Hey You, Quit Fucking With My Brain!

Teenage Bottlerocket finally released their second album last year. I am very sad none of you saw fit to tell me this. I've been hoplessly in love with this band's sound since I first stumbled on full-length debut Total and hadn't really heard anything from them since they went on tour with The Epoxies a few years back. They're one of the few bands I hear consistently doign pop punk really, really well, ranging from the Bouncing Souls-esque hearts on their sleeves of something like "Stupid Games" or "So Cool" to the more Ramones-tinged stuff like "Crashing". I'll say the say thing about their brand of pop punk as I do about Jawbreakers emo punk, it's great because it's always punk first where so many other bands tend to get caught up on the other bit of their particular equation.

The new album, out on Red Scare, is called Warning Device and reuses Total's album cover of the band's name and logo (a particularly good one, as these things go) above the album title, except this time in bright yellow, makign it damned easy to spot on the shelf. They really don't stray too far from the songs about heart break and unrequited love, but luckily it's a subject they manage make the most of. I get the feeling that Teenage Bottlerocket would be the most annoying band in the world if they ever fell into the trap of akign themselves seriously, but when they're plowing full speed ahead through songs like "Totally Stupid" ("We're Acting totally stupid, 'cause we got nothing better to do!") , it's pretty hard not to root for them a little bit.

If I have to say something bad about this album, its that it's not quite as varied as Total was, which might me a little less apt to listen to it straight through after a while with the album, but that remains to be seen. If you've ever sang along to The Descendants or Bouncing Souls, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot. And go back and take a look at Total and Another Way while you're at it.