If you have a hole above your valve possibly when you took the pump off the tire it tore the tire away from the tube. This has happened to me in the past, so now when I take the tire off the valve, I'm careful not to pull the pump off too hard.

I've used Performance tubes and REI tubes and haven't had any problems with them.

Re bulge in tire- next time, before you pump the tire all the way up, take the wheel and rotate it in your hands and look for alignment of tire to wheel. Also go along the rim and check to make sure the tire is correctly seated on the rim.