Box Car Racer is the only studio album by American rock band Box Car Racer. Produced by Jerry Finn, the album was released on May 21, 2002, through MCA Records. The band was a side-project of Blink-182 members Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, with David Kennedy completing the band's studio lineup. A bassist and friend of Barker, Anthony Celestino, later joined as the band's bassist after DeLonge recorded the bass tracks for the record.
The record is primarily based on DeLonge's post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. The recording sessions were particularly difficult for him, as he had recently undergone back surgery. The record is a concept album detailing the end of the world, and features dark, moody tracks mulling over confusion. Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus—the only member of that band not involved in the project—felt betrayed over his lack of inclusion, which evolved into tensions between him and DeLonge, ultimately contributing to the band's 2005 breakup. Despite this, Hoppus provided guest vocals on the album's twelfth track "Elevator".
Box Car Racer peaked at number twelve on the US Billboard 200 despite little promotion, and the two singles "I Feel So" and "There Is" charted on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, with the former hitting the top 10. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who complimented the darker direction in comparison to DeLonge's previous work with Blink. The group toured the album in North America in late 2002 with the Used and H2O, and subsequently dissolved in 2003.
Background
Box Car Racer was conceived by Blink-182 guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge and formed during a break from touring. DeLonge, who came to prominence as guitarist of Blink-182, began his career within the band's fast-paced, irreverent pop-punk style, and was singularly focused on punk rock and emo, rejecting other styles as part of the punk identity. When drummer Travis Barker joined Blink-182 in 1998, his broader musical background—including metal (he had learned Master of Puppets start to finish as a teenager) and hip-hop—introduced new stylistic possibilities. Barker encouraged DeLonge to explore heavier and more experimental music, leading him toward post-hardcore acts such as Fugazi, Quicksand, Rocket from the Crypt, and Pitchfork. Reflecting on this period in 2001, DeLonge told Alternative Press, "You grow up and realize, 'There are so many great forms of music out there,'" noting that his tastes were expanding beyond the constraints of traditional punk.
This stylistic shift coincided with the band’s heightened commercial visibility in the early 2000s, as Blink-182 became a multi-platinum arena act. The pressures of fame shaped each member differently: DeLonge sought greater privacy, married in 2001, and he felt a growing urge to explore material that would not leave him constrained by what Blink-182 had become. He also expressed frustration with major label expectations and with not being taken seriously within the broader punk community. Physical strain added to this transitional period: DeLonge suffered a herniated disc that required surgery in 2001, and the resulting painkiller regimen caused what he later described as "neurosis-inducing side effects." Ultimately, Blink-182's European tour in late 2001 was postponed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and rescheduled dates in early 2002 were canceled due to DeLonge's ongoing back problems. During the resulting hiatus, DeLonge told friends he intended to step away from music entirely. But while jamming with Barker on tour, he began developing heavier-sounding guitar riffs; the first riff he created became part of the song "All Systems Go".
Throughout this period, DeLonge reconnected with guitarist David Kennedy, a fellow San Diego musician who had played in straight-edge bands like Over My Dead Body. Having known each other for several years, they began spending more time together in 2001. Their conversations drifted to the heavier guitar style he had been writing, and the idea of fleshing them out into a new project took shape. It was at first solely acoustic guitar-based; he considered it in its earliest stages to be a "Violent Femmes-esque acoustic record". The unnamed project went through other names, such as The Kill, and the album was initially titled Et tu, Brute?. He eventually settled on the name Box Car Racer, which was actually the name of a band Barker was in just after high school that DeLonge liked. He began writing songs about the end of the world, and connected it thematically with the biblical Book of Revelation and World War II. When reading about the war, DeLonge was "freaked out" to learn that Fat Man, the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, was dropped from the B-29 bomber Bockscar (commonly misspelled Boxcar).
Recording and production
Box Car Racer was recorded over six weeks beginning in December 2001, primarily at Signature Sound in San Diego, California. Sessions commenced quickly, with producer Jerry Finn having sent one whole load of equipment to Signature ahead of his arrival. Travis Barker said he used five different drum kits while recording Box Car Racer, calling it "totally different" from blink-182 and describing the album as more dynamic than his previous work. He added that he wanted each song to have its own distinct sound rather than simply recording with a single kit throughout the sessions. Barker and DeLonge worked out "80 percent" of the completed album in Barker's warehouse in Corona, California, two weeks prior to recording. When the musicians entered the studio, little was changed aside from certain lyrics, according to assistant engineer Sam Boukas. Barker completed his drum tracks in one day at two recording facilities in Los Angeles prior to the Signature sessions, with all parts recorded in the first take. DeLonge invited musician David Kennedy, whom he had met in the San Diego music circuit some years prior, to perform lead guitar parts on the album. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. plays keyboards on the record.
The sessions were particularly difficult for DeLonge, who suffered chronic back pain. "When your back is killing you and you have to have surgery and all this stuff, it's just kind of hard to keep a focus on the happier times in your life," he told MTV News. "You end up writing all these songs about feeling sad and confused." He often could only stand and sing for five minutes at a time before having to lay down again. Journalist Joe Shooman writes that the album followed a DIY spirit, rather than spending "months and months refining and polishing everything for a major label and international pop market." According to Boukas, an MCA representative dropped in on the sessions and was pleased with what he heard.
Composition and artwork
Box Car Racer was inspired by and is partly a tribute to bands DeLonge credited as an influence, such as Quicksand, Fugazi, and Refused. Musically, it is not drastically different than Blink-182, though it puts more emphasis on "slower, heavier rhythms" instead of being fast-paced. Critics primarily labeled the album as pop punk, but with a few other genre categories being ascribed to the album. PopMatters described the album as a "hardcore/emo/punk rock album" while also describing it as a pop punk album. USA Today labeled the album as power pop. The subject matter found on Box Car Racer explores the apocalypse, conspiracy theories, and Freemasonry. The album follows a central storyline, regarding an unnamed boy during the end of the world.
Barker and DeLonge wrote the songs together. DeLonge would decide what key he would sing the song in, and Barker would mostly arrange the song, toying with its structure and tempo/time signature. As for his performance on the album, Barker considered it a "totally different approach to the drums ... there are, like, jazzy bridges. ... It's so much more open and roomy." The album's final song, "Instrumental", was removed on the cassette edition of the album and replaced with an instrumental version of "I Feel So". The album's artwork, described by Shooman, consists of "bleak burgundy brown and black silhouettes plus a graffiti-esque band logo." The hidden message "LNW 13 01 1" is printed on the CD insert, which are coordinates pointing to Manhattan, New York. Art direction for the album was headed by Tim Stedman, with Stedman and Marcos Orozco designing the package. Keegan Gibbs was responsible for the "Box Car Racer" logo, while Maxx Gramajo created the tag logo artwork. Scott Heisel of Punknews.org considered the album similar to Blink-182, describing it as "Blink 182 in drop D tuning".
Controversy
Box Car Racer was notable in that it brought together two-thirds of Blink-182, effectively excluding bassist Mark Hoppus. The secrecy surrounding the project deepened an emerging personal rift within the band. Though the trio were outwardly buoyant, retaining their trademark brand of humor onstage, a quiet distance had begun to develop between DeLonge and Hoppus, intensified by exhaustion, competition, and the pressures of fame. Before the band took a break from touring, DeLonge had told Hoppus that he was looking forward to time away from music. Hoppus was therefore surprised to learn through mutual friends that DeLonge was working on new material. The two had long been creative partners, making the silence particularly unusual. DeLonge eventually called Hoppus to describe the project as a small acoustic collaboration with David Kennedy, and although he remained wary, Hoppus reluctantly accepted the proposal.
The project quickly "snowballed" beyond its original intent, evolving from casual studio sessions into a fully formed band, according to DeLonge. He explained that his primary goal was to freely experiment in the studio and that he had not anticipated the scale the project would ultimately reach. Although the work had originated from their shared jams, DeLonge claimed that Barker was brought in primarily to avoid hiring a session musician. Barker, in turn, assumed Hoppus had already been informed, viewing the two as inseparable. The scope of the project further expanded when an A&R representative from MCA Records heard four unfinished songs and offered to finance the album, despite DeLonge's original intent to self-fund. "They were like, 'Oh my god. What is this?! You might have done the most incredible re-branding and marketing thing ever done in music!'" DeLonge recalled. The project quickly drew in various members of Blink-182's support network, including their manager, producer, booking agency, legal team, and others. "When we wrote this album, we didn't know if it was going to be on a label or if we were going to put it out ourselves," Barker said at the time. "Once MCA jumped on board, it was kind of like, "Whatever! That's cool. Cheers! Put it out, we don't really care!"