Box Car Racer

Box Car Racer was a short-lived American rock project formed in San Diego, California in 2001 by Tom DeLonge, guitarist and vocalist of Blink-182, alongside Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and guitarist David Kennedy, later of Hazen Street. DeLonge conceived the band as an outlet for darker, more introspective material than what fit the pop-punk framework of Blink-182 at the time.

The project released a single self-titled album that leaned into post-hardcore and emo textures, trading some of Blink-182's brightness for tension, distortion-heavy guitar work and more emotionally weighty lyrics. Songs like «There Is», «Cat Like Thief» and «Watch the World» capture that shift, while «I Feel So» and «Elevator» lean into moodier, more atmospheric songwriting. The album became an influential touchstone for the early-2000s post-hardcore and emo scenes, with many bands citing its tone and production as a reference point.

Box Car Racer was always intended as a side project rather than a permanent band, and it dissolved not long after its album cycle as DeLonge and Barker returned their focus to Blink-182. Despite its brief existence, the record's mix of pop songwriting instincts with darker post-hardcore textures left a lasting mark, and tracks such as «And I» and «The End with You» are still cited by fans as some of the more emotionally direct work to come out of that scene.