Blink 182 – Cheshire Cat

Vinyl LP pressing. Cheshire Cat is the debut studio album by Blink-182. Recorded at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles and produced by Otis Barthoulameu and the band themselves, the album was released on February 17, 1995 through local independent record label Cargo Music. The trio, composed of guitarist Tom DeLonge, bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Scott Raynor, formed in 1992 and recorded three demos that impressed the San Diego-based Cargo. In addition, their reputation as an irreverent local live act at venues such as SOMA alerted the label, which was trying to expand into different genres. Cargo were still not in a position to offer more than a few days' worth of finances to record the album, and so the band recorded under financial constraints at Westbeach. Ten Foot Pole member Steve Kravac engineered the recording and advised the trio to record additional overdubs. As such, the band spent an additional week re-recording several tracks at Santee, California's Doubletime Studios. The record was originally released with the band's name as Blink, until an Irish band of the same name threatened legal action, after which the band appended -182 to the end of their name.