Bottled Up is a DC rock and roll quintet growing its roots from new-wave, 70's rock, and punk ethos. Founded in Oakland, CA by Nikhil Rao (former Kid Quazar, Seasick!, Soft Fuxx, and Shari La La's), he restarted the project with a new line-up of local DC musicians. They just put out their energetic lo-fi punk EP on cassette with Chicago garage/experimental label Maximum Pelt Records, and were christened by Ian MacKaye himself at Fort Reno Festival 2017. Next release titled "BU2" releasing July 2018.

The Antonym:
Bottled Up rips through their song list like men on a mission. Surf Alt-Rock. If I’m not mistaken, the handle is a reference to an old Devo tune. Echoes of the B52s. Strains of the Del Rays run through a back slap reverb pedal on brown tab acid-drenched in cheap whiskey and the company of a one night stand you plan to regret. Melodic and enticing.

Washington City Paper:
Bottled Up, S/T
Maximum Pelt

On their self-titled tape, D.C. five-piece Bottled Up offer surf and psychedelic garage rock through a post-punk filter, with drolly delivered lyrical references to PCP and LSD. While the detached vocals sound far away on “Higher,” the speedy three-chord instrumentation evokes a Nuggets outtake. Their tune “Binary Worm” sounds like an audition for a beach party film with its blend of fuzztone guitar and organ rhythms.
RIYL: Oh Sees, Roky Erickson, Shannon and the Clams, DIIV.

Glory in Sound on their self-titled EP: "There’s such depth and emotional weight to this music, on top of being exceptionally well written. It’s not so much about the individual songs themselves; it’s about the experience of listening to the EP in full. Bottled Up exists in an extraordinary place: somewhere between being overwhelmed with the beauty of existence and the crushing weight of the darkness in the world. The duality of good and bad, what we wish could be and what is. This viewpoint may not at all have been what they were going for, but that’s what it brought out in me."