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Transplants Album: “Haunted Cities”
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Release Date:2005-06-20
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Alternative Rock
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Label:La Salle
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Explicit Lyrics:Yes
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UPC:075679410467
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Review - :
{$Transplants}' 2002 debut shouldn't have worked. There was the supergroup tag, for one, with {$Tim Armstrong} and {$Travis Barker} at the center of a trio that also included vocalist/rapper {$Ron Aston}. And besides, their charge of modified {\punk revivalism}, streetscape grit, and {\hip-hop} bravado seemed (on paper anyway) like music for the villains in a {$DMX} action vehicle, or at the very least a sound tailored for game systems. Nevertheless it was oddly effective, and managed some real atmosphere. In 2005 {$the Transplants} return. They've skipped from {$Armstrong}'s {@Hellcat} imprint to {$Barker}'s {@Atlantic}-distributed {@La Salle}, but it's close to the same sound on {^Haunted Cities}. Opener {&"Not Today"} suggests the first record's {&"Tall Cans in the Air"}; it sounds like a futuristic retelling of 1977 {\punk}, and {$Sen Dog} stops by for a guest verse. {&"Apocalypse Now"} isn't as effective -- its lyrical rage is empty, and the converted {\drum'n'bass} backing track doesn't go anywhere. But the single {&"Gangsters and Thugs"} is as oddly effective as the debut with its turntables and hedonism, organ drop-ins, and skittering percussion racket. "Gangsters and thugs/Criminals and hoods/Some of my friends sell records/Some of my friends sell drugs." And speaking of {$Sen Dog}, {$B Real} appears on the dubby swagger {&"Killafornia."} {&"What I Can't Describe"} appropriates vintage {\soul} and Cali {\G-funk}; it even features some raps from {$Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.} The swaggering {&"Madness"} sounds like a {$Rancid} track recut to fit {$the Transplants}' shadowy street-fighting sound -- while the hammering guitar and {$Armstrong}'s vocal part are pulled right from {\punk}, the theremin-and-keyboard breakdowns are strange flashbulbs from an alternate Golden State reality where it's always night and thugs drive around in jet-powered Packards. {^Haunted Cities} suffers lyrically. Blood, guts, and I'll punch you (or worse) if you look my way -- that's about the size of it, particularly when {$Aston}'s on the mike. But the weird {$Clash-isms} of {&"American Guns"} and {&"I Want It All"}'s chopped-up rhythms and scratches work even though they shouldn't. It's all so blatantly postmodern. But the whole package ends up having this strangely alluring glimmer. It's like discovering California Babylon after being lost in suburbia. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
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