is Little Death. Last week, Hoppus and Barker said that lead singer Carol Heller is no longer with the band but that guitarists Craig Fairbaugh and Shane Gallagher are. They originally described their sound as "electronic" but that "the whole vibe changed.... It's [now] based on guitars and rhythms." The band is recording in an L.A.-area studio that they bought. Hoppus and Barker live in Los Angeles with their families. DeLonge still lives in North County.