Over the past two months, Tim Armstrong of the long-running Bay Area punk band, Rancid, has been releasing a collection of covers of some of his favorite songs along with the occasional original track under the title Tim Timebomb and Friends on his website. This varied collection not only includes ska, punk, and reggae tracks but also country, northern soul, and zydeco. There’s a Shangri-La’s cover (“Heaven Only Knos”), a track by Bruce Springsteen (“I’m Going Down,”) and one by Elvis Costello (“American Without Tears.”).
Once you dig deeper, Tim Timebomb has been a very busy man, of late, three pages of tracks busy, you’ll start to recognize some familiar names from the Cleveland music scene in the credits. Billed as the Ohio Ramblers, local musicians Ryan Foltz, Doug McKean, Dave McKean, Justin Gorski, Chris Yohn, and Liz Kelly, appear in some combination on four selections by Tim Timebomb and Friends. You can stream all of them below.