Teenage Bottlerocket
Tales From Wyoming
Teenage Bottlerocket are the purveyors of skate pop punk in our modern times. They’re not reinventing the wheel, of course, but it helps to understand this band if you consider that they’re just sticking to a formula and tampering with it. And what a formula it is: Teenage Bottlerocket are responsible for some of the catchiest melodies and sauciest riffs in the genre. Strangely, they haven’t written their masterpiece yet, and instead have kept on a tried and true path over the years. In this writer’s opinion They Came From The Shadows is the closest they’ve ever gotten to that milestone in their career, and it’s only served to raise the bar of what we can expect from them.
It’s simply baffling how much this band has been able to do with some simple chords, melodic harmonies, and guitar noodling. Tales From Wyoming, their latest release (and sadly, last with their drummer Brandon Carlisle), definitely has all the elements we’ve come to know and love from Teenage Bottlerocket and is sure to please fans and newcomers alike. The trick as a fan is to let these songs grow on you, and the trick as a newcomer is to unabashedly give yourself into the poppiness you’re experiencing. Never slowing down, Tales From Wyoming is a pop punk explosion of girl songs, self-reflection and sillynes with Carlisle and Templeton switching off on vocal duties to provide some much needed mixing-it-up. Seriously, how beautiful of a song is TV Set? It really makes you feel like pop perfection is just around the corner.
Also, can we talk about how beautiful the Rise Records vinyl is? It looks as beautiful as it sounds. Really brings some luster to any collection (and to this column, while we’re at it).
Teenage Bottlerocket made the not-unexpected journey of moving from Fat Wreck to Rise Records but now they’re back on Fat. Lord knows why, but as Tales From Wyoming has proven, this band is far from done. They’re sticking to what they know and getting better and better.
