Paul Walker, Drug Church’s (Albany, NY) first full length LP, was released last week via No Sleep Records. According to the band’s bio, you will be in for a treat if you have eczema and work at Pizza Hut. Your life is pointless and Paul Walker is here to celebrate that.

Vocalist Patrick Kindlon, known from Self Defense Family, barks at you with his familiar and characteristic voice. According to the promo sheet, Paul Walker is “the perfect record to listen to as you skate home from your night shift cleaning up puke in the bathroom of a Steak & Shake.” The lyrics do not have a theme in particular, but hey. Who cares, right? It’s a refreshing feature, really. However, the overall tone of the record is reasonably negative; “I was born unlucky so I’m riding a bus / to my weekly meeting ordered by a judge” and “your socks don’t match, they never match, that fucking dryer / your job is angry, they’re always angry, you’re probably fired” are just two examples of Kindlon’s depressing (but amusing) lyrics.

The instrumentals are nicely straightforward. Albeit sometimes repetitive, Nick Cogan’s and Cory Galusha’s guitars pack a punch. Pat Wynne’s heavy bass lines are memorable, especially on tracks like ‘Donny’s Woods’, ‘Thinking About Joining Drug Church’ and ‘Thrill Hill’ – my personal favorites. Drug Church has a sound that reminds me of ‘old’ bands in the likes of Snapcase, Seaweed and Quicksand. Paul Walker is a fun listen indeed. Your crappy laptop speakers will not do it justice. Stream the record in it’s entirety on No Sleep’s Bandcamp.

Another recent Drug Church release worth checking out is the Party At Dead Man’s b/w Selling Drugs From Your Mom’s Condo 7”, which is distributed through the Deathwish Distro. Kindlon describes it as “Seaweed and Tolkien swirling in a barf-stew thrown against a wall of indifference. Like dogs dancing to E-Town”. Pretty neat.

Help Patrick to pay for his bus fare. Buy the full length here. Party At Dead Man’s is available here.

Track list – Paul Walker:

01. Thinking About Joining Drug Church
02. Reading Youtube Comments
03. Clifton Country
04. Shopping For a Belt
05. Donny’s Woods
06. Learning To Speak British
07. Attending a Cousin’s Birthday Party
08. Deconstructing Snapcase
09. Thrill Hill
10. Riding the Bus To Schenectady

Drug Church: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp / Get Paul Walker

Written by Laurens Kleine