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Blink 182, Rancid Members Team Up As Transplants
10/08/2002 3:00 PM, Yahoo! Music Mark Armstrong
(10/8/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and Rancid singer/guitarist Tim Armstrong have teamed for a side project called the Transplants. A self-titled debut album is due October 22 from Armstrong's own Hellcat Records.
The project fuses punk with reggae, hip-hop, and dancehall beats. Barker says: "It's really influenced by old English Dogs and G.B.H., that kind of stuff. Then some of it is really hardcore drum and bass. It's weird."
The album was recorded over the last two years in Armstrong's home basement studio, after the Rancid frontman started collaborating with Los Angeles-based vocalist Rob Aston. Barker came on board next, overdubbing live drums to Armstrong's previously recorded loops.
Guests include Armstrong's Rancid mates Lars Frederiksen and Matt Freeman, the Distillers's Brody Armstrong, AFI's Davey Havok, the Slackers' Vic Ruggiero, and Funkdoobiest's Son Doobie.
Barker says: "Transplants songs are over the top. We talk about stuff I can't even mention. Some of it is as hard as you can possibly get. It's so punk it's stupid."
Barker and Aston are making personal appearances this week to sign autographs and spin the album for fans. The pair appears at Hoodlum's in Phoenix Wednesday (October 9); Ventura, California's Skate Street Thursday (October 10); Santa Barbara, California's Living Room Friday (October 11); and the Glass House in Pomona, California on Saturday (October 12).
-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles
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