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 H<sub>2</sub>O, and subsequently dissolved in 2003.
Background
thumb|right|upright|Tom DeLonge conceived the project during a break from touring.
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,
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." 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). 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. 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.