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Dead Milkmen

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The Dead Milkmen
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Genre(s)	Punk rock, Comedy rock, alternative rock
Years active	1983-1995 2004
Website	www.deadmilkmen.com
Members
Joe Jack Talcum Dave Blood Dean Clean Rodney Anonymous

The Dead Milkmen were a punk band formed in 1983 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band consisted of Joe Jack Talcum (Joe Genaro; guitar, vocals), Dave Blood (Dave Schulthise; bass), Dean Clean (Dean Sabatino; drums), and Rodney Anonymous (Rodney Linderman; vocals, synth).^[1] The band has claimed that the name comes from a character in Toni Morrison's book Song of Solomon ("Milkman Dead"), as well as from one of Genaro's high school projects.^[2] However, the most appropriate explanation is that the name represents the murderous consequences of the cliché scenario in which a newborn bears an uncanny resemblance to the milkman. They may also have adopted the name as a pun on the Dead Kennedys, an already prominent punk band out of San Francisco. The band's musical style could be described as irreverent punk rock with a pop aesthetic and a steady supply of humor. Take, for example, the song titles "My Many Smells" and "Taking Retards to the Zoo." Anonymous and Talcum both sang with heavy Philadelphia accents often sounding exaggeratedly snotty.^[3]

1 History
2 Post break-up
3 Discography
4 References
5 External links

History

After a few self released cassettes, the first official Dead Millkmen album, Big Lizard in my Backyard was released in 1985. Their music received some airplay on college radio stations but was rarely heard on commercial radio. Their best-known song from this record was "Bitchin' Camaro," which became their signature tune. Because of its improvised dialogue intro, it was a favorite at live shows. (Both the album and song were mentioned on the television show Midnight Caller in a scene featuring lead actor Gary Cole and guest star Robert Klein.) Their next two lp's, Eat Your Paisley (1986) and Bucky Fellini, (1987) saw the band continue to embrace humor. The latter featured a tune that received some radio play, "Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)." This song attacked its supposedly shallow listeners for their lack of taste in dance music--done in the style of the dance music they were making fun of. Around this time, Jim Walewander, a rookie on the Detroit Tigers baseball team, became notorious for being a huge fan of the band. This fact was even noted on his baseball card, which described the group as "an obscure punk-rock band". Walewander invited the Dead Milkmen to Tiger Stadium to see a game in which he hit his first, and only, major league home run. In 1988 came Beelzebubba, which featured what would become the Dead Milkmen's biggest commercial hit and best-known song, "Punk Rock Girl." The song's video won rotation on MTV, and was later featured on MTV's Beavis and Butthead show. This album was somewhat more sophisticated, technically and musically, than previous work. Following in this vein is 1990's Metaphysical Graffiti. Up to this point, the band had been recording for Enigma Records and its subsidiary Restless Records. They signed with Hollywood Records, owned by Disney. Their next two albums, Soul Rotation (1992) and Not Richard, But Dick (1993), saw the further polishing of their production. However, many fans felt the band had lost its humor and vitality in an attempt to be more mainstream. Soul Rotation featured Anonymous on synthesizers and Talcum taking on more vocal responsibility. The resulting record is much more pop oriented. Hollywood Records, unfortunately, soon went out of business and these two records went out of print not long after their initial releases. By the time Restless Records released their final studio album in 1995, Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig), the Dead Milkmen had broken up. This was due, in part, to Dave Blood, who was suffering from tendonitis and could not play the bass guitar without intense pain in his hands. Since then, compilations of both hits and rarities have been made available.^[4]

Post break-up

Rodney Linderman performed with a gothic, Celtic rock/punk called Burn Witch Burn, from 1994-1998, roughly, and released two demos and a studio album on the Philadelphia label Razler Records. Clean drummed with the Big Mess Orchestra, who sporadically performed in Philadelphia throughout the '90s and into the '00s, and also played with the Hunger Artists. Talcum and Clean formed a new band, Butterfly Joe, performing material based on Joe's solo home recordings, from 1993-1999. Butterfly Joe also released an album on Razler Records. Talcum played in Touch Me Zoo, which was a home-recording-only project from 1990-1993, and a live band from 1994-1996. Talcum also had a group called the Town Managers from 1996-1999. He is currently in a successful Philadelphia punk band called The Low Budgets, who've toured extensively and released three albums, and a home-recording project called The Cheesies with Brian Sprenger, from Touch Me Zoo and the Town Managers. Talcum also frequently performs solo under the name Joe Jack Talcum; he's released about a dozen self-recorded cassettes between 1984-1997, the best of which was compiled onto a CD released on the Valiant Death Records label out of Richmond, VA. Dave Schulthise (Dave Blood) attended Indiana University to study Serbo-Croatian language, literature, history, and culture. In 1998 he moved to Novi Sad, Serbia, where he taught English. His writing was published several times in Svetigora, the magazine of the Serbian Orthodox Church.^[5] He hoped to contribute to the country’s re-growth and development.^[6] He fled in April of 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia. For the next few years he worked as a custodian in Philadelphia and committed suicide on March 10 2004.^[7] The surviving Dead Milkmen took the stage once again for two consecutive nights in November of 2004 at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia to pay tribute to Dave Schulthise. Proceeds were donated to a variety of mental health organizations and to a Serbian monastery that Schulthise supported. Dandrew Stevens, bass player of Talcum's band the Low Budgets, performed on bass.