Critic's Review
Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Free Beer for Life! is the A-Bones' second record, and these six tunes are a tremendous improvement over the well-intentioned but timid sound of their previous Tempo Tantrum EP. Free Beer for Life begins with the band charging through Ben Vaughn's "Darlene," and from the first moments this sounds the way the A-Bones were meant to sound on vinyl -- the guitar roars and twangs, the vocals are raunchy and impassioned, the rest of the gang shouts and laughs in the background like a party's going on, the drums are a little sloppy but right on time, and the whole thing decisively rocks on out. The set list includes such would-be classics as "A-Bomb Bop," "Spinning My Wheels," and "Devil Dance," and remarkably the originals "Lug Nuts" and "Mumbo Jumbo" are crazed enough to keep up with the competition. Free Beer for Life is solid rock & roll fun, and the demarcation point where the A-Bones started to get real good; if this mini-LP has a flaw, it's that it stops after only six songs, but there's nothing stopping you from playing it over and over again.
