Tim Armstrong

From Punkopedia - The Punk, Hardcore, and Indie Encyclopedia


Fuck you
Homebase	Berkley, CA
Born	November 25, 1966
Website	Rancid

Timothy Lockwood Armstrong (born November 25, 1966) is a musician and producerbest known for his work with punk rock bands Rancid, Operation Ivy, and Transplants, as well as his record label Hellcat Records.

1 Biography
2 Projects
3 Influences
4 Links

[edit] Biography

One of the first bands that Tim played in was Basic radio. After Basic Radio disbanded, he performed in the ska band Operation Ivy under the nickname "Lint" from their beginning in 1987, until they disbanded in 1989. Soon thereafter, Armstrong helped found the Dance Hall Crashers, but left the band after a brief period of time. He was also in Downfall with Matt Freeman. In 1991 Armstrong went on to greater fame with the very successful Rancid with bassist Matt Freeman (who had previously played with Tim in Operation Ivy, Downfall, and Dancehall Crashers). Brett Reed, was only a local skate punk who had been playing drums for six months when Tim and Matt asked him to be in the band. Rancid later added Lars Frederiksen on guitar and vocals to fill out their sound. While still with Rancid, he also has a side-project, Transplants, which started with Armstrong, his friend "Skinhead Rob" Aston and a drum machine. Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker later came on to replace the drum machine.

In addition to his projects, Armstrong has also been known to pop up on others' albums in various roles. He's contributed vocals to tracks by bands including Box Car Racer, Bad Religion, Stubborn All-Stars, Head Automatica, The Matches, NOFX, Time Again and Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, which is a side-project of his Rancid bandmate Lars Frederiksen. He's collaborated with P!nk, the Aggrolites, Gwen Stefani and Kelly Osbourne. He has also produced several albums, including the first album by AFI, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995) and Viking by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards.

Armstrong is still very active in the Berkeley scene that grew up around 924 Gilman Street. He has showcased his other artistic talents and created artwork for the INSAINTS logo. A new album by Rancid is set for an early 2007 release. He has also done a solo album entitled A Poet's Life, which fans can download for free on the internet. He is releasing one song at a time, and has so far released a music video with each song.

[edit] Projects

[edit] Operation Ivy

Hectic EP (1988) – (credited as Lint) guitar and backing vocals on entire album
Energy (1989, 1991) – (credited as Lint) guitar and backing vocals on entire album
Seedy (1996) – (credited as Lint) guitar and backing vocals on entire album

[edit] Downfall

Although no records by Downfall exist, the band did release a demo and a couple songs. It should be noted that Tim and Freeman started the band. They were featured on a compilation "Can Of Pork" with a song called "North Berkeley" [1].