Fuck All Y'all

Fuck All Y’All, Bantam Rooster’s third album, was their first full-length after Mike Alonso took over as drummer from former skinsman Eric Cook; Alonzo’s style is decidedly harder and heavier than his predecessor, and guitarist/vocalist T. Jackson Potter seems to have taken this as an opportunity to tweak the band’s sound a bit from the hot-wired blues-punk hybrid of Deal Me In, resulting in an expanded enthusiasm for ’60s garage rave-ups and lean-and-mean old-school punk. Greasy funk grooves also make their presence known on “Perceptive Pornstar” and “The Detroiter (Part Two),” as well as sub-Nashville country laments (“This Close to Suicide”) and even a dash of moody pop (“This Time”), and occasional guitar overdubs and keyboard parts suggest a bit more time was spent in the studio. But don’t fret, this is still Bantam Rooster, which means Potter’s guitar still cuts like a jagged switchblade, and when this band shifts into fifth gear (which happens on nearly every track), they still wail loud, mean, and savage, ready to kick sonic butt on anyone who has dared to do ‘em wrong. Fuck All Y’All proves Bantam Rooster are still the wildest two-man band in the land, and this is roots-punk at it’s most muscular and unapologetic. Rave on, T-Jack. – Mark Deming