This is my favorite kind of album; it starts with “I dunno, sounds cool,” but by the 5th listen you are hearing the melodies and the sound of the vocal when it’s not playing. Genuine earworms. You’re stuck, in a good way.

Twisted Teens are steel guitar punk from New Orleans. Who knew was one of my favorite genres?

C.P.N. “C-Bird” Hollywell on vocals and guitar. RJ “The Razor” Santos plays pedal steel. They put out a self-titled debut on Turbo Discos in 2024 and toured Europe in 2025 with unreleased versions of these songs.

Blame the Clown showed up courtesy of Chain Smoking Records on February 13, 2026. 12 tracks, recorded with the loose confidence of a band that has been playing these songs for months before anyone knew they existed. It earned Best New Music on Pitchfork. Merge artist Mike Krol mail-ordered their merch after hearing it, called it “quite possibly my favorite record of the past two decades,” and immediately booked them on a bill with himself. Some albums fight for attention. Some spread person to person with, “You gotta hear this!”

If you dig the jangly melodies of the Strokes, put this album on repeat for a couple of weeks and report back, please.

Both bands are melody-first, one take in one room, making something that feels effortless until you try to replicate it. But the New Orleans part matters. Despite the drum machine Big Black-with-pedal steel backing there’s a second-line looseness that keeps the punk structure from locking up, and Santos’s pedal steel bends toward anxiety instead of comfort. Hollywell’s voice is pulling from somewhere the Strokes never went.

After you’ve listened a couple of times, go and listen to Baby Driver from Kiss’s Rock and Roll Over. Am I crazy or is that the same voice?

“Baby Driver” is a Peter Criss vocal. Peter was Kiss’s drummer (Beth, anyone?), came from an R&B and soul background and had a blue-collar rasp that sounded misplaced on a Kiss record in the best way. Hollywell is a dead ringer. The pedal steel under his voice doesn’t feel like genre experimentation. It feels like where he was always going.

Listen:

They tour the US in May: Atlanta, DC, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, and home to New Orleans. The Paste review is a good first read: Paste Magazine. Josh Hurst’s Substack is the best long-form take: Twisted Tales.

Two people. Pedal steel. New Orleans.

RESEARCH NOTES

ARTIST: Twisted Teens

RELEASE: Blame the Clown

FORMED: New Orleans, LA (~2024)

MEMBERS: C.P.N. “C-Bird” Hollywell (vocals/guitar), RJ “The Razor” Santos (pedal steel)

LABEL: Chain Smoking Records (US) / Jazz Life (EU) / Turbo Discos

GENRE/SCENE: Steel guitar punk / “dusty punk” / country-fried punk

RELEASE DATE: February 13, 2026

PRIOR RELEASES: Twisted Teens s/t (Turbo Discos, 2024); EU EP (2025)

TRACKLIST: Is It Real? / Wild Connection / I Operate / Little Seed / 100 Bill Is Gone! / Peekaboo Hand / Not Real / Who Could It Be? / Circus Clown / Hurricane / White Hot Coal / Corpse Pose

BANDCAMP: cpnpc.bandcamp.com/album/blame-the-clown

PITCHFORK: Best New Music

KEY QUOTE: Mike Krol (Merge Records): “I blasted it in the car at night with the windows down, tracked down records, mailordered merch like I was 16. I couldn’t believe a band I didn’t even know existed at the beginning of this year made — quite possibly — my favorite record of the past 2 decades.”

KISS CONNECTION: “Baby Driver” (from Rock and Roll Over, 1976) is a Peter Criss vocal — Kiss’s drummer, not Paul Stanley. Criss had an R&B/soul background; his rasp is described as “blue-collar, impassioned, soulful.” No one online has made the Hollywell/Criss comparison yet — Ian’s observation is original.

PRESS:

US TOUR MAY 2026: New Orleans (May 1) → Birmingham AL (May 2) → Atlanta GA (May 4) → Durham NC (May 5) → Richmond VA (May 6) → Washington DC (May 7) → Philadelphia PA (May 8) → Brooklyn NY (May 9) → New Brunswick NJ (May 11) → Boston MA (May 12)