After selling out indie-rocker-turned-critical-success MJ Lenderman, the Rose Bowl Tavern is mere hours away from offering another chance to witness a piece of music history in motion.
On May 2, the Rose Bowl will be hosting Hotline TNT and providing a glimpse of their upcoming album, “Raspberry Moon,” releasing on July 20. The rock band has been touted by several music sources as a front-runner in both alt-rock and shoegaze.
After making major waves with “Cartwheel,” the band has generated similar anticipation by queuing up to release its first-ever full-band album under Third Man Records.
Hotline TNT has amassed a dedicated fan base since Will Anderson launched the act in 2018 via YouTube, and was further catapulted by the release of their first album “Nineteen in Love.”
At first, the trajectory took Anderson by surprise, but it has now snowballed into shining the spotlight on an underappreciated corner of music.
The band has further stoked the flames by releasing two lead singles from “Raspberry Moon”: “Julia’s War” and “Candle.” While “Julia’s War” is sonically rich and showcases the band’s infectious composition style, the music video oozes a unique, whimsical charm.
Scenes of cutting bald men’s hair and stepping over mines – aka guitar effects pedals – fly by, moving onto the next absurdist frame without reprieve.
“Candle,” released on April 30, reads as a true-to-form love letter to both previous and incoming fans.
The video sorts through a montage of live shows as they simply drive along in a car, but the first minute is taken up by interviews from fans in several languages.
“Every time we come to see Hotline TNT, they get better and better and better… They just wanna mosh, and so we wanna mosh too,” said one fan. Another expressed how unique the band is, saying there is “only one band like them.”
The band has many interesting features like being “anti-gear” (minimizing the use of effects pedals and heavy amp use typical of the genre) and grabbing influences from pop music to create its new, unique sound, but one thing is plain:
It is difficult to fully capture their essence and mythology-adjacent lore in one article. It would be best to see them at the Rose Bowl before the European leg of their tour begins.
Hotline TNT has an opportunity to hit their biggest break yet, and CU residents have the fading opportunity to shout “I saw them live” during the band’s climb to the forefront of shoegaze
