"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, ska rock and reggae rock song, similar to the sound of Operation Ivy, in which Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman 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. This song is about Eric Hogan (a good friend of the band, particularly Tim Armstrong) who used to own American Graffiti Tattoo. He was murdered by Hells Angels (supposedly) for sleeping with one of the gang members wives.

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by Marcus Raboy. It was partially filmed at 155 Rivington in New York City's Lower East Side; the building later became the headquarters of Kickstarter.

Reception

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

In popular culture

Charts