Twisted Teens: The Holy Cross Tigers

Twisted Teens - aka Caspian Halliwell and RJ Santos - didn’t really exist before its 2024 debut LP, now known as The Orange Album. The pair had been making music from Cajun/country to anarcho-folk under the radar and off the grid, living and working itinerantly. Twisted Teens came from a pandemic-induced burst of inspiration that drew them together to record, in suitably lo-fi fashion, at Caspian’s New Orleans home. Their first album quickly became a modern classic of sticky, warm rock, bunching blues, folk, and punk into a raw and irresistible concoction. The duo came back strong in 2026 with Blame the Clown - instantly, enthusiastically cosigned Pitchfork and Paste - and then the equally acclaimed Florida Water Blues, an absurdist take on their wanderings around the world.

Their third magnetic and perfectly ragged album of 2026 is a saga of heartbreak and hidden triumph called The Holy Cross Tigers. The songs are anthems of longing, and myriad disappointments, fueled by everything from a brutal breakup to snitching ex-friends. Despite these woes, The Holy Cross Tigers has a sense of radiance, a feeling of reflected light pushing against the sadness. Instantly relatable, it feels like a few friends sharing the burdens of life with one another, the results strange and ecstatic because they are operating by their own rules. It is a blown-out transmission from the lip of heartbreak, a place where even the lucky have been and from which they have hopefully returned.