DEAD MILKMEN/ROY "C"This one's a two-parter. I'll deal with the Dead Milkmen first.
I'm not really sure what's had me so glued to the Dead Milkmen lately, but for the past few weeks, they've been my band of choice.
I'm only 26, so I don't go as far back with the Milkmen as some, but
they go
all the way back with
me. In 1993, when I was just 13 and in the shallow end of underground music, they became the first real-deal, tell-all-your-friends-about-it punk band I got to see live. This was before I became a working man with money to blow on music, so the only experience I'd had with this band was with my
Big Lizard in my Backyard and
Soul Rotation cassettes, but considering how consumed I was with their snottiness, I was as excited as anyone to see them perform.
My memory of that show is, ehh, fairly sharp. I remember being pretty nervous about going. I'd never been to a venue to see a band I liked. What if the scary punks beat me up?! But when I arrived (got dropped off, haha), aside from a few punky dudes, the crowd was pretty diverse and tame looking. The venue was dark and loud, but once I got used to it, there was no way out of a good time.
They played the catchy hits from
Big Lizard and
Soul in a set of other catalog classics I had yet to absorb (that came shortly after). Days later I discovered that most of the set came from
Not Richard But Dick, the album they were touring to support.
Back at school, my buddy Tim Perkins (rest in peace, my friend) offered to dub his brother's copy of
Not Richard for me, which first exposed me to the album. Some songs I loved, some songs I dug less, but I always listened to it start-to-finish without skipping a track. I don't think I consciously acknowledged it at the time, but the Dead Milkmen were pretty much my favorite band, and this album was driving that idea home.
Some songs I rewound again and again for repeat listens. "Leggo My Ego," "Jason's Head" and "Nobody Falls Like" were the ones I couldn't shut-up about. At that age I had soaked up a fair amount of of good punk and hardcore, like Minor Threat, Middle Class, Bad Brains and other starting points, but these songs from
Not Richard (and the classics from
Big Lizard) were some of the coolest tunes I had ever heard. For all I knew, nobody else wrote songs like this because nobody else had the personality to get there.
So maybe some preconscious nostalgia is throwing these old Dead Milkmen hits back on the player, but whatever the case, their music is potent as ever. I hear similar stories from most Milkmen fans I talk to.
It's a bummer
Soul Rotation and
Not Richard But Dick are both out of print (
here's why if you don't already know the details). Luckily, both are pretty easily tracked down on Amazon or eBay for just a few extra bucks, and I highly recommend you seek them out. If you're new to this band, I absolutely suggest you start from
Big Lizard in my Backyard and then move to
Eat Your Paisley before diving into their latter titles. Plus, those two are still in print, so your
purchase will, indeed, help the band (whereas purchasing a used, out-of-print copy won't earn the band a dime of royalties).
And so after all that jibber-jabber, here are my favorite jams from
Not Richard But Dick.
Leggo My EgoJason's HeadNobody Falls LikeThere will be more writings on the Dead Milkmen and their other albums at
Microwaved Leftovers of Revenge when I get around to it. I'll try and make mention of them here at UBF when they're posted.
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Alright, the second part is a quickie. I was cleaning the dust off some old, beaten 45s the other night and thought this one to have some relevance with present-day goings-on. I don't need to explain why. Plus it's just a good song.
Now like I said, it's a beater, and my copy is pretty busted, so excuse the *tiny* skip at the beginning and some surface noise. If you can get through my scratchy-but-catchy rip of this song, you'll dig the album it's on, called
Sex & Soul. No skips or crackles there.
From 1973, here's Roy "C" with "
Open Letter to the President."
RUSTY JAMES
