Box Car Racer biography
Box Car Racer was a short-lived American post-hardcore band from San Diego, California, formed in 2002. The band was a side-project of guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182, along with lead guitarist David Kennedy of Hazen Street, and touring bassist Anthony Celestino. Driven by a more mature and introspective sound than previous Blink-182 recordings, DeLonge was the primary lyricist of the group and created the group in order to experiment with ideas that were not "Blink-friendly".
The band released one studio album, the eponymous Box Car Racer, and played a tour throughout 2002 until Blink-182 went to record their new album in 2003. Delonge stated that the band is permanently defunct. Delonge's new band, Angels & Airwaves, is proclaimed a continuation of Box Car Racer.
History
Origins
Conceived by Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker, the band was formed during a break from touring for Blink-182. A European tour for Blink-182 in winter 2001 was delayed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and rescheduled dates in early 2002 were also canceled due to DeLonge's back problems. According to interviews, Box Car Racer grew "out of boredom" and, according to DeLonge, "is just for fun in the few days we have off from our real jobs". The idea began with DeLonge playing acoustic guitar during recording sessions for Blink-182's 2001 album
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and grew from there.
The band was originally supposed to be named "The Kill" and the cd was to be titled Et Tu, Brute. The name of the band, Box Car Racer, was originally the name of a band Barker was in shortly after high school. DeLonge liked the name, but was uneasy after learning the origin: the term was a reference to the B-29 Bomber which dropped the second wartime atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan - the plane's name was "Bockscar". The plane's name was commonly misspelled as "Boxcar", and, due to Barker's desire for the band name to be three words, was spelled out as Box Car Racer.
The band began recording their first and only album in December 2001. According to DeLonge in interviews, the album's recording sessions were difficult for him because of constant back problems. The depression that came from being in constant pain influenced the lyrics of the album largely.
With DeLonge playing bass for the album, a bassist went unannounced until the band made their live debut with touring bassist Anthony Celestino on April 1, 2002.
Box Car Racer, tour, and disbanding
The eponymous
Box Car Racer album was officially released on May 21, 2002 to commercial success - the album reached number 12 on the Billboard 200, and "I Feel So", the first single release, was already climbing the charts. Critics praised the new direction DeLonge and Barker had taken; as such, the album received positive reviews.
Slant magazine called the album a "much needed departure from the banality of Blink-182" and "the perfect union of pop punk riffs and instrumentation that spans all genres of rock from indie to folk."
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