A reissue of TBR’s first album, this is very much a document of the band in its embryonic stage. The Ramones-core pop punk attack the band perfected is a bit looser, although very apparent already. Also the band at this point did not yet have second guitarist/vocalist Kody, which is a dimension to the band’s sound that is missed when listening to this retroactively after their later releases. As bonus tracks, the band’s even earlier A-Bomb 7” and their half of a split with Bill The Welder (which has my favorite track, “Go Away”) are appended to the end. Perhaps not an essential release, but it is good to have this back in print for those who want to dig deeper into Teenage Bottlerocket’s roots.
–Adrian Salas (Red Scare)