Release of Cheshire Cat

The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records , which offered to sign the band on a “trial basis”, with help from O , guitarist for local punk band Fluf , and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor . The band recorded their debut album— Cheshire Cat , released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles , fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. ” M+M’s “, the band’s first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X , and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink . Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they “change the name or [we’ll] change it for you”, after which the band decided on a random number, 182. . The number 182 was decided one night when Tom and Mark were skateboarding in Poway. Mark rode up and said, “How about 182? We just put that on the end there.” Tom asked, “Why 182?” and Mark responded, “I don’t know, it’s kind of a cool number.”