Dead Milkmen: Pretty Music for Pretty People/Pretty Music for Pretty Special People

Dead Milkmen: Pretty Music for Pretty People

2014

Quid Ergo Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Pretty Music For Pretty People  2. Big Words Make the Baby Jesus Cry  3. Welcome To Undertown  4. Now I Wanna Hold Your Dog  5. Make It Witchy  6. Mary Ann Cotton (The Poisoner's Song)  7. I've Got To Get My Numbers Up  8. Anthropology Days  9. Somewhere Over Antarctica  10. Dark Clouds Gather Over Middlemarch  11. Streetlamps - Walking To Work  12. The Sun Turns Our Patio Into A Lifeless Hell  13. The Great Boston Molasses Flood  14. All You Need Is Nothing  15. Ronald Reagan Killed The Black Dahlia  16. Hipster Beard  17. Sanitary Times


Holy shit, I've been working on this post for almost a week...It's not that it's hard to write or it's anything special...It's just that I haven't had much access to a computer lately...Or I should say, I've had access to a computer but spent that time looking at stupid faceebook... And boy, is it stupid...

Favorite facebook comment of the year?

"So so stupid! Never would I buy this no matter if channing t. Came out of the box and wanted to play. This is the devil game, you play with fire."

I like these reunion-era Dead Milkmen albums just as much as the ones from the classic era...Their style, for a band who usually gets the "haven't aged well" label by poopy-pants critics, is such a seamless fit into the modern era...They haven't altered the basic sound much, outside of some updated keyboard sounds and a slightly more muscular feel (less jangly/gangly than before) , but the lyrics are very much in the here and now...They dropped the whimsical surrealism that characterized a lot of their stuff and replaced it with the nightmarish surrealism of everyday life in the 21st century...

Plus, they're the only band I can think of these days that doesn't kowtow to the empty-headed, phony pop music that's managed to monopolize radio and television, yet which somehow manages to never be criticized by anyone ever!!! Isn't that the job of up-and-coming bands who've slogged thru the underground and emerged in a musical climate where anything that isn't vacuous pre-set stripper pop is immediately dismissed? But no, most young bands I encounter seem to have that same glassy-eyed, empty-headed Taylor Swift stare...If I live to be a hundred years old (spoiler alert: I won't) I'll never understand it...Anyway, the title track provides just the carnival-esque takedown of the modern pop scene that I didn't even know I needed..

And manoman, does "Anthropology Days" ever rule...One of their all-time best...Rodney lists off a bunch of atrocities (including a rundown of some old racist Olympic event, a story of an elephant that was executed for turning on its abusive trainer, the birth of Pat Robertson, etc. Let me put it this way, if this album had come out a year or so later Cecil the Lion would probably get a mention)...And why is he telling us all this? He gets around to it in the chorus where he reveals that he's just trying to get us all riled up  "so the next time you meet an idiot you’ll remember to tell them to SHUT THE FUCK UP!"  Oh and if you've ever wanted a punishingly accurate view into my everyday existence, you should probably check out "I've Got To Get My Numbers Up"...It's hard to believe the Dead Milkmen, as far as I know, aren't cubicle-monkeys themselves, cos they got a lot of the details right...Maybe they read Upton Sinclair's "The Stapler"...

For the first couple of listens I think I still thought "The King in Yellow" was slightly better, but I don't feel that way now...It sounds a little hollow after this...This album is a little longer and denser, but I'm calling it a dang masterpiece...Captures the tenor of our times more than any other record I've heard lately...So let's listen to some...

Here's  "Anthropology Times" by Dead Milkmen...Enjoy...

Dead Milkmen: Pretty Music for Pretty People

2014

Quid Ergo Records

Format I Own it on:Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Pretty Music For Pretty People  2. Make It Witchy  3. Mary Ann Cotton (The Poisoner's Song)   4. I've Got To Get My Numbers Up   5. Sanitary Times  6. Anthropology Days  7. The Sun Turns Our Patio Into A Lifeless Hell  8.  All You Need Is Nothing  9. Hipster Beard


A truncated vinyl-only version of "Pretty Music for Pretty People." I think this was for the folks who bought all the 7-inches, cos it only has the tracks that weren't included on those...If you only buy this (like I originally did) and don't have the singles then you're gonna need to make another trip to the CD store cos you're missing, oh...8 tracks...I picked up this vinyl version first unaware of its purpose and I remember thinking, "This new Dead Milkmen album is awesome, if a bit slight..." Yea, cos I was missing half of it...

Oh well...gives us an opportunity to listen to some more DM...Here's "Dark Clouds Over Middlemarch"...Happy Friday Everyone...

Dead Milkmen: The King in Yellow

Dead Milkmen: The King in Yellow

2011

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. The King in Yellow / William Bloat  2. Fauxhemia  3. She's Affected  4. Caitlin Childs  5. Meaningless Upbeat Happy Song  6. Hangman  7. Cold Hard Ground  8. Some Young Guy  9. Or Maybe It Is  10. Passport to Depravity  11. Quality of Death  12. Buried In The Sky  13. 13th Century Boy  14. Commodify Your Dissent  15. Can't Relax  16. Melora Says  17. Solvents (For Home and Industry)




Sorry I haven't been doing the blog as much lately, I'm in the process of doing rough mixes for a TA-80 album, which has been eating up most of my free time this week...But I set aside a couple hours today, so let's finish up this Dead Milkmen section!

Y'know, for some reason I feel like writing a super inaccurate review today...

Warning: Reading the irresistible truths in Act Two of this blog will drive you mad...Reading this first act is relatively safe though...So here we go...The Earth-2 review of "The King in Yellow" by the Dead Milkmen...

Act One:

 The Dead Milkmen's latest effort combines the street-wise, small-hat, pitter-pat of prime Jason Mraz with the complex musical map-making and puffy-shirted bombast of "In the Pathways of Pythagoras"-era Dream Theater...

The album begins with a tension-building 45 minutes of the band tuning their instruments, then suddenly the "water" suite begins with the feverish whirlwind of violins that introduces "The King in Yellow / William Bloat."  Their decision to work with Leopold Schpuss and the the Philadelphia Philharmonic really pays off in this piece, adding subtle (and often playful) shades of nuance you don't normally associate with the band's later "blue" period...

The duet "Fauxhemia," matches Rodney Anonymous (he of the 12-octave vocal range) with the smoked wine chanteuse Norah Jones; her venti voice wrapping itself seductively around every syllable, twisting the lyrics like saltwater taffy...

"I just don't get ME ME ME!
Maybe this is why I feel so alone..."

I think Starbucks better order extra copies of this album cos this thing's gonna fly off the shelves like a marbled panini!

On an album loaded with surprises, the biggest shock occurs on " Caitlin Childs" where the band teams up with the titular television chef, who recites her mouth-watering recipe for honey baked ham over lush accompaniment...

Who says gastronomy and gut-bucket rock n' roll don't mix?!

However, I do find the closing "sky" suite, consisting of ("Melora Says" and  "Solvents (For Home and Industry)" to be a little dull. The band experiments with micro-harmonies,  cluster notes, and sub-atomic frequencies...While academically interesting, this piece goes on for a little too long for this particular listener (453 minutes?!?! No wonder they had to make this one a 25-disc set!!). 

Act 2:

SPOILER ALERT!!! WHY, OH WHY DID YOU READ THAT FIRST WORD?!?! Now you have no choice but to read the rest of this act which contains truths so mind-bending that you'll spend the remainder of your miserable existence running through the streets, raving like a wild lunatic!

O, farewell, mind!

Sweet madness beckons...

Lo, the horrible truths:

1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says...

 There are trillions of tiny insects living all over your body and no matter what you do you can never get them off of you! THIS MAKES ME ITCH, DAMMIT!!! ITCH!!!

Act 3:

Alright, now that we're all insane, here's what I really think about "The King in Yellow"...

I was super surprised to see this in the "new releases" section at Zia Records back in 2011...The band had been away for so long and with the tragic passing of Dave Blood, I just figured we'd heard the last of the Dead Milkmen...But there it was...Usually when I check out reunion albums I tend to automatically lower my expectations a bit, but this is one of those rare exceptions where the band didn't miss a step rejoining the workforce of active bands...

Sure, it's darker and angrier than their previous albums (although not dissimilar to the bummed-out second half of "Stoney's,"),  which makes sense because the world's become a darker, angrier place since they left...And their sense of outrage is well placed... A few of the targets include empty-headed patriotic country music, vampire-boyfriend novels, government surveillance, stuffy NPR blandness (Norah Jones, Wes Anderson), reality shows...But it still manages to be funny as hell, although I'd classify it as "gallows" humor ("Hangman" is literally gallows humor, in fact...).

"Country music used to be about music and not about the county
There once was a time when rap was dangerous
Now flag-waving idiots and millionaire illiterates dance across the screen
Johnny Cash died for you..."

- "Commodify Your Dissent"

"I've seen young people waste their time
Reading books about sensitive Vampires
It's kinda sad
But you say it's not the end of the world
Or maybe it is..."

-"Maybe It Is"

"If you didn't check the box next to “I am often sad”,
 there's something seriously wrong with you.
Cuz it's a big world,
and it's filled to the rafters with Cretans and morons.
Have you ever seen one of those child beauty pageants?
Sure, it's an easy target, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be a target..."


- "Meaningless Upbeat Happy Song"

I can imagine that some of the fans who were turned off by the whimsical humor and spoken-word leanings of post "Soul Rotation" DM will be thrilled with the faster, sharper melodies here...And the song "Passport to Depravity" is just flat-out one of their best songs...They turn the unlikely subject of Roman Emperor Tiberius into ridiculously catchy pop-punk...If anything, buy this album for this song...

It's so great to have these guys back, and it's made even sweeter by how good the new material is...Since this album they've released a string of singles that I haven't been able to get ahold of...Hopefully they issue those as a single-album or something...

Anyway, here's a video someone made for the Dead Milkmen song "Can't Relax" that uses scenes from Evangelion...Huh? Enjoy...

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...

Dead Milkmen: Not Richard, But Dick

 Dead Milkmen: Not Richard, But Dick

1993

Hollywood Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Leggo My Ego  2. I Dream of Jesus  3. Jason's Head  4. Not Crazy  5. Let's Get the Baby High  6. Little Volcano  7. Nobody Falls Like  8. I Started to Hate You  9. The Infant of Prague Customized My Van  10. The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose





 "Thar she blows! Lady lumps like a snow hill! Not Richard, But Dick!"

 This album was my white whale for the longest time...All music collectors have a mental list of elusive albums that they're constantly seeking...Every time I went to a record store I'd make a bee-line to the "D" section and inevitably be disappointed that I could never find the perennially out-of-print "Not Richard But Dick."

For me, finding music is all about the hunt...There's nothing like digging through the crates at the local record store and having your eyes pop out of my head when I spot an album I'd been seeking for years...So to me, turning to ebay or other online outlets is like giving up...A pseudo safari...The hunt is canned...

The hunt is canned...

But one night I got ridiculously nostalgic for the days I'd ride the school bus...
 

...blasting my cassette of "Not Richard, But Dick" and couldn't take it anymore...I finally threw in the towel and just plain-ass bought a copy online...

Again, I'll never understand the world...People seem to really dislike these last few Dead Milkmen albums, so I can only assume that there's something wrong with me...I love this era of DM...The only valid criticism I'll accept is the common complain that it's too short ( just shy of 28 minutes!)...

 I think the main reason I find this album so great boils down to one perfect moment..."The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose." Oh my God! I love this song so much! I honestly think it represents the pinnacle of mankind's artistic accomplishments...

 Michelangelo's David? Not as good as "The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose"...

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony? Not as good as "The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose"...

Season four of the A-Team? Okay, I'll give you that one, but that doesn't diminish the song's achievement...First off, why would you write a song about a woman who chases snakes and field mice and then decide that the best way to realize this grand vision is by making it sound exactly like Lou Reed?!?! How did they arrive at this?! Astounding! And then the icing on the cake is the trilling Pied Piper-esque flute line...

 "♪Tweet tweet tweddle deeee...♪" 

Why would a Lou Reed possibly song need a flute? And why does it work so well? I'll never understand it...I can only marvel at its existence...Check it out if you don't believe me...

 Oh yea, there's nine other songs too! They drop the fluffy "Soul Rotation" sound and adopt a more stripped-down pop-punk-rock style...Less jangly and sloppy than their earlier punk stuff, and Rodney and Joe split the vocals fifty-fifty...The whole thing is really solid (which probably isn't surprising since the album's so short), so pointing out highlights is difficult...I've always though "Jason's Head" was one of their catchiest tracks, I don't know what's really going on the song...Some sort of homicide spawned from jealousy, or maybe it's about slasher flicks...

Who knows...Stays stuck in my head all day, regardless...I also like "The Infant of Prague Customized My Van" which is a fun little rockabilly song about preserved saints...And although musically-speaking, "I Dream of Jesus" isn't one of my favorites, the concept is so brilliant that it hardly matters...To my knowledge, it's the only song that addresses the issue of people using Jesus as their personal genie, and does so in a very literal manner (finding JC in a Manischewitz bottle, who goes on to grant all the narrator's wishes)...

"I Started to Hate You" was another song that used to get an endless workout on that old tapedeck of mine...I know people will think I'm crazy, but it reminds me of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."  (flinches). I'm serious...It has the same kind of grand stagger at the end of the chorus...I think Dead Milkmen fans need to revisit this era...So much excellent music to be found. Hopefully somebody does a physical reissue of this someday so future generations will know the glory of this album (P.S. I forgot to mention how amazing "Little Volcano" is...oops!)

Wait, it's Friday! Time to grab a couple of Golden Boys from the fridge...

...and check out some Dead Milkmen...Here's "Jason's Head"...
\

Dead Milkmen: Metaphysical Graffiti

It feels like I've been loitering in the Dead Milkmen section for a long time now...I think I'm just going to power through a bunch of them today, so hold on tight...





















 

Dead Milkmen: Metaphysical Graffiti

1990

Restless Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Beige Sunshine  2. Do the Brown Nose  3. Methodist Coloring Book  4. Part 3  5. I Tripped Over the Ottoman  6. The Big Sleazy  7. If You Love Somebody, Set Them on Fire  8. Dollar Signs in Her Eyes  9. In Praise of Sha Na Na  10. Epic Tales of Adventure  11. I Hate You, I Love You  12. Now Everybody’s Me  13. Little Man in My Head  14. Anderson, Walkman, Buttholes and How!  15. Cousin Earl



I tend to get into bands via their most inaccessible albums...I think probably has something to do with buying most of my music out of  dollar and cut-out bins...

 I originally picked up"Metaphysical Graffiti" in the K-Mart cut-out bin...It probably cost about a buck or two and it kick-started my life-long Dead Milkmen obsession...I can't tell you how much I used to listen to this tape, cos it's a secret..

It's weird that I can't tell if this is my one of my favorite or one of my least favorite DM album...Depends in the mood I'm in, considering it's so all over the place...Let's start with album opener, "Beige Sunshine"...It starts out with a choir of children singing nonsense like, "You are an ocelot what are you seeking?" over a cheap Casio beat, then suddenly the band kicks in and it becomes dark, psychedelic hard rock...And beige is a fitting description for it...It's just so overwhelmingly, awesomely beige...

I think my favorite thing about the album is Joe Jack Talcum's new vocal style that he really only uses for this record...Much more ragged and growlier. Was he sick? Had he lost his voice? Was he just trying to toughen up his image? Who knows. Whatever the reason, "Methodist Coloring Book" and "I Hate You, I Love You" are two of my all-time favorites Dead Milkmen tracks as a result...I also love Joe and Rodney's duet "In Praise of Sha Na Na," where they make a pretty convincing case for Sha Na Na's placed in rock n' roll history...

"You can move to Montana and listen to Santana
But you still won't be as cool as Sha Na Na..."

I don't know, man...Moving to Montana and listening to Santana sounds pretty cool, if you ask me...

 On the other hand there is quite a bit of skippable stuff on here...Especially once you get near the end.."Anderson, Walkman, Buttholes and How!" has a great title and a guest appearance from Gibby Haynes, but to be honest, I usually end up tuning it out...For some reason it's kinda boring...The "Cousin Earl" monologue at the end kinda grosses me out most of the time (although I am strangely fascinated by the concept of the fungus girl)...."Part 3" has also always struck me as filler-ish too...I usually always forget about the song until I play the album, which is strange because I've probably heard the album a few hundred times (no exaggeration!).

 Whatever you do though, don't mistake "Dollar Signs in Her Eyes" as filler! I used to think the song was dull...Like it was so distant and light I could hardly even hear it...But nowadays I can't get enough of it:

"Dreams are only clouds that form and dissipate,
The sky is a highway for metal birds and land is real estate..."

It was too subtle for me...Do you understand the implications of this?!?! A Dead Milkmen song was too mature and subtle for me!!!

I have to give them a lot of credit...They scored a hit with "Punk Rock Girl" and then had the nerve to turn in an album like this..."Metaphysical Graffiti" probably scared away potential fans with its dense and scatter-shot approach (despite favorites like "If You Love Somebody, Set Them on Fire" and "In Praise of Sha Na Na") but if you have a taste for the Dead Milkmen's twisted world there's new things to discover around every corner here...I guess it drew me in....

Here's "I Hate You, I Love You" by the Dead Milkmen...Enjoy...

 

Dead Milkmen: Soul Rotation

1992

Hollywood Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. At the Moment  2. The Secret of Life  3. Big Scary Place  4. Belafonte's Inferno  5. The Conspiracy Song  6. How It's Gonna Be  7. All Around the World  8. Silly Dreams  9. Wonderfully Coloured Plastic War Toys  10. God's Kid Brother  11. If I Had a Gun  12. Here Comes Mr. X  13. Shaft in Greenland



This album was pretty surprising at the time..First off, they signed to DISNEY!!

But to be fair, back the label wasn't the wasteland of tween pop it is now...



Hollywood Records had quite a few bands I enjoyed like Seaweed, The Suicide Machines, and Fishbone...

Additionally,  Joe takes on the mantle of lead singer on this album! Rodney switches to keyboards with a lead vocal here and there...And to top it all off, it's almost a stretch to call "Soul Rotation" a punk record...It's more like, lush indie pop, which is right up my alley so this wasn't as big a stretch for me as it was for a lot of the group's fan-base...In fact, this is one of my favorite albums by the band...

Sure, it could use a bit more Rodney on the mic, but I think Joe fills the void admirably...He has a much gentler approach...Most of the bitter sarcasm is gone, replaced with UFO travelogues and surreal fantasies with a  little real world harshness seeping around the edges (see the paranoid ska track "If I Had a Gun" and "Here Comes Mr. X," where Joe tells the story of a neighbor from hell who "invites your kids to an Aryan youth Camp").

 I find a lot of the songs on here oddly moving for some reason...When Joe wistfully sings, "There are people who want to kill me, all around the world..." over lonely piano chords, I find myself getting almost choked up..I also find myself bowled over by the child-like cosmic awe of "The Secret of Life"...There really is some beautiful stuff here if you're open to finding beauty in lines like:

"You brought two cats for me to keep,
And told me not to feed them tuna or they'd throw up.
I fed them tuna and they threw up for hours and hours...
I was amazed at all the stuff that came from those little bodies of theirs,
It was puffy like a sponge,
The color of the sidewalk,
And it smelled like the dirty rags beneath the sink..."

-Silly Dreams

Also be sure not to miss "The Conspiracy Song" which is one of the few Rodney-sung tracks on here...It's the most squarely punk songs on the album and Rodney lists off a long, impressive string of conspiracy theories that would give David Icke pause...

"They own the state, they own the church,
They pick the winners on Star Search...

They put the holes in our socks
They put that snake in my mail box..."

Yea, just beginning to end I love this album...The closer "Shaft in Greenland" is a fine send-off, by the way...A duet between Joe and Rodney that sounds like a cross between second wave ska and a James Bond theme song...I'd say it's remarkable for how much Rodney sounds like he's actually happy about the notion of traveling the world and meeting all the people...Not something you hear too often from him...God, I love this era of Dead Milkmen...I honestly can't believe that this wasn't one of the biggest hits of 1992...I mean, what else was going on? Here, I'll look it out...

What?!?!

 

You've got to be kidding me?!?!?!

 

 

Awww, C'mon!!

 

 Dammit, world! How could you let this happen?! It's not too too late, everybody! Run out to your local record store and pick up a copy of "Soul Rotation" immediately! 

Oh, wait...It's out of print? 

Nevermind.

 

Here's "The Meaning of Life" by the Dead Milkmen...Enjoy...

Dead Milkmen: If I Had a Gun EP

1992

Hollywood Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. If I Had a Gun  2. Bitchin’ Camaro (The Best Thanksgiving Ever) (Live)  3. Silly Dreams (Live)  4. The Conspiracy Song (Live)  5. Dolce


This is an EP showcasing the "Soul Rotation" highlight "If I Had a Gun."  But the big draw here would be the three live tracks and one studio track not available elsewhere.

Two of the live tracks are songs from "Soul Rotation" ("Silly Dreams" and "The Consipiracy Song") that sound pretty good...A little distant perhaps but good...The real reason to get this though, is the Best Thanksgiving Ever version of "Bitchin’ Camaro"...It makes me wonder if Rodney always does a different monologue for the be-bop part of the song or if it's a tour by tour thing, or what...The spoken word section in this version in no way resembles the "Big Lizard" take;  instead of "the shore" he tackles diverse subjects such as the Thanksgiving kids table, the Gulf War and Public Enemy....

You also get "Dulce" which is the sort of surfy instrumental you'd find on the first three albums...But yea, if you run across this Ep definitely check it out...It's a pretty good companion to "Soul Rotation." Hey! I just had a great idea!! Why don't someone bundle the two releases together and REISSUE THEM SO NORMAL PEOPLE CAN READILY BU THEM?!?!!

Is this about people not buying music anymore? Is that what this is about? C'mon! You're DISNEY!!! Reissue them as a public service! You guys can take a loss! 

Here's "If I Had a Gun" by the Dead Milkmen...Dig it...