Ray Rocket - Do You Wanna Go To Tijuana (2016)

Solo, acoustic album from Ray Carlisle of Teenage Bottlerocket. Ray Rocket is a household name in the punk rock community, known from his years of touring and fronting his band, Teenage Bottlerocket. "Do You Wanna Go To Tijuana?" marks his first time stepping into the solo world, and it's something that his current fan base is sure to love. This isn't an album full of brand new songs, and it’s not an album of rejected Teenage Bottlerocket b-sides played on an acoustic guitar. This is a collection of Teenage Bottlerocket's greatest hits, reimagined acoustically. Not to worry, the album does include a brand new song, a Ramones cover, as well as some other surprises.

Ray Rocket. Could be the name of a sex toy, but it’s in fact the alter ego of Teenage Bottlerocket’s Ray Carlisle, who has just released a new solo album. “Do You Wanna Go To Tijuana?” comes with ten acoustic versions of Teenage Bottlerocket songs, a cover of the Ramones classic “Pet Semetary” and two previously unreleased tracks, the title song and “Please Feel Free”.

While I’m usually not that big on punkrockers going acoustic (more often than not, it just doesn’t sound as good), Ray takes away all my doubts right from the get-go with the beautifully arranged title track. And it’s not just the one song… they all sound amazing with a sprinkling of piano here, handclaps there and synth sounds in all the right places without things getting too cheesy. Just little things that make this so much fun to listen to.

Along the way, Ray revisits most of Teenage Bottlerocket’s albums like 2012’s “Freak Out!” (“Go With The Flow”, “Radical”), 2009’s “They Came From The Shadows” (“Without You”, “Todayo”) and 2005’s “Total” (Rebound”, “Radio”). Also on here are a couple of tracks from last year’s “Tales From Wyoming, including “Nothing Else Matters (When I’m With You” and “First Time”, the latter of which is the very last song Ray’s brother Brandon ever recorded drums on before he passed away.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. Not only is it fun to experience these songs in a way you’ve never heard them before, these versions are also more than good enough to be their own thing.

Tracklist
01. Do You Wanna Go To Tijuana? // See/listen music video
02. Nothing Else Matters (When I'm With You)
03. Please Feel Free
04. Without You
05. Pet Sematary
06. Todayo
07. Rebound
08. Go With The Flow
09. Radical
10. TV Set
11. Radio

Produced by Andy Berlin & Ray Carlisle
Recorded at The Blasting Room Studios on October 20-23 & 26-28, 2015 by Andrew Berlin
Mastered by Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room Studios, Fort Collins, Colorado
The album was released as "In Memory of Brandon Carlisle".

• Ray "Rocket" Carlisle - vocals, guitars, bass
+ Kody Templeman - backing vocals
+ Angi Phanlangee - backing vocals
- Brandon Carlisle - drums on "12"

Release Date: April 1, 2016
Label: Rise Records Inc.
Catalog No.: RISE 311-2