Teen Mortgage "Devil Ultrasonic Dream" LP

Fire burn and cauldron bubble…something wicked this way comes straight out of the DMV hardcore scene. Introducing your new favorite surf-punk two-piece: TEEN MORTGAGE.

We’re fucked! The whole fucking lot of us! Check the news if you don’t believe it. Six ways to Sunday we’re fucked. And the biggest cosmic joke is that the asteroids keep missing us.

Thankfully, Teen Mortgage is here with a full can of gasoline as the world burns to help brighten our day. Hailing from Wirral, England, guitarist and frontman, James Guile had been noodling with the Teen Mortgage project under various monikers for years all the while building a sound laden with sociopolitical commentary spun into anthems with heavy mosh pit energy and influenced by classic 80s punk bands. After relocating to Maryland, where the trash fire in D.C. burns brightest, James posted a DRUMMER WANTED classified ad along with some early TEEN MORTGAGE demos on Craigslist as sort of a joke. Luckily, drummer (and former nurse.) Edward Barakauskas knows funny and the universe knew we needed Teen Mortgage now more than ever, the rest is, as they say, musical history.

The duo spent the following years trying not to die and growing the Teen Mortgage brand in the DMV. In between a global pandemic and Ed serving as an ER frontline worker they managed to drop an Ep and a number of singles before signing to Roadrunner Records in 2024. In April 2025, coming off of touring with Weezer and The Smashing Pumpkins, Ed and James deliver their first full length album “Devil Ultrasonic Dream”, which continues on their narrative about trying to enjoy life despite living through the age of tech feudalism, American oligarchy and military industrial complex.

The title “Devil Ultrasonic Dream” leans into 1980’s satanic-panic in rock and roll as the nation shifts further into fascist Christian theocracy and censorship. “The “Devil Ultrasonic Dream”, Guile explains, “Is about realizing a fantasy that Christian fascists don’t understand or don’t want you to have. The devil/Satan has and continues to be a symbolism of counter culture.” 

And now, as the blaze of Idocracy burns around us the cauldron sings, Teen Mortgage’s first single BOX off Devil Ultrasonic Dream” leans into their fuck you/fuck this attitude and the band’s refusal to be put in a box.

Not that he gives two shits about being categorized, when asked what box he thinks the band might be put in with this album, Guile responds, “I think punk is so loosely defined, especially hardcore in the year 2025 is like so loosely defined. I've heard people call us surf hardcore; I'll take that. I can think maybe the Dead Kennedys is like a surf hardcore band, but I just call it punk or garage punk. I feel like if it's garage punk there's more of a template to do whatever you want with it; it doesn't put you as much in that hardcore box.I'll accept it if people think we're hardcore, soft core, whatever.”

Fuck it indeed! The end is nigh! Teen mortgage is our soundtrack!!