The Dexateens – Teenage Hallelujah (2020)

Playing a gale-force fusion of punk and hard rock fueled by massive doses of guitar firepower, the Dexateens came together in Tuscaloosa, AL, in 1998. After the breakup of his band the Phoebes, guitarist Elliott McPherson met drummer Craig Pickering (aka Sweet Dog), who was also bandless after Verga called it quits. Looking to form a high-powered rock band, the two recruited bassist Matt Patton (ex-Model Citizen) and guitarist John Smith (formerly with American Cosmic), and the Dexateens were born.

Influenced by classic Southern rock as well as renegade punk, the band began dabbling with a three-guitar lineup and began playing shows with fellow Dixie rockers the Quadrajets, who taught them valuable lessons about generating a wall of sonic pummel on-stage. After an attempt to record an album with Fat Possum Records founder Bruce Watson in the producer's chair failed to satisfy either Watson or the Dexateens, the band hooked up with Texas punk pioneer and seasoned garage punk producer Tim Kerr, who added extra guitar to the band's self-titled debut, released by Estrus Records in early 2004. Little more than a year later, the Dexateens released their second full-length, Red Dust Rising, which found the bandmembers turning down their amps a bit for a less aggressive but still ballsy take on classic Southern rock. ~ Mark Deming