 Transplants Haunted Cities
| |
The sophomore outing from this punk-pop power group sees special guests B. Real, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. and Sen Dog joining band members Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Travis Barker (blink-182) and singer Rob Aston. Experimenting with hardcore, hip-hop, dancehall and soul on one album may be the most punk thing they've ever done.
Transplants' mostly ignored 2002 debut, Transplants, was one of the great punk records of the early millennium, a blast of buzz-saw guitar, witty Pro Tools loops, kamikaze drumming and suburban-gangsta rhymes. Like the band's first record, Haunted Cities is masterminded by Rancid singer-guitarist Tim Armstrong, but it gets its considerable clout from two powerhouse Read More buddies: Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and tough-guy MC Rob Aston, who bellows about drinking, drugging and small-time thugging. Cities is less songful than its predecessor, but on propulsive winners such as the flamenco-flavored "Crash and Burn," Armstrong's snaggletoothed choruses make for a soulful counterpoint to his mates' soused swagger. "Gangsters and Thugs" perfectly sums up their brawny, big-eared aesthetic that will hopefully catch on with Warped Tour kids everywhere. As Aston wilds out over an extra-catchy organ-tinged groove, Armstrong wearily intones a refrain very specific to his demographic: "Some of my friends sell records/Some of my friends sell drugs.
The sophomore outing from this punk-pop power group sees special guests B. Real, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. and Sen Dog joining band members Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Travis Barker (blink-182) and singer Rob Aston. Experimenting with hardcore, hip-hop, dancehall and soul on one album may be the most punk thing they've ever done.
|