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Teenage Bottlerocket

TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET โ€“ SICK SESH!

Ray Carlisle โ€“ vocals/guitar // Kody Templeman โ€“ vocals/guitar

Miguel Chen โ€“ bass/vocals // Darren Chewka โ€“ drums/vocals

Theyโ€™ve toured the world countless times. They kept the leather jacket-and-Converse look alive through an increasingly neon landscape. Theyโ€™ve written songs about KISS, Top Gun and Minecraft. Hell, theyโ€™ve even been on CNN a few times! Please welcome back to the spotlight Wyomingโ€™s own Teenage Bottlerocket, whose ninth album, the 12-track Sick Sesh! โ€” traffic-cone-orange cover art and all โ€” will be released 08/27/2021 on Fat Wreck Chords.

โ€œThis record is 12 songs because 14 was too long,โ€ cracks vocalist/guitarist Ray Carlisle. โ€œWe wanna keep the energy up.โ€

Recorded in November 2020 at the Blasting Room (the bandโ€™s eighth straight full-length with producer Andrew Berlin), Sick Sesh! is a little bit rougher around the edges than the last few TBR albums, from the haunting โ€œStatisticโ€ to the panic-inducing โ€œStrung Out On Stressโ€ to the buzzsaw lead of โ€œSemi Truck.โ€ According to Carlisle, that was on purpose.

โ€œWe spent a lot of time on guitar tones this time around โ€” that was important for us,โ€ he says. โ€œโ€œWe made sure to bring the noisy, loud, irritate your fuckinโ€™ mom guitar back. Thereโ€™s a ton of intentional guitar noise and feedback. We dug up the amps we used for Freak Out! and They Came From The Shadows. This is punk rock, after all. Stay Rad! Is a great record, but itโ€™s very radio friendly. I wanted to do the opposite of that: Letโ€™s get fuckinโ€™ noisy.โ€

While the bulk of Sick Sesh! was written in January 2020 (with โ€œStatisticโ€ actually co-written between Carlisle and his son Milo), the COVID pandemic allowed for the band to take a little extra time for fine tuning, and the resulting tracks are some of the most stylistically diverse on the record. First up, thereโ€™s the Templeman-penned โ€œStrung Out On Stress,โ€ the fastest, angriest track on Sick Sesh!, all about losing your mind during the pandemic. On the flipside, thereโ€™s the mid-tempo, melodic track โ€œThe Squirrel,โ€ written by bassist Miguel Chen and sung by Templeman, thatโ€™s literally about a cute little rodent.

โ€œHe had too much time on his hands during the pandemic,โ€ Carlisle jokes. โ€œHow did it become a Teenage Bottlerocket song? Iโ€™m not sure. But it has the best guitar lead weโ€™ve ever written!โ€

Chen also wrote the infectious sing-along โ€œGhost Storyโ€ as well as the album-closing โ€œMoving On,โ€ which marks the first time Carlisle has ever sung Chenโ€™s lyrics on a Teenage Bottlerocket album. The song, about the bassistโ€™s decision to move from his hometown of Laramie, Wyoming, to Texas to be with his ailing father, demonstrates a new side of Teenage Bottlerocket thatโ€™s reflective, wistful and dare we say a little mature. (โ€œIt felt good to sing that one,โ€ says Carlisle.)

With more than 100 original songs already in their catalog, how does the band stay motivated when theyโ€™re eight records deep?

โ€œWeโ€™re always in competition with ourselves,โ€ Carlisle explains. โ€œThe real competition is between me and Kody. Itโ€™s like, โ€˜You wrote a song that destroys everything else on this record. Let me try to do that to you real quick. Howโ€™s that feel?โ€ And then he comes back and one ups me.

โ€œItโ€™s all about the songs,โ€ he continues. โ€œThe songs carry this record all the way. Thatโ€™s not to say there are bad songs on our other records โ€” we have a hard time releasing a shitty song. But these songs are especially great. You know ALLโ€™s best-of record where Allroy is dissecting a musical note? I felt we kind of tapped into that record in a great way, not in a โ€˜Oh no, theyโ€™re experimental now!โ€™ way. This is a Teenage Bottlerocket record through and through, but thereโ€™s a lot of hidden elements.โ€

Carlisleโ€™s pride about Sick Sesh! is obvious, but heโ€™s not the only one who loves the album.

โ€œFat Mike called me and said, โ€˜Hey, this is your best record,โ€ Carlisle recalls. โ€œI said, โ€˜Cool, thanks for noticing.โ€™โ€

With Sick Sesh! ready to drop, Teenage Bottlerocket will return to the road once more throughout 2021 and beyond, and you can expect to hear plenty of new tracks peppered into their already high-energy sets. Given that the band is already two decades old, however, is there any chance of the band slowing down? Carlisle shoots that idea down right away.

โ€œI want to have the best next 10 years,โ€ the singer says. โ€œWeโ€™ve grinded the grind. Now we get to actually enjoy being a band, and not think too much about different ways to try and โ€˜make it.โ€™ Weโ€™re riding this wave we built ourselves. I wanna surf it for another 10 years.โ€

Well there you have it: The three things in life can always count on are death, taxes and Teenage Bottlerocket. But before Carlisle signs off, he has a question for all the fans out there,

โ€œWhatโ€™s your favorite Teenage Bottlerocket song?โ€ he asks. โ€œBzzt! Wrong answer. Itโ€™s on this record, you just havenโ€™t heard it yet.โ€

BC Album Promo

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Weโ€™ve been fans of Broadway Calls for a while now and after years of pestering they finally gave in and joined the team. Their exact words were, โ€œIt would take a catastrophic act of god that destroyed the music industry for us to consider working with Red Scare.โ€ And what do ya know! Thank you, 2020. (Ironically, the record is about the impending civil war and apocalypseโ€ฆ so maybe this is all their doing?!) Then we sent โ€˜em down to the Bay Area to work with Scott Goodrich (Culture Abuse, Direct Hit!, etc.) and they emerged with the best 11 songs weโ€™ve ever heard from this Oregon trio. Sad In The City is fast, itโ€™s loud, and most of all it is catchy as hell. Itโ€™s their finest full length and itโ€™ll likely go down as one of the top releases in our entire catalog

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