Twisted Teens: Blame The Clown [Album Review]

Twisted Teens
Blame The Clown
Chain Smoking Records [2025]

“Rough by design, confident by nature—Blame the Clown sounds earned the hard way.”

Album Overview: Twisted Teens come out of New Orleans with a setup that favors instinct over polish. The project centers on Caspian Hollywell, also known as Cas P. Ian or CPN, whose creative orbit includes work connected to Blackbird Raum. Rather than locking into a fixed lineup, the band stays fluid, anchored by Caspian’s songwriting and his ongoing collaboration with pedal steel player “The Razor” Ramone. Other roles rotate as needed, which suits a band built to move fast, record freely, and treat touring as part of the creative process instead of an obligation.

Blame the Clown initially surfaced last year as a limited vinyl release on the band’s European tour, with a broader release coming in February 2026. The album feels less like a studio artifact and more like a snapshot caught mid-motion. Compared to their 2024 self-titled debut, Blame the Clown sounds shaped by travel, repetition, and unfamiliar rooms. There’s a rough confidence running through the tracklist, like these songs earned their place by being played hard and often. The record moves with purpose, flowing as a complete statement without wearing out its welcome.

Musical Style: The band pulls from early American rock traditions without turning them into nostalgia pieces. Pedal steel sits comfortably alongside electric grit, expanding the emotional range without softening the bite. Melody is always present, but the rhythms favor momentum over precision. The result feels grounded and restless at the same time, rooted in familiar forms while refusing to stay put.

Evolution of Sound: Compared to the debut, Blame the Clown feels more focused in how it balances its influences. Where the earlier record scattered ideas across genres, this one tightens the link between structure and feeling. The steel guitar feels woven into the songs rather than layered on top, and the album arrives with a clearer sense of direction. It plays like a natural next step, showing confidence built through constant movement.

Artists with Similar Fire: Listeners drawn to the raw directness of The White Stripes or Link Wray will recognize the band’s stripped-down drive, while fans of Roky Erickson may connect with the mix of intensity and vulnerability. Vocally, it lands somewhere between the blunt honesty of Wesley Willis, if he had stronger pitch, and the grit of Black Joe Lewis or Tom Waits. Echoes of Reverend Horton Heat and Jay Reatard show up in the band’s no-nonsense approach: punk rooted music with urgency that treats tradition as a living tool rather than a rulebook. The overlap is more about attitude than surface sound.

Pivotal Tracks: “Is It Real?” opens the record with a quick, foot-tapping pulse that pulls you in immediately. “100 Bill Is Gone!” plays like a mission statement, pairing urgency with a chorus that sticks long after the song ends. “Circus Clown” leans into the album’s central imagery, using contrast and pacing to heighten its tension. “White Hot Coal” slows things just enough to let the arrangement breathe, showing how the band uses restraint as effectively as noise. Together, these tracks map out the album’s range without breaking its flow.

Lyrical Strength: The lyrics on Blame the Clown circle around perception, identity, and the thin line between performance and honesty. Caspian avoids neat conclusions, favoring implication over explanation. Repeated images and phrases give the album a shared internal language, tying the songs together without spelling everything out. The writing feels personal without turning inward, inviting listeners to sit with uncertainty rather than chase easy answers.

Final Groove: Blame the Clown finds Twisted Teens right where momentum meets confidence and craft. They may still be flying under the radar, but now’s the perfect time to dig into both of their full-lengths. This record is rough by choice, never sloppy, balancing grit with melody and tradition with forward motion. It sounds lived in and earned, the kind of album that only gets better the longer it spins. If this is what the band sounds like after a year on the road, whatever comes next is worth keeping an eye on.

TWISTED TEENS LINKS
Bandcamp | Chain Smoking Records