The Transplants, a punk supergroup composed of drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182 and singer-guitarist Tim Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman of Rancid, will release their debut album in September on Hellcat Records.
“I got a call from Tim and he said, ‘What’s up? You’re my favorite drummer,'” says Barker. “I said, ‘Really? Amazing!’ Originally I thought I was going to come in and do some drum tracks, but they were like, ‘We want you to be in our band.'”
The sixteen-song album features vocals from Armstrong’s wife Brody – of the punk band the Distillers – on a pair of tracks, looped live drums and a drum-and-bass sound, as opposed to the straight-ahead punk rock for which Blink and Rancid are known.
“We’re finishing the programming and mixing now, and we’re going to do a little West Coast tour in July and probably head east in September,” says Barker.
Meanwhile, Box Car Racer, Barker’s other side project with Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge, will release their self-titled debut on May 21st. Barker describes the sound as “the bigness of Quicksand guitars, the grooviness of Fugazi and the break beats of a retarded drummer.”
The busy drummer also recently played on some tracks for hip-hoppers Black Eyed Peas’ upcoming album and began the Blink-182/Green Day tour this week.
In other Rancid news, the NorCal punks will start an eight-date West Coast tour with NOFX on April 18th at the Grove in Anaheim. The dates are in support of Split Series 3, the split album the two groups released last month.
Rancid Tour Dates With NOFX:
- 4/18 – Anaheim, CA, The Grove
- 4/19-21 – West Hollywood, CA, The House of Blues
- 4/23-24 – San Diego, CA, Canes Bar and Grill
- 4/26 – Las Vegas, NV, House of Blues
- 4/27 – Pomona, CA, The Glass House
