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Transplants break up; members form Expensive Taste

Alternative Press - Scott Heisel on 1/19/06 @ 11:17 AM - altpress.com

Ending months of speculation, Transplants frontman "Skinhead" Rob Aston confirmed via an interview with BallerStatus.net that the punk/hip-hop group, also featuring Blink-182's Travis Barker and Rancid's Tim Armstrong, have broken up. This information was revealed as Aston was being asked about his new hip-hop group with Barker and DJ Paul Wall, Expensive Taste:

"It's the new shit," Aston said in reference to Expensive Taste. "The Warped Tour had just ended and Transplants had just broken up. I was talking to Paul and he was like, 'Fuck it, we'll do a motherfuckin' group.' I hit up Trav and that was it."

This is not the first time Wall has worked with Aston and Barker, as in late 2005, Transplants' Haunted Cities was "Chopped And Screwed" by Wall and re-released (albeit to little fanfare).

Barker has also had his hand in production lately, remixing Pharrell's new single. He is also still an active member of post-Blink project Plus 44, also featuring Blink's Mark Hoppus and Get The Girl's Carol Heller.

Transplants released two albums, the most recent being 2005's Haunted Cities on LaSalle/Atlantic. They supported that record by headlining the 2005 Warped Tour. The band also appeared on the cover of AP last year. Rumors about the band's demise began in mid-August 2005, when the band cancelled their then-upcoming European tour as well as a co-headlining tour with Pennywise, citing "exhaustion" on the part of Armstrong. Since then, there has been no official word from the band's camp whatsoever regarding the band's status until now.