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.