across the uk with twisted teens and their unreleased album
Outta Wax’s Alex Stillman joins the New Orleans band for a tale of broken bones and bullshit hot dogs.
Ever wonder what it would sound like if a bunch of fiddle players tried their hand at garage punk? Yeah, me neither, but Twisted Teens seems to have invented a style that transcends any referential material that might come to mind. With a history in old time music, folk, and punk, Twisted Teens have somehow created a sound that’s hard to nail down. The group is led by Caspian and RJ on guitar and pedal steel respectively, along with a rotating cast on additional guitar, bass, and drums. Based in New Orleans, on this particular tour they are joined by Mo on guitar, Sonja on bass, and Max on drums.
I came across their debut release in a group chat last summer, and it was pretty infectious off the bat. As an analogue media freak, I ordered the only physical version available at the time, which was a cassette release from Germany. (It came in the mail wrapped in toilet paper). I am so glad I did because I think I impressed Caspian one night last November in NOLA while touring with Visual Learner and Dusk and promoting my new pressing plant in Minneapolis, Outta Wax.
Fast forward to late summer 2025 and we’re on the third pressing of Twisted Teens’ original self-titled album. When preparing for the tour, we also pressed an unreleased album called Blame the Clown (not available anywhere online—only the Euro tour and soon from Chainsmoking Records). Record pressing has so many moving parts that need to align for a release date to work out, most of which are out of the control of the people doing the pressing. We were able to get the records pressed, but the jackets were not done in time for the tour. I decided to use my DIY skills to risograph stickers and affix them to blank chip board jackets for a limited 60 copy run.
With the last minute and constant moving nature of touring, it ended up being more economical and reliable (and fun!) for me to just personally fly 180 records (60 of Blame the Clown and 120 of Twisted Teens) and meet the gang in London.
I arrived at London Heathrow to find the bag had broken. No real problem there, though the band had to come get me in London traffic on their way from Brighton to Bristol for the first gig at Cafe Kino. I was delighted on the way to learn that Katie Thornton of Minneapolis’ Constant Insult happened to be traveling through Bristol on her way home from a conference discussing Esperanto (yes, you read that correctly, and no, I will not be digging into that, you’ll just have to follow Katie’s journalistic exploits to learn more).
Cafe Kino’s (cooperatively operated since 2003) smell, look, and feel was hard not to compare to Minneapolis’ own Seward Cafe (collectively owned since 1973). I grabbed a Club Mate and slid into a booth, enjoying a vegan burrito provided by the lovely promoter of the show, Harry. The show was in the basement of what was otherwise a very bright room upstairs. Opening bands were a mix of garage and old time rockers. Teenagers and greyhairs played pretty steady garage rock as people slowly filed into the basement.
By the time the first chords of “Something I Haven’t Told You” struck out, the room was quite packed. As the first set of songs came to a close, Caspian addressed the crowd atop a stool, “I just broke my foot in two places—first place was in Dublin, second place is my foot.” I was so impressed by the wide range of people that showed up to this show, some of whom were singing along by the time the dance-y stand out banger, “when the wires get cut” despite being the band’s first time in Bristol—actually it was their first show in England full stop.
After the show we headed to Harry and Rory’s apartment atop a record store atop a venue (Bristol seems to really have it going on) before having pints at a pub called Elmer’s (where the barkeep was in fact named… Elmer). I was so surprised to see that I had many personal connections in and outside the band. Most notably, Max’s friends were legendary troublemakers in my freshman year of college at SAIC after getting asked to leave school for playing with a knife at a lecture by George Lucas and refusing to apologize.
The next morning Rory made us a proper breakfast of beans and toast and we were off to Brighton. This is where we were united with Steven of Blood Red Shoes: proprietor of Jazz Life records, home of the UK pressing of the Teens’ self-titled album, and organizer of this leg of the tour. The vegan hot dogs we received a two pound discount on were fucking terrible.
The room was full once again and people seemed to be generally enjoying themselves, but there wasn’t a lot of movement. Do people in England tend to not dance? Since this show had the “touring band sandwich,” the set was cut a bit short but not before a new driving up tempo with the previously unreleased song “Why Did You Miss Me.” It is incredible to me that this band can pivot from a straight up country track like “Tic Tac Toe” to the moody garage sensibilities of “Is This Real?” [Hear the latter track (in a browser) below.]
Between the hot dogs and beans on toast, let’s just say the next morning we were absolutely starving for something green. Caspian and I ended up at a Greek spot inside a market in central Brighton. On the way to the bathroom, Cas noticed a couple selling used original pressing punk albums. We bought matching “Ever Fallen in Love” 45 singles among so many original ska & reggae 45s and soul LPs at the most reasonable prices (mostly under 10 quid!).
We made the drive back to London for the most anticipated show of the weekend, a sold out gig at Third Man Records. It was quite brutal at one point, taking over an hour to go 20 miles. As soon as we entered the city center I could hear the queen’s “royal salute” playing in my head and suddenly everything became terribly British. Within the first 10 minutes of driving into town, we saw a cricket match and men in bowler hats opening black cab doors for women in fascinators. It had us all in stitches. We saw a red-faced old white man in a purple suit shuffling along. “I didn’t know you could walk with an accent,” Sonja exclaimed.
Third Man is located in the once trendy and hipster Soho neighborhood, which is now like every western European country’s shopping district with the exclusion of the Oasis Tour 2025 store. There was a pretty decent pub across from the yellow record store that is Jack White’s London experiment, filled with antiques like signed autographs from all the Universal Monsters and large copper pots. We closed it down after the show.
In the lower level of the record store is the Blue Basement where the band was meant to play. With very, very expensive audio equipment, it felt more like a recording studio than a venue. The opening band, Eel Men, was half from the UK -and half from Atlanta? An interesting combo, but I appreciated their chops. They dressed a bit like the Replacements in plaid suits but sounded nothing like them. The crowd was a lot more posh than we’re used to. I saw a designer handbag or two, which had me wondering who these people were and why they were there. They didn't buy as many records as the previous nights, either. A bit of a disappointment considering the parking cost one-third of what the band was paid that night for a sold out gig.
On the way to the parking garage there was a gaggle of young white people drinking by the car. They started accusing us of filming them and tried to pick a fight with Caspian who had a boot on for his broken foot. This also cracked us up. Something about an angry drunk guy with a Londoner accent. The parking lot attendant, a Black guy with an East African accent, came over and apologized. A man at work having to apologize for people whose country colonized his country. Brutal. We headed back to the squat in South London that was formerly a church, where we each had our own little room. The next morning the band headed back to Brighton to record with Steven and I prepared to head home.
Twisted Teens have several more dates left on tour. If you find yourself in Western Europe, I implore you to check it out and get one of these otherwise unavailable albums. You know they’ll go hard on Discogs… if the planet survives that long.
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