We Got A Wild Connection: A TWISTED TEENS thread for real rock n' rollers

these new orleans have broken garage rock scene contain, love these dirtbags....

feel like the real descendents of the great Greg Cartwright/Oblivion, and the pedal steel adds a unique sound within a pretty tight aesthetic window

such great songs and they keep pumping em out like GBV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHAPY0tyhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFpTYP8DlUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQmRlwSnYYQ

oh man i loooove "is it real?"

here for this

forgot to include the thread title song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtc2fnWaZLg

started at the beginning and was immediately won over when the handclaps started

I am officially in love with this band. GUIDED THUNDER!!!

my friend's band literally played with them outside a punk vegan cafe in south minneapolis a little over a year ago, now they are on tour with the breeders and then kurt vile

he said caspian hollywell said he had over 200 songs written that hadn't come out at that point

is it me or do some of the songs on this debut cut off very abruptly?

“is it real” and “javelina” are two of my favorite rock songs of the year. i liked this summer’s album better than the one from earlier this year, but i love their general scuzzed out vibe

thx for the the reminder, i'm thinking i might have to pick up their LPs. the Greg Cartwright comp seems accurate to me.

love this guy's voice

almost kinda sorta reminds me of Devil Makes Three, but way more scuzzed/fuzzed out

same dirtbag basement busker vibe tho <3

"100 Dollar Bill is Gone" has been my earworm of the year... And they've got plenty others. Really loving them.

that's another great one, what a chorus melody

same dirtbag basement busker vibe tho <3

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Friday, August 21, 2026 11:59 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol yeah they definitely are typical of the actual punk gross baseball hat/carhartt overall type punk look that's been dominant irl for a long time now

is hollywell writing most of the songs? very strong songwriting and great voice. his pedal steel bud is great too, hope i'm not minimizing his contributions.

Hell yeah, love these guys. Saw them a few months ago, rockin’ good time, super good vibes.

Now doing some shows opening for the Breeders, and some for Kurt Vile , and some on their own

https://www.subpop.com/artists/twisted_teens/tours

Hollywell’s vox sometimes remind me of younger Elvis Costello.

is hollywell writing most of the songs? very strong songwriting and great voice. his pedal steel bud is great too, hope i'm not minimizing his contributions.

― shaking babies (map^2), Friday, August 21, 2026 1:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

my friend hung out w/him at the show and got the sense it was kinda hollywell's deal...also there's two official members but the live band was a 5-piece. but all that said the pedal steel is super crucial imo.

my wife says his voice reminds her of Jerry Jeff Walker, I can hear it (the Costello thing too)

every once in a while a record like this gets its hooks in me and it's special, there's so many people that try to do heartfelt rock n' roll stuff and most of them suck so bad and are such corny ass paul westerberg cosplay dorks* so when a band can really fucking do it, like really tug on my heartstrings it's a powerful feeling.

*minneapolis will never run out of these bands

His vocals occasionally have a Nate Kato vibe.

ha yeah i wouldn't have thought about urge but totally

Love this song from the first album and this performance of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHe_K-qU53o

good interview

https://bigtakeover.com/interviews/where-punk-meets-the-pews-a-conversation-with-twisted-teens

CH: (Laughs) It’s a different thing live. It’s no frills. Like when we make a record, I’m more on like Lee “Scratch” Perry shit, making it crazy. Live we’re just a real old school rock and roll band.

yeah that whole thing is a fun read. they are very sharp and likeable.

great interview, really miss these kind of in depth interviews

listening to the Cajun band Beau Cheval they mention, really great stuff

perspective from one of my oldest friends who has lived in NoLa since the early 90s

"hey certainly are not part of the scene I’m part of. Or scenes (im part of the dj scene, im part of the power poppy punk/garage scene, and I’m not part of but friends with the people in the sludge metal/ gutter / heavily tatoo’ed older punk scene. . Of course now the younger side of the scene I’m in is now about 30. Except for the younger kids who are literally the children of the people Our age in this scene.

There is quite possible a sizable scene for instance of kids that live in the lower part of the city that I never go to (it’s on the other side of a canal) and alot of those kids are train hoppers, banjo playing folkies who have weekly jam sessions where they play alt country, blue grass, and smoke weed haha. Aka hippies. And yes alot of them are from Portland. I think this scene exists but I know nothing about it. My guess is that these guys are part of that?

(after reading interview)

great interview! Well at least when I eventually meet them I’ll have some Context. The six Or so bands they list As being Part of Their scene are all part of thee scene I was describing and there are like 2-3 bars that those kids have shoes and and they cajun dance and swing Dance and stuff and I like visiting that scene but I don’t know any of those people at all. I am an old man now After all ha ha. I’ll be at the geriatric old People new waver shows coming up, devo next week and the return of circle jerks/negative approach the week after."
No one under 40 or good looking goes to see bands like that anymore haha. They are all Going to The deslondes/twisted teens Show"

this band rules

hundred dollar bill is gone!

I brushed past these guys pretty quick because they didn't meet my expectations on their sound/style based on some review I read beforehand. That was foolish. Having expectations on a band I never heard before is destructive behavior. Some Buddhist said that. I've only listened to Blame The Clown so far, and am on my 5th listen this afternoon. I love the shit out it so far. Great variety of songs. "White Hot Coal" is my favorite only because it's currently playing.

Dude sounds exactly like Mick Collins

It was bugging me who he sounded like and I think that might be who I was thinking of.

Great band. I found the same interview sleeve posted after listening to two of their albums and Kevin Shields and Lee Perry are not the first two artists that come to mind when you hear their sound.

He packs so much narrative into such short songs. His delivery is ace, too. I love how conversational he can be.

so there are a ton of earlier recordings (4 whole albums) on their Bandcamp, just noting

https://twistedteens.bandcamp.com/

check out the Beefheart shirt in one of those pics <3

(those are Caspian with other folks, not Ramon, to be clear, although some of them also show up on the TT credits)

$38 for everything on FLAC, what a deal

I checked their tour dates and their Bowery Ballroom show in NYC is sold out in November :(

They sold out the Bowery Ballroom? Dang. Good for them! I saw them on a three-band bill for $15, playing to maybe 50 people just 4 months ago.

They're scheduled to be on Office Hours Live tomorrow 8/25 at 10am PT/1pm ET.

Portland OR show on Friday also sold out

Its very mysterious to me but it seems like every once in a while a songwriter just goes on a hot streak and starts churning out fresh and memorable songs like they couldn't write a bad song if they tried. This album makes me think of that.

Circus!

Clown!

the way he delivers

"hunters just like killing
it is their pastime"

slays me, it's that "conversational" thing PBKR mentioned

Starting to digest the debut album after a month of enchantment with 2 and 3. I love it all. The muse of rock has graced these two weirdos in that miracle year way that hit Husker Du or Jay Reatard at their peaks, where they could suddenly synthesize the whole of their genre fascinations into a unique sound. One of the delights here is the drum machine programming, particularly the ridic fills. Brings that Suicide fanboy side of Springsteen to the husky soul delivery. Such an unexpected bit of robotics that keeps the garage style from falling into back-to-basics, four-guys-in-a-room verities.

I realized who the singer sometimes reminds me of: Black Francis/Frank Black.

Good point about the drum machine programming. It sounds really raw at first but there's a fair amount of multitracking going on to get the sound of a much bigger band. He wasn't completely kidding with the Lee Scratch Perry reference in that interview above. Reminds me of the excellent R.M.F.C. "The Hive" album from a couple of years ago.

been listening to Florida Water Blues now. These 2 albums are so great. What a display! Surely, they can't keep up this level. "Why Did You Miss It?" might be my favorite so far, but that's always changing. Is that a little nod to "Negative Creep" at the start? That's so endearing! The middle part from 1:40 to 2:20 has me elevated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1-70R43fhU

Definitely read it as Nirvana reference, and "Top of the World" borrows the melodies of "Satisfaction" wholesale. But endearing is the word for the borrowings, and there's more for sure, a bunch I'm grasping fleetingly but cannot place yet. Three albums in, and they haven't even gotten to a Bo Diddley/clave beat yet.

Oh yeah, "Florida Water Blues" and the Cramps "New Kind of Kick". Like the Cramps avoiding Chuck Berry riffs, I wonder if they have some internal rules that guide the method. Or if it's all actually like Lee Scratch Perry - just lighting up and pushing faders around.

Really digging these guys, though the collector in me is mildly annoyed that they put the first two albums out on CD but not the new one.

oh my fucking god I saw Blackbird Raum in concert opening for Devil Makes Three, this all makes so much sense THANK YOU

lol of course you did <3

it was a big benefit show iirc

also worth mentioning that DM3 themselves are originally from Santa Cruz iirc

lol nothing makes more sense to me than sleeve seeing Blackbird Raum and The Devil Makes Three in, I assume, Eugene

glad you like the Cinder Well album, map. it is indeed very good.

Record #4, The Holy Cross Tigers, out Nov 6.

was hoping to hear that, ty

new single is great, they aren't slicking things up for Sub Pop thankfully

https://pitchfork.com/story/twisted-teens-hit-the-big-time-interview/

wow that was a lot to chew on
yet another Beefheart tshirt in the photos

I mean, this is a terrific start to a novel:

In the dirt by his feet was a crumpled For Sale sign. Hollywell approached the landlord, a 70-something weed kingpin and car repairman who ran the entire block, to buy the house with his life savings. The landlord answered the door in a bloody shirt, dick out, gun in hand, and accepted the deal.

These bands are only really connected in my own mind, but these guys are so much better than Ratboys or The Tubs.

somewhat apples & oranges to me, they are from different cultural & musical universes (I much prefer TT as well)

one more preview track from the new album is up on Bandcamp fwiw, so two now

I've tried with Ratboys and Tubs, but haven't been able to get into them, but enjoying TTs a lot.

xp

Funny that you mention those, I love all three bands and outside maybe Big Thief they are the only bands I really find doing interesting things within the wider "indie rock" world.

Let's not soil the Twisted Teens thread with Big Thief talk! I don't get them or the praise for them at all.

An interesting part of that article seems to be that Twisted Teens aren't really coming from an indie rock place at all, which might be "doth protest too much" but also seems to have some truth to it.

I didn't realize until I got the vinyl that "Is it Real?" and "Not Real" start sides A and B of Blame the Clown, which provides a certain structure.

I love all three bands and outside maybe Big Thief they are the only bands I really find doing interesting things within the wider "indie rock" world

There are others I like but basically otm imo. But also yeah, Twisted Teens have a different lineage and vibe than any of those. What I love about that Pitchfork article is that everything it describes is essentially what I would have imagined about these guys just from their music and general presentation. I haven't spent any time in Holy Cross but I know the adjacent more-gentrified Bywater fairly well and it all sounds extremely post-Katrina New Orleans.

man y'all don't sleep on the EU EP either, so good

https://twistedteens.bandcamp.com/album/eu-ep

PBKR does the LP come with a lyric sheet?

I think so but I will check this evening.

fwiw every place they go to in that pitchfork piece is in bywater. (i was a bartender at vaughan's lounge for several years.)

Yeah Vaughan's is awesome.

Predictably I love Twisted Teens but perhaps even more predictably I'm most transported by their old-time fiddle work outside the band, so much so that I ordered the fakebook I had as a kid

PBKR does the LP come with a lyric sheet?

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Thursday, October 22, 2026 12:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, all three LPs have illustrated lyric sheets and Blame the Clown also has a little booklet with cartoons relating to the songs.

Hollywell admits he loves "weird, trashy fantasy written by Redditors" because "the MFA program utterly ruined all literature."

This Redditor trashy fantasy sounds intriguing.

ah man loving this. G Cartwright/j Oblivon otm and check out the Limes’ “Tarantual”. sounds like the Buccaneer Memphis 2am 2005

-an

they did it again!

i think it's my fave so far

feels like the early/mid-90s GBV run right now

the lap steel solo on "I Spend My Time Crying" ♥️♥️♥️

New video (3rd!) from this album already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbzDFsmqAYo

this song is very much the standout for me

My copy just showed up yesterday, can't wait to dig in.

Great video.

amazing video. "gone fishing" graf is iconic.

can't wait to rock out to this in a few hours

this is so fn good

Obsessed

It was driving me crazy trying to think of who the singer of this band reminds me of, and I think I finally got it today: he sounds a bit like the guy from Constantines (crossed with Greg Cartwright)

with end of year looming, I'm trying to think about how to make sense and rank these. Currently leaning toward Blame The Clown as my favorite because it has the most direct and catchy songs that get stuck in my head.

Current favorite tracks: Is It Real?, Wild Connection, 100 Bill is Gone!, Florida Water Blues, Javelina, I Spend My Time Crying, Lock And Key

damn this new one is good

Plus Marionette, When the Wire Get Cut, Little Seed, Who Could It Be?, Guided Thunder, etc., etc. This is impossible.

xp

When We First Met also great

caught them opening for kurt vile the other night, i like kv fine but no surprise they blew him off the stage, best rock & roll band in america right now

yeah that's a "Nirvana opening for Sonic Youth in 1992" kinda vibe

And yet Hollywell is even older than any of Sonic Youth were at that point.

"I Spend My Time Crying" feels like a song that has always existed, but recorded really oddly, like a cover really trying to push a rock solid standard in a rickety direction.

I also love how some of the songs are clearly home-studio concoctions yet point towards being ripping live jams with a full band while fully accepting their sketchy imprecision.

xp correction I think it was 1991

this new one just flies by, less than 30 minutes I think?

Only 3 listens into the new one. More of a grower for me than the previous 2. There's a couple moments that remind me of '94 era BECK, the stereopathetic soulmanure stuff, which I really love. Florida Water Blues might be my aoty. They're certainly my artist of the year.