Twisted Teens
“When We First Met”
Sub Pop Records (available via Bandcamp)
This year, Twisted Teens will release three albums. Three god damn albums on three different labels. That’s absolutely wild production for any band, including this rowdy and loose New Orleans-based punk duo.
The craziest part? Each album is excellent. There’s no hit-or-miss here. It’s all an absolute hit. Fast-paced punk songs with a heavy dose of backyard blue and outlaw country woven in.
RJ “The Razor” Santos on steel guitar is a wild addition to this punky mix with Caspian Hollywell on vocals. He often sounds like a hounddog howling out his lyrics. There’s emotion in the delivery here, which for me is the hallmark of great songwriting. You can write it, but can you deliver it to me with all the heart, feeling and purpose that you put down on the page?
The latest single, “When We First Met,” feels like the band growing up right before our eyes, all in one year. The first album they dropped this year, “Blame The Clown,” was rightly dubbed by many reviewers as a wild party. Their follow-up, “Florida Water Blues,” felt like a hangover the next day.
Their upcoming third album, “The Holy Cross Tigers” (out Nov. 6 via Sub Pop), and this first single undoubtedly have the most depth. There’s heartbreak and yearning set against the backdrop of rigid drums, churning distorted guitars and the warm drone of Santos’ and his steel guitar.
Oh, when we first met
We used to do everything we could think of together
When we first met
When we first met the Twisted Teens, it was just earlier this year.
By the end of 2026, we’ll have completely grown up with this band and their damn-near-perfect trifecta of albums with “When We First Met” bringing us full circle.
