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.”

We’ve seen Slow Walker several times within the last year, most recently this past Friday night with fellow Milwaukeeans Calliope, and I try to never pass up a chance to see them play. Their next gig is at Burnhearts’ Mittenfest (an outdoor street festival the first Saturday in February), with another show at Frank’s Power Plant that same night. They told me they’re working on getting a new album out soon, hopefully coming out on vinyl this time around.