Transplants: Transplants

Transplants: Transplants
Label: Hellcat
Release Date: 2002
Review Date: 2003

Just when you thought you’d seen it all… Dang, even the venerable Tim Armstrong wants to cash in on frat-rap. This is another Rancid flavored project that Armstrong started after messing around with some computers and popular culture. Essentially, Armstrong wrote, played, programmed everything. Then he enlisted a pal to write and perform most of the lyrics and got Travis Barker from Blink 182 to lay down the rhythm. It’s got samples, drum loops, heavy guitar and oh yeah, really generic rap vocals a la Onyx from several years back. A lot of tired themes and cliches really bring this record down to the level of inane crap that is being championed by your average clueless teen rap/thug fan. Now hold on, there are a lot of positive themes in here, but they are buried in the same old shit, premature bravado about the stature of the band, street violence, drugs, parties, etc. Thing is there are some really good tracks on this CD. Pretty much anything that Armstrong sings with his patented slow drawling and almost indecipherable delivery stands out as one of the good tracks. Unfortunately most songs have Rob Aston screaming at the top of his lungs at some point. I have to try and weasel my way out of a beating by saying that now matter how much this record disappoints and annoys me (it could have been pretty damned good!), I still haven’t gotten rid of my copy. (Update: I ditched it immediately after a song appeared in a shampoo commercial.)

Online Action: hell-cat.com