Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came From the Shadows

Teenage Bottlerocket, hailing from Laramie, Wyoming, are the current standard-bearers for Ramones-core pop-punk. There’s pretty much no band out there who does it quite as well as these four guys. And now they’ve been signed to punk juggernaut, Fat Wreck Chords.

Happily, the jump from Red Scare to Fat hasn’t really impacted the band’s sound at all, at least not negatively. They sound tight as ever here, cranking out 2-3 minute pop-punk anthems left and right. “Skate or Die” delves a bit into skatepunk territory, as would befit such a song, and showcases perhaps a bit more bravado in the lyrics than the band’s previously been known for. This comes to a head in “Bigger Than KISS,” where the band boasts- tongue, one assumes, firmly planted in cheek- that they’re “gonna go down in history as world’s greatest rock ‘n roll band.” Great song, perhaps unless you’re a diehard KISS fan. Who can’t chuckle at the closing line “Ray beat the piss/outta Peter Criss/Now we’re bigger than KISS?”

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Teenage Bottlerocket - Warning Device

So apparently, there’s a punk scene in Wyoming. This probably comes as a surprise to many, as there’s not a lot that- as I understand it- goes on in Wyoming. Half the time I question the state’s very existence, because really, have you ever met anyone from Wyoming? The odds are no, you haven’t.

But it exists, there are people there, and some of them even play punk rock.

Teenage Bottlerocket formed from the remnants of Homeless Wonders, featuring twin brothers Ray and Brandon, along with (after their first, vinyl-only album Another Way) Kody, formerly of the Lillingtons. Miguel is the last member of the band, and as far as I can tell, he has no previous credits to his name. The Wikipedia article scarcely mentions him.

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