YEAR IN REVIEW: The band records and releases a self-titled cassette demo, later titled Buddha. They sign to Cargo Records and record their first official full-length, Cheshire Cat. They also release the EP Short Bus.

 

1/1994 (undated): The band records the Buddha cassette -- then just a self-titled demo -- at local studio Doubletime Recordings "in twelve hours." It is funded by Pat Secor. Secor was looking to start a label, which he called Filter Records, and fronted the trio the money. In an interview later that year, Mark says it cost a "few hundred dollars" to make, and was recorded "over Christmas break." He says the band had it completed by January.

2/26/1994:  The band performs at Cafe Nova in Orangethorpe, Anaheim. Other bands included One Eye Open and Worm. Flyer

4/9/1994:  

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Poster

• •  

    Flyer

    Other bands included Papillon, Product, Grip, and Loophole.

4/23/1994: The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Flyer, Flyer (restored, but incorrect date).

Other Flyer

5/27/1994: The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Other bands included Buck-O-Nine, Rust and Guttermouth. Flyer

Other bands included Face to Face, Buck-O-Nine and the Neighbors.

6/4/1994: 

• The band performs at Cafe Chabalaba in San Diego, California. Flyer

  • Other bands include the Iconoclasts.

6/9/1994: The band is in the studio at Doubletime in San Diego, recording guitars and backing vocals for two songs -- "Wasting Time" and "Does My Breath Smell?" -- that appear on the split Short Bus EP, release date unknown (but sometime thereafter, obviously). This date is thanks to the studio engineer, Jeff Forrest, who posted the original tracking sheets online in 2018. Image

6/17/1994:  

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Poster 1, Poster 2

  • Other bands included Loophole, Driptank, and the Muffs.

7/16/1994: 

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Poster

  • Other bands included Voodoo Glow Skulls, Buck-o-Nine, and Agent G.D.C.

7/22/1994: The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California.*

8/12/1994:  

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California, as a part of an album release party for Unwritten Law. Poster

  • Other bands included Unwritten Law (headliner), No Use for a Name, and the Vandals.

Late 1994 (undated):

• Scott Raynor's family moves to Reno, Nevada. Both Anne Hoppus in TFBYM and Joe Shooman credit his brief replacement as their friend Mike Krull. Mark says in a later interview that the band played two shows with him. According to TFBYM, "it felt wrong without Scott" and the band began flying him out to shows.

• The band signs to Cargo Records with help of Brahm Goodis, son of the label's president Eric Goodis, and O, local stalwart in the music scene and guitarist for Fluf, who were on Cargo. According to Davey Quinn of Tiltwheel (the band's earliest Internet ambassador) via archived posts from the newsgroup alt.punk: Blink "was a defunct band when eric cargo's kid asked pops to sign blink(nothing wrong with that). blink reformed to record and sign contracts." Perhaps they dissolved briefly when Scott was moving to Reno?

• Cheshire Cat -- then titled Inbreed --is recorded at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles. Unsatisfied with some aspects of the recordings, they take the reels to Doubletime and re-record guitar tracks and vocals. Mark is interviewed for a local zine. He discusses the Cheshire recording sessions, the "techno band" with a similar name, and their new drummer, Mike.

• Production of sleeves for Cheshire Cat are delayed, but CDs and cassettes are pressed before the end of the year. The band begins selling a small number of advance cassettes of the album. Due to this, all copies of Cheshire Cat (sans this one) bear a 1994 copyright date, leading to confusion about its release date for a number of years. For example, plenty of sites, including Amazon, still list its release date as a year earlier, rather than February 1995.

9/2/1994: 

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Flyer

  • Other bands included Sprung Monkey, Ghoulspoon, and P.O.D.

9/23/1994: The band performs at Soul Kitchen in El Cajon, California. Poster, flyer

Other Flyer

10/2/1994: The band returns to Doubletime to track additional guitar and vocals, as well as complete mixing. This date is thanks to the studio engineer, Jeff Forrest, who posted the original tracking sheets online in 2018. Image

10/7/1994: 

• The band performs at SOMA in San Diego, California. Poster,Image

• Full Show

  Other Flyer

  Other bands included Fluf, Tanner, Swivelneck, and 100 Watt Halo.

• This is currently the earliest-known video footage of the band performing. It was uploaded to YouTube in June 2020.

• This is the only visual evidence of the band performing with Mike Krull on drums — no photographs or videos existed prior to this point. It is also the only recorded instance of the trio playing “Fentoozler”.

10/15/1994: 

• The band performs at Dream Street in San Diego, California. Poster, flyer

  • Other bands included Agent Orange (headliner), Sugartwin Reverb, and JFKFC.

10/22/1994: 

• The band performs at Del Sur Gardens in Lancaster, California. Poster

  • Other bands included OFF!, Tiltwheel, Sacred Life and Terminal.

12/8/1994: 

• The band performs at Huntridge Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada. Poster, Picture

  • Other bands include Korn (headliner), Unwritten Law, and Deftones.

12/31/1994: 

• The band performs at San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California, as a part of SOMA's New Year Bash. Poster, ticket, ticket 2

  • Other bands include Pennywise, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Face to Face, Buck-o-Nine, Sprung Monkey, Unwritten Law, Fluf, POD, and more.

Undated: 

• The band's "first big show," according to TFBYM, occurred at SOMA on a Thursday night when blink opened for Face to Face.

• Various other places blink played besides SOMA according to TFBYM: Soul Kitchen in El Cajon, YMCAs, Elks Lodges.

• Songs from a mysterious Buddha "promo" have circulated online, which includes early versions of "A New Hope" ("Princess Leia") and "Enthused" ("Strung Out"), a song titled "Voyeur" bearing no resemblance to the song of the same name on Dude Ranch, the first-ever appearances of "The Girl Next Door" and "Don't" prior to the 1998 Buddha remaster, plus some songs from Cheshire Cat and Short Bus. Its existence is really the only remaining mystery regarding this timeline. It seems to have surfaced online in the early 2000s. While it's possible it's a fan mash-up consisting of dirty cassette versions of already-released songs, that doesn't explain the inclusion of two previously unreleased demos and one unreleased original. If anyone has any info on this anomaly, let me know!