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.

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Slow Walker performing “Basement” at Mittenfest 2018 tonight in Milwaukee. (That IS snow falling in front of the stage)

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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.

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