+44

+44 was the band Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker built in Los Angeles once Blink-182 fell apart, a supergroup born partly out of spite: Tom DeLonge had already gone off to make Box Car Racer with Barker and without Hoppus. The name is the UK's dialing code, a nod to where the pair first hatched the idea. The earliest sessions leaned electronic and featured Carol Heller, formerly of the all-girl punk band Get the Girl, on vocals, but once Hoppus and Barker bought their own studio the sound toughened up.

By the time guitarists Shane Gallagher of the Nervous Return and Craig Fairbaugh of Mercy Killers were on board, +44 had turned into a darker, heavier cousin of pop-punk, Hoppus's bass and deadpan croon riding Barker's machine-gun drumming. The only album, When Your Heart Stops Beating, landed on Interscope in November 2006 to plenty of anticipation, mixed reviews and sales that fell short of the hype. The title track, all urgent chug and big-hearted chorus, is the best argument for the whole venture.

They toured the world through 2006 and 2007, including the Honda Civic Tour alongside Fall Out Boy, and Hoppus started stockpiling songs for a second record. Then Blink-182 got back together in 2009, and +44 quietly went dark.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.