Sara Messinger
Audio By Carbonatix
Hotline TNT is coming to Phoenix on September 30, 2025, and I’m goddamned excited about it.
Is it because their cool, kind of incendiary take on shoegaze meets noise meets weird, hook-laden distortion-drenched indie rock was such an absolutely pleasant surprise that I immediately wanted to write this article? In a word, yes, but that’s just a part of it.
Hailing from New York City, Hotline TNT released the thoroughly bitchin’ “Raspberry Moon” back in June of this year (6-20-2025, to be exact, on Third Man Records). It’s a scorcher, and because they are sensible dudes, led by singer/guitarist Will Anderson, it’s not available on Spotify, but really, that’s neither here nor there.
“I think seeing some of the other dominoes fall, leaders like Deerhoof and King Gizzard (and the Lizard Wizard), was very encouraging. We were only on that service for a couple of years and, you know, I was grossed out by it before we even got on there, and I’m even more grossed out by it now,” says Anderson over Zoom from his New York City home.
You can certainly find “Raspberry Moon” easily enough online, and you should, but you can also buy it from the band when they play at Kingdom Boxing LLC in South Phoenix. Anderson wasn’t aware of Phoenix’s rich history of underground music happening in wrestling rings, but he was stoked to hear that he was part of starting something similar, but new.
“Let’s see if we can bring some of that history back,” says Anderson, after hearing about the early ’80s venue, Madison Square Gardens, where local favorites like Meat Puppets and JFA cut their teeth while playing with bands like Flipper, Black Flag, TSOL, and Dead Kennedys.
On this current leg of touring to support “Raspberry Moon,” the band has been out for several weeks. This should be good news for Hotline TNT fans, as there is nothing like a few weeks on the road to get a band super tight and ready to rock.
“We should be in fighting form, literally, by the time we get to the boxing ring,” says Anderson.
As opposed to earlier Hotline TNT releases like “Nineteen in Love” (2021) and “Cartwheel” (2023), “Raspberry Moon” includes a lot more input from the rest of the band. Drummer Mike Ralston, bassist Haylen Trammel, and second guitarist, Lucky Hunter, played a role in shaping the album’s sound.
“More often than not in the past, it is me writing the skeletons (of the songs), but as time has gone on with this particular crew, there has been more of letting other people get their fingerprints on it, which I think has yielded some pretty cool results. Sometimes I push back and say, ‘I think I got this one,’ but “Raspberry Moon” is definitely a product of four people. It wouldn’t have turned out this way with a different configuration,” says Anderson.
Okay, here’s another reason why I’m so stoked on Hotline TNT coming to town. Will Anderson is just a refreshing dude to talk to about music. I suppose it could have been the fact that he’s been doing a ton of interviews and has his banter down, but he was relaxed and matter-of-fact, and best of all, he does not have any air of pretension about him.
Anderson is a guy who plays killer, fuzzy, loud and often beautiful music, and he could give less than two fucks about any of the technical side. When I asked him about his gear, because you don’t get such a great guitar tone without having some love for the machines that help you make it, his response was the farthest thing from what I expected when I asked him if he was more of a gear guy or a ‘tone’ guy.
“I would say neither. I mean, there are bandmates who probably quit the band over this in the past, you know, because of how little I care about (tone or gear). It’s just, ‘turn it up. Turn it up and make it loud. We’ll figure it out.’ We can get the point across. If people are moving around, good, and if they’re not, it probably needs to be a bit louder. I don’t think too much about pedals or anything like that,” says Anderson, who added later that when people start talking about gear, it’s kind of like they are speaking Greek to him.
Anderson even went so far as to say that “95% of the audience can’t tell what gear you’re using. It’s way more about looking cool.” I wholeheartedly agree with that, but I would also add that it helps if you sound great, too. Whether Anderson cares about gear or tone is kinda funny because whatever gear he is using gives him some great tone. All musicians should be so lucky.
Hotline TNT plays Kingdom Boxing LLC at 2514 East Broadway in Phoenix on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, at 7 p.m. Toner, Commoner and Twin Star open the show. Tickets are available here.
