Not If, but When

“Poppy music is coming back again. When everybody [originally in blink-182] is out of work long enough, we may see them get back together,” says an insider who has dealt with the band before.

When blink splintered three years ago, drummer Travis Barker and bassist-singer Mark Hoppus launched +44. Blink singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge formed Angels & Airwaves. The first Angels & Airwaves CD, We Don't Need to Whisper, sold 545,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The only +44 release, When Your Heart Stops Beating, sold 256,000. Both CDs were released in 2006.

“It would be very hard to call +44 a success,” says the insider, “and the second Angels CD did not do as well as the first.” Sales of that second CD, 2007’s I-Empire, were less than half of the first: 226,000 copies.

“I have heard through the grapevine that Tom has started working on his next album, but I have not heard word one from the +44 camp.”

Lawrence Vavra handles the day-to-day management for +44. A call to him to find out the band’s status was not returned.

Rick Devoe, the Encinitas-based manager of Angels & Airwaves (and former blink manager), says he has “no word” on a blink reunion, but he did say the band would go into the studio to record its third CD in January. Angels & Airwaves recently returned from playing on the Warped Tour.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Times article on Barker last week focused on his work with Soulja Boy, the Game, Busta Rhymes, and Rihanna. Barker teamed up with turntablist DJ AM to form TRV$DJAM. The duo has played three sold-out shows at the Roxy in West Hollywood and will perform as the house band at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 7.