“This album was written and recorded at Promises, St. Luke’s Hospital, St. Francis hospital, and my home over the course of the past two years.”
That self-penned blurb gives you just a hint of the turmoil surrounding Up Against The Wall Motherfucker, the new solo album from Milwaukee musician/treasure Joey Turbo. Back in January 2024, Turbo was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery. The long road to recovery included a GoFundMe, plenty of in-person fundraisers, and plenty of ups and downs. Then, in January 2025, Turbo’s popular Walker’s Point bar, Promises, closed its doors. The appropriately titled Up Against The Wall Motherfucker followed a month later.
Musically, the record’s 14 tracks share more DNA with Turbo’s previous electro-pop Rio Turbo project than they do with his garage-rock Platinum Boys. But if old Rio Turbo records were the party, Up Against The Wall is the hangover. Opener “Look Like Hell” is a bleary-eyed shoegaze meditation on unbearably tough times (“I never thought life was going to be easy / But I never bet it would get so hard,”) “I Got To It Got To” sets a tale of drinkin’ and druggin’ to a cozy bedroom-country sound, and closer “Shave My Life” is a deconstructed techno stomper filled with clipped vocal samples. In between, there are moments of howling anguish (“In Line To Die”) and moments of unexpected beauty (“Love Vision”).
Up Against The Wall Motherfucker is a sprawling, chaotic, and appropriately frazzled album. It’s also accomplished, heartfelt, and undeniably great. Turbo may be squaring off against hard times, but by record’s end, the winner is clear.
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