#slow walker

Slow Walker “Ah Yes” 2018. HFPT (Holy Family Players Theatre) Records. Limited 100 vinyl release -- this copy 100/100 that I picked up at the record release show this past Friday at Cactus Club. Milwaukee’s Slow Walker is pretty much the best band in town right now (along with Calliope who released their new record on Saturday): heavy garage punk that mixes in grungy psych and metal backed by a killer funky groove. Though not an instrumental band per se, it’s the interplay between Justin Harris’ guitar and Sam Reitman’s bass that makes Slow Walker’s sound absolutely killer and Nick Fulsher’s drums provide the furious backbone to their sound. The lyrics are generally short, often hilarious (i.e. “Weed Out the Squares” lyrics consist entirely of ‘Gotta weed out the squares, weed, weed, weed out the squares, come on man, show me that you care’ and “Can U Wup” = ‘Can U wup, can u wup? Can you spell it? W-U-P’), and mostly trivial enough you realize that it’s the music that is primary to these guys. Which is so OK with me! Below is the record insert with all the lyrics, drawings by my friend Claire who teaches at my kid’s school.

Slow Walker’s latest release Ah Yes is fantastic (and packaged with only a slightly higher budget than their full-length Slow Walker from 2014: red ballpoint pen and pre-fabbed stamping on the record label vs a black sharpie scribble saying “fuck off”). They played several of the tracks at the record release show (plus some of their “old” tracks from the 2017 EP Command Z including the most excellent “Basement”). My favorites on Ah Yes are the shorter, punkier tracks with the groovy rhythms like “Weed Out the Squares,” “Sacrificial Lamb,” “Can U Wup?” (guest guitarist Graham Hunt of the Midnight Reruns joined Slow Walker onstage and on vinyl for that track) and the hypnotically funky “Ride.” But there are a couple of longer, trippy songs like the instrumental “Drum and Drummer” and “No Drinks.” “No Drinks” is really really heavy, Black Sabbath on mushrooms level of heft, that later morphs into a full-on garagey dance party. I believe it was during that song that Sam’s dad, Al Reitman, came on stage to shred along with the band.

Longtime friend: She's so SLOW!

New Friend: Do you always walk like this?

Me: Yeah... Snails make fun of me.

New Friend: Ohhh, how mean!

Me: That's okay. The roly polys are nice.

Me: They wave as they pass by.

Slow Walker “Slow Walker” 2014. Stale Heat Records. Milwaukee’s Slow Walker is currently the best band in town (at least according to the highly unbiased poll of my friends). Slow Walker is the band’s debut release, recorded prior to the addition of bassist Sam Reitman - the band’s newish secret weapon. 

Reitman helped transform an already solid, bass-forward grungy garage punk style into an addictive groove (I kid you not, I’ve listened to the song “Basement” from their 2017 EP Command Z a minimum of 100 times since downloading it a few months ago -- it’s not available on vinyl), a groove propelled excellently by drummer Nick Fulsher. 

Slow Walker is great snotty garage punk and really well-produced despite some  obviously low budget details (like the record label which I think was written with ballpoint pen).

My favorite tracks on the LP are “Dog Meat” - an excellent rocker with a killer guitar solo by Justin Harris, “Chocolate Cake” with its super-extra snotty vocals accented by cooing oh-ah backup singing, the mid-tempo sneering “Desperation,” the 70′s inspired heavy rock-goes-garage “Sight in Mind,” “Losing It” which starts out jangle-pop sweet and then explodes into power guitar fury, the arena-rock worthy “Stale Heat” and “Sour Kraut” that just might be as addictive as “Basement.”

Probably one of the most bullshit things ive read in awhile

(via Hear a song from all 3 of Gallery Night's forthcoming 7-inches)