Dead Milkmen: Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig) /Now We Are 20

I heard about the tornado in Hale...Very glad that no one was hurt...Things could have been much worse...

 We should just all be thankful that it wasn't a Sharknado...

Sorry I haven't posted much this week...Just kind of been hanging out...

Amy and I went to the Guided By Voices show at the Crescent Ballroom on Sunday, which was pretty cool...I got to drink Hamm's for the first time! They were selling them for $3.00, which was fifty cents less than the Bud Light I'm holding in the photo above...

Boy, you could really taste every penny of that fifty cents, too! Still, it's beer, and we should never speak ill of beer...Anyway, it was great to finally see the "classic" GBV line-up (although things were cut a bit short due to technical problems with Tobin Sprout's guitar) and we landed a prime spot right at the front of the stage...My ears are still ringing...Here's a few pictures Amy took at the show...

Alright...Let's continue the Dead Milkmen section with a two-album marathon! Let's go!





Dead Milkmen

1995

Restless Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Peter Bazooka  2. Train I Ride  3. The Girl with the Strong Arm  4. I’m Flying Away  5. Helicopter Interiors  6. The Blues Song  7. The Man Who Rides the Bus  8. Don’t Deny Your Inner Child  9. When I Get to Heaven  10. I Can’t Stay Awake  11. Crystalline  12. Chaos Theory  13. Khrissy  14. Like to Be Alone  15. Big Deal


I tend to think of this one as the long version of "Not Richard, But Dick." Same kind of bright, white, dry rock sound. Again, you hardly ever run across a positive review of this thing...Maybe it has something to do with Rodney moving to a largely monologue-based delivery on the verses which sometimes works brilliantly (the shaggy dog conspiracy story "Peter Bazooka") and sometimes doesn't ("Don't Deny Your Inner Child" and most of "The Blues Song" (except that "Oh my Gahhhd! You're really fat!" part....That always cracks me up)).  Or maybe Joe has finally become too wimpy for people ("I'm Flying Away").  It's hard to say because I enjoy this so much...

After almost 20 years, I still can't get enough of "I Can't Stay Awake." The fizzy, jangly mix of exuberance and exhaustion hits me just like it did the first time...Same goes for "The Man Who Rides the Bus," which appears to be a surreal rewrite of Joan Osborne's schlocky, nose-ringed "What if God was a Stranger on a Bus" song that came out the same year...

I consider the lyric "I heard him speak only once, "You're Standing on my foot..."" to be the funniest line ever written in a song...

 Rodney gets in few prime moments too...Most notably the ridiculously catchy "Helicopter Interiors" and "Chaos Theory"  which attempts to unionize loafers:

"Study hard and you'll have a future
Oh yeah, when the hell was that ever true?
Study hard and you'll still go nowhere
Study hard and you'll still get screwed...

Workers of the world, unite and do nothing
Workers of the world, unite and relax..."

I absolutely love the final section of the album...It was such a great send-off for the band (who would eventually return, but we'll get to that later)...After the acid-freakout pop of "Khrissy," the album suddenly, uncharacteristically turns somber...The only possible trace of humor I can find in the piano ballad "Like to Be Alone" is during the break, where Joe's voice reaches lower and lower until he finally ends up in Johnny Cash territory for a moment...And when that's over, you're greeted with "Big Deal," an acoustic shuffle with morose lyrics like:

"Life sucks, then you die
And your soul gets sucked into the sky
Birds sing, I wonder why
You eat a bowl of cereal and sigh..."

Which gives the impression that the Dead Milkmen essentially give up and die here...But at least they provided themselves a beautiful funeral! As long as I live I'll never understand the ridiculously misinformed and one-sided view that the group was merely a "joke" band...They had so much more to offer and anybody who doesn't get that obviously wasn't paying attention...So blah...

Here's "I Can't Stay Awake" by the Dead Milkmen..Enjoy

 

Dead Milkmen: Now We Are 20

2003

Restless Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Beach Song  2. Labor Day 3. Don't Abort That Baby  4. Girl Hunt   5. Land of the Shakers  6. I Don't Wanna 7. Milkmen Stomp 8. Beach Song  9. Dance With Me 10. Labor Day  11.
Bitchin' Camaro  12. Plum Dumb 13. Swordfish 14. VCW  15.  Spit Sink  16. Introduction 17 .Laundromat Song  18. Filet Of Sole 19. I Hate Myself  20. Junkie  21. Right Wing Pigeons 22.
Dean's Dream  23. Rastabilly  24. Takin' Retards To The Zoo  25. Violent School  26.
Stupid Mary Anne  27. Surfin' Cow 28. Shape Of Things  29. Ask Me To Dance  30.
Rock 'N' Roll Queen  31. Message To You Rudy 

 

This is an expanded reissue of the  self-released compilation "Now We Are 10" featuring a ton of unreleased, rare and live recordings...

I don't 100% understand why some stuff is here and other stuff isn't (outside of CD running time limitations), but overall it's a fun listen for die-hard milk-heads...Here's a breakdown of what's on here...

Four very early live tracks from the "Funky Farm" cassette which captures the band at their rawest and snottiest...Rough quality but reasonably well-mixed for a home-made live recording...Recommended for folks who chuckle at song titles like "Don't Abort That Baby"...

Three home-recorded songs from the 1984 "Death Rides a Pale Cow" cassette (a greatest-hits compilation with the same title came out in 1997, so don't get the two confused).  "Land of the "Shakers" is a fairly annoying near-instrumental but their live re-appropriation of the "Meatmen Stomp" is entertaining...Again, rough stuff, but you can hear everything clearly...

Now we're getting to the good shit...18 tracks from "Dead Milkmen Take the Airwaves" which was a live show the band performed on the radio (Damn. What an awesome radio station...All I get on the radio here in Phoenix is Nickelback and Disturbed)...These are high quality recordings of songs that would end up on "Big Lizard in My Backyard" and quite a few outtakes ("Dance With Me," the nihilistic "I Hate Myself " and the anti-Jerry Lewis rocker "Labor Day" which has become a fan-favorite). There's a few other live tracks dating from the 90's..."Stupid Mary Anne" being the big highlight...Such a happy, catchy song...I wonder why they never used it on any of their albums? 

The best track, however is the fun pop ditty, "Ask Me to Dance" about a one-legged dance party, which was a B-Side from the "Instant Club Hit" single...I wish they would have added a second disc and put on the remainder of the band's B-Sides on here...Particularly those "Smokin' Banana Peels" B-Sides...I've been dying to get my hands on those! Oh well, maybe they'll do it for "Now We Are 40"....

The album closes out with a couple of cover songs, one excellent ("Rock & Roll Queen") and one alright-ish ("Message to Rudy." ) Wait, what is that "Tune Master" cover all about? Does it really work like a View-Master? How can that be? 

If you're unfamiliar with the band, I would skip this, but fans of early Dead Milkmen who can take a little lo-fidelity will have a good time with this...Let's check out "Ask Me to Dance" by the Dead Milkmen...Enjoy...