Transplants: Haunted Cities : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

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 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."