BOX CAR RACER(EX/LP)

Box Carr Racer: Thomas DeLonge (vocals, guitar); Dave Kennedy (guitar); Anthony Celestino (bass); Travis Barker (drums). Additional personnel: Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar, bass). Box Car Racer: Thomas DeLonge (vocals, guitar, bass); Dave Kennedy (guitar); Roger Joseph Manning (keyboards); Travis Barker (drums). Additional personnel: Mark Hoppus, Tim Armstrong (vocals). Recorded at Signature Sound, San Diego, California; Larabee, West Hollywood, California; O'Henry Studios, Burbank, California. Strictly a Blink-182 side project (featuring that band's guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker), Box Car Racer doesn't stray too far from addressing the needs and concerns of the "other" band's core teen fanbase. Choosing to leave behind the toilet humor and skate-punk swagger normally associated with Blink, this outing instead goes down the road of vulnerability and insecurity that makes up the dark side of adolescence. Not surprisingly, Box Car Racer's stylistic hard-wiring features plenty of harmonies, prickly riffs, and pounding rhythms that come to the fore on the funky "And I," the hard-charging time changes of the opening "I Feel So," and the raging hardcore of "My First Punk Song." Balancing out all this aggression are numbers where DeLonge swaps his electric guitar for an acoustic; heartfelt proclamations of love ("There Is") and the realization of life's fragility ("Letters To God"). Rounding out this self-titled debut are guest spots by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and A New Found Glory's Jordan Pundik (a chiming "Cat Like Thief"), and Blink bandmate Mark Hoppus ("Elevator"). BOX CAR RACER turns out to be an interesting visit to Blink-182's emerging serious side.