"Time Bomb" is a song by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released as the second single from its third album, '' ...And Out Come the Wolves''. The song reached number 8 on ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks, marking the highest initial charting single in Rancid's career.

Composition

"Time Bomb" is a

ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. (sometimes spelled skacore) is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 tone and ska with hardc ...

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

, ska rock and

reggae rock Reggae rock is a subgenre of reggae fusion and rock music that primarily uses the genres reggae, rock, and ska. Typical lyrics of reggae rock songs incorporate love, personal awareness, and life challenges while incorporating music and beat el ...

song, similar to the sound of

Operation Ivy Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after '' Tumbler-Snapper'' and before '' Upshot–Knothole''. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Is ...

, in which

Tim Armstrong Timothy Ross Armstrong (born November 25, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and producer. Known for his distinctive voice, he is the singer/guitarist for the punk rock band Rancid and hip hop/punk rock supergroup Transplants. ...

and

Matt Freeman Matthew "McCall" Freeman (born Roger Matthew Freeman; April 23, 1966) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his bass work with the punk rock bands Operation Ivy, Rancid and as the frontman of Devil's Brigade. ...

used to play before Rancid. The lyrics for the first verse of the song were sampled from an earlier song, "Motorcycle Ride", which appeared on the band's previous album, '' Let's Go''.

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by

Marcus Raboy Marcus Raboy (born November 30, 1965) is an American film and music video director. Since the early 1990s, Raboy has amassed a large number music video credits directing music videos for Mary J. Blige, Dixie Chicks, Rihanna, Luther Vandros ...

. It was partially filmed at 155 Rivington in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

; the building later became the headquarters of

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Reception

Reception to the song was widely positive. Loudersound ranked ''Time Bomb'' as Rancid's second best song. ''

Consequence Consequence may refer to: * Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment'' * In operant conditioning, a result of some behavior * Consequentialism, a theory in philosophy in which the morality of an act is determi ...

'' ranked the song as the band's 5th best song, and the 44th best punk song of all time. Diffuser listed it as their 10th best song.

Track listing

#"Time Bomb" - 2:24 #"The Wars End" - 1:53 #"Blast 'Em" - 2:29

In popular culture

* Time Bomb was featured in the 2000 ''

Gilmore Girls ''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flagshi ...

'' episode

Cinnamon's Wake The first season of ''Gilmore Girls'', an American dramedy television series, began airing on October 5, 2000 on The WB. The season concluded on May 10, 2001, after 21 episodes. The season originally aired on Thursdays at 8 pm ET before '' Charme ...

. Lane's band also performed a cover of "Time Bomb" in the Season 4 ''Gilmore Girls'' episode "Afterboom". * It was used in the 2005 movie '' Fun with Dick and Jane''. * It was used in the 2016 movie '' Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2''. * It was used in the 2018 Netflix show ''

Everything Sucks! ''Everything Sucks!'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Ben York Jones and Michael Mohan that parodies teen culture of the mid-1990s. Ten half-hour episodes were ordered by Netflix and the series was released on ...

''. * It was used in the 2018 movie

Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subs ...

. * Along with " Ruby Soho" and "

Last One to Die "Last One to Die" is a song by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released as the first single from their seventh album, '' Let the Dominoes Fall''. It first premiered on April 6, 2009 on the Los Angeles modern rock radio station, KROQ. ...

", "Time Bomb" was released in the Rancid 01 track pack on July 21, 2009, for '' Rock Band 2''. * UFC fighter

Antonio Banuelos Juan Antonio Banuelos (born September 23, 1979) is an American former mixed martial artist who competed in the Bantamweight division. Mixed martial arts career Banuelos made his professional mixed martial arts debut in June 2001, knocking out Da ...

uses the song as he makes his entrance to the Octagon.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1995 singles Rancid (band) songs Music videos directed by Marcus Raboy Songs written by Tim Armstrong Songs written by Lars Frederiksen Songs written by Matt Freeman 1995 songs Epitaph Records singles Reggae rock songs