Back in the mid-eighties, if you wanted to listen to some great punk rock that was fun and humorous, a splendid choice would have been the Dead Milkmen. Their debut album from 1985, Big Lizard In My Backyard was a classic with all the snotty charm you'd expect from the Milkmen, giving their opinion on such creatures and things as swordfish, lizards, gorillas, pigeons, retards, nutrition and bitchin' camaros. They followed with Eat Your Paisley and Bucky Fellini in 86 and 87 before reaching MTV fame with Beezlebubba and it's hit, Punk Rock Girl. The band then hit what I call the "Soul Asylum syndrome", when a band who has a great dedicated cult (indie) following gets a hit song, gets heavy rotation on MTV and "alternative" radio stations and performs on talk shows. This is followed by a succession of albums that never live up to the expectations of the mainstream public then they fade to obscurity. Unfortunately for the Milkmen, they got signed by Hollywood records who were a subsiduary of the Disney corporation, they receive little or no promotion then the label goes belly up and the band breaks up...sad.
Before the Big Lizard album, the Milkmen produced a series of self-produced cassettes that they sold at all-ages shows and through friends and fans in and around Philly. Many of the songs on the tapes appear on Big Lizard and later albums, but on these tapes they are lo-fi basement recordings and all these versions are exclusive to these releases.
Funky Farm was recorded live in a barn in Bedminster, PA and was recorded in 1983. It includes an early version of Watching Scotty Die (from Bucky Fellini) and their tribute to Jerry Lewis, Labor Day.
DEAD MILKMEN
Funky Farm (1983)
Self-released cassette
I've been a milkmen fan for over 12 years now and never thought I'd find a copy of this. Thank you!
ReplyDelete