New Orleans Outfit Twisted Teens Bringing Unique Blend of Sounds to Bay Area Next Week
There is something undeniably unique, thrilling and fresh about listening to “Blame the Clown,” the new release from the New Orleans duo Twisted Teens.
While bearing all the trappings of a gritty, revivalist garage rock band, the group incorporates an array of disparate elements, from hip-hop beats, Appalachia fiddle melodies, electronica flourishes, analog sound samples, and, most noticeably, a pedal steel that weeps and croons, courtesy of guitar player RJ “Razor Ramon” Santos.
It is a collection of inspirations rarely heard in modern music, but Caspian Honeywell, the founder and chief songwriter of Twisted Teens, insists that his band is only carrying on the legacy of countless acts before him.
“We are doing what musicians have always done, which is just to combine the cultural influences that are around them,” said Honeywell. “For us, it’s the blues, or jazz, punk music, trap, experimental music. If you sit in my living room, you will hear hardcore punk and New Orleans bounce music. You’ll hear fiddle music from the mountains and a lot of Cajun music and brass bands. All of that stuff is literally coming into my window every day. It might sound complicated, but if you think of yourself as a participator in the culture, and not just a curator, it makes perfect sense.”
In support of “Blame The Clown”—an outrageously great new album that is one of the best releases so far in 2026—Twisted Teens will bring their ambitious mélange of sounds to a couple of Bay Area venues next week. On Tuesday, they’ll play at The Knockout in San Francisco’s Mission District and on Wednesday, they’ll head across the Bay to play at Thee Stork Club in Oakland.
It will be a homecoming for Honeywell, who grew up in the Bay Area and lived for years in Santa Cruz, where he formed his folk punk band, Blackbird Raum. Honeywell’s first experience with New Orleans came in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where he squatted in abandoned buildings while busking and meeting musicians from the local community.
He came back to the Bay Area for a stint, but eventually settled on New Orleans as his fulltime home in 2015. He quickly fell in love with the vast musical multiculturalism of the city, in particular the Holy Cross neighborhood where he lives.
“We feel like this album could only exist in a three block radius—I don’t think we could make this record anywhere else,” said Honeywell. “I’m not from New Orleans, so I’m not about to say that this is about representing the city’s culture, but I can tell you about the neighborhood we live in and the community we have and the influences that are filtering through the air.”
It was in that creatively vibrant community that Honeywell met Santos, a pedal steel player whose mournful, wailing slide playing provides Twisted Teens with its signature sound—a plaintive, yet raucous output that makes you want to dance a jig while artfully chugging your $2 beer. Those pealing guitar movements perfectly compliment Honeywell’s gruff, raspy vocals—an ideal instrument to deliver his outrageous and uproariously funny narratives of characters living on the fringes of society.
“Blame the Clown” is populated with stories of down-on-their-luck drifters, desperate vagabonds, impish tricksters and manic individuals trying to navigate the perils of modern day living. While some of the tales clearly stray into satire, there is always a palpable sense of empathy to Honeywell’s character sketches.
Take, for example, the main actor in “100 Bill is Gone,” a tragicomedy standout track about losing a precious wad of cash to a guy “who disappeared around the corner.” On its face, the song is about an illicit act gone awry, but Honeywell imbues the track with a deep pathos, particularly when he sings about “working hard, every night” for that stolen money.
“That song is not judgmental—I’m not trying to throw shade at anyone who might be into drug use or sex work or anything,” said Honeywell. “I hang out with people who smoke crack and I have friends who go to the gym every day—all sides of high and low.”
The album reflects Honeywell’s avowedly outsider point of view. He expresses disdain at all artifice and has zero patience for the grubby business side of the music industry. Honeywell said the band is getting newfound attention, however, from those seedier elements, following a recent laudatory Pitchfork review. In that praiseworthy piece, the writer Nina Corcoran—one of the best in the field—heaped kudos on the band, exclaiming that Twisted Teens “shoot from the hip when writing punk songs and play with the precision of an in-house country band.”
Honeywell said he appreciated the attention, but he reiterated that the spotlight would have no effect whatsoever on how the band goes about their daily life.
“It’s nice to have these people in your corner, folks who have dragged us up from nothing,” said Honeywell. “We’re not out making Instagram reels or calling journalists—we're just making catchy music. And if people come out for us, that’s great, but we obviously don’t believe in the folks who just smell dollar signs. They’re going to be disappointed in my willingness to participate, because I’m not broke enough to compromise anything.”
Honeywell said that Twisted Teens have at least a hundred songs recorded and are excited about bringing more music to the masses—but only in the way that feels natural and organic.
“The key is creating your own culture and your own community,” said Honeywell. “And if you can figure a way to blow up off that while still owning your own music and identity, you’ve done your job.”
Show Details:
Twisted Teens with Croissant and George Jr and the 9/11’s
Where: The Knockout
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 10
Tickets: $12, available at the door
Twisted Teens with Garras Sucias and Healers
Where: Thee Stork Club
When: 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 11
Tickets: $13, available here.