When a band with name like Drug Church swings by, describing themselves as “degenerate punk loners” it’s time to sit up and take notice. Truth be told, I loved this album before I’d heard a single note, and following a quick scan of the song titles, which demonstrated its creators’ clear penchant for gerunds (‘Thinking of Joining Drug Church’, ‘Reading Youtube Comments’, ‘Learning to Speak British’ and – my personal fave – ‘Shopping for a Belt’) I knew this was set to be the soundtrack to my summer.
Fortunately, Drug Church’s music more than meets the expectations, since the ten tracks that make up Paul Walker are perfectly executed, piss-stained postcards from the gutter; raucous, bile-fuelled sermons that channel the spirit of Poison Idea and various other legends of American hardcore. Like Quicksand’s seminal Slip – a band to whom Drug Church are openly indebted, musically-speaking – re-written for the suburb-dwelling reprobates of the RPG generation, this is a searing, often tragically hilarious indictment of 21st century society and its attendant banalities. On ‘Attending a Cousin’s Birthday Party’ frontman Patrick Kindlon entreats us with the lines “Two twelve-year olds fight, don’t get involved, don’t get involved at all” whilst his cry of “Here’s some advice from a man who never quite did it right” on ‘Thrill Hill’ is pathetic in the truest sense of the term. American punk rock at its absolute finest.
[Rating:4]
