Album Review: Teenage Bottlerocket/The Queers, Split 7-inch

Release: Split 7-inch
Band: Teenage Bottlerocket/The Queers
Label: Pirates Press Records/Rad Girlfriend Records
Year: 2026
Score: 7/10

Queers BandCamp

TBR Bandcamp

Teenage Bottlerocket/Queers – Split – Orange Crush – Vinyl 7"

Rad Girlfriends Store

review by Ricky Frankel

As a special treat for 2026, two pop punk heavy-hitters Teenage Bottlerocket and The Queers have come together to release a split EP where each band covered one of the other’s songs. For this release, both bands really put in the work and dug deep through each other’s discographies to find the tune that would fit their respective styles. The outcome? Teenage Bottlerocket chose The Queers’ 1993 track, “Teenage Bonehead” and the Queer chose Teenage Bottlerocket’s fast food-themed 2005 song, “Bloodbath At Burger King” and renamed it to “Hoglog At Burger King.”

Teenage Bottlerocket’s cover of “Teenage Bonehead” is a very proper tribute to The Queers, who are undeniably pioneers of the post-Ramones pop-punk realm. While it is a fairly straightforward cover (aside from admitting that they “forgot the outro part” at the end), it is interesting to hear lead singers Ray Carlisle and Kody Templemen take turns with the lead vocals. Typically, if one of them takes on the lead singing, it is for the entire song. But they and the rest of the band pull it off nicely.

The Queers’ take on “Bloodbath At Burger King” is a little less straight forward, while musically it sounds a bit more aggressive than the original with the bands’ snotty attitude mixed in. Where the change mainly takes place is the lyrics. Again, the band renamed it to “Hoglog At Burger King” and reworked the lyrics to fit a story about what happens when Hoglog eats at this fine dining establishment. Joe Queer even throws in a small, brash spoken-word interlude towards the end.

While I wouldn’t say that this split 7-inch is a completely necessary part of either bands’ catalogues, it’s still cool piece for the die-hard fans and it gives fans of one of the bands a chance to check out the other. It’s a very approachable introduction to The Queers or Teenage Bottlerocket. Vinyl completionists will be stoked with it and because of how established both bands are, it would not surprise me if this EP aged very well and became sought-after over time.

***