Dead Milkmen
he Dead Milkmen are a satirical punk band formed in 1983 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band initially consisted of Joe Genaro ("Joe Jack Talcum"; guitar, vocals), Dave Schulthise ("Dave Blood"; bass), Dean Sabatino ("Dean Clean"; drums), and Rodney Linderman ("Rodney Anonymous"; vocals, synth).
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.
The band's musical style could be described as jangly, driving punk rock with a steady supply of irreverent humor as evident from the song titles "My Many Smells", "Taking Retards to the Zoo" and "If You Love Someone, Set Them On Fire." Anonymous and Talcum both sang with heavy Philadelphia accents often sounding exaggeratedly snotty.
The group recorded eight studio albums, one live record, and a large number of EPs and self-released cassettes before disbanding in 1995. In 2008, after a small handful of reunion shows during their 13 years of inactivity, the group announced its plans to continue performing and work on new material with new bassist Dan Stevens replacing the deceased Schulthise.
The band began as a bedroom cassette project featuring Genaro and his friend Garth, who created characters and mythology in the band's name. Linderman (originally the drummer) joined the group in its embryonic home-recording stage prior to Garth's departure to join the United States Air Force; Schulthise and Sabatino, respectively, joined prior to the band's first performances.
After a few self released cassettes, the first official Dead Milkmen 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. Eat Your Paisley's single "The Thing That Only Eats Hippies" was a hit in Australia and got some rotation on the radio, and also became the first Dead Milkmen music video. Bucky Fellini featured a tune that received some radio play, "Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)." This song attacked the supposedly shallow listeners of post-punk dance music for their lack of taste in music done in a stereotypical post-punk dance style. Another track attacking a similar crowd (and mentioning the band Depeche Mode as well), "Moron", was featured on Eat Your Paisley. The song "Big Time Operator" was the Dead Milkmen's second music video, featuring Rodney dressed up as Franken-Elvis in a Jewish cemetery.
During the band's uprise, Dean "Clean" Sabatino kept a band journal, which he later posted on his website.
Commercial success
In 1987, Detroit Tigers rookie Jim Walewander became notorious for being a huge fan of the band; this fact was 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, and the Milkmen had a short conversation with Tigers manager Sparky Anderson.
Sparky meets the Milkmen.
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 Butt-head show. This album was somewhat more sophisticated, technically and musically, than previous work and featured two music videos, "Punk Rock Girl" and "Smokin' Banana Peels". Following in this vein is 1990's Metaphysical Graffiti, which was even more technical than the last album, but didn't receive the same attention as Beezlebubba did. The album featured the song "Methodist Coloring Book"; the song and its music video received little rotation.
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 Linderman on synthesizers and Genaro taking on more vocal responsibility. The resulting record is much more pop oriented. These two records went out of print not long after their initial releases. Afterwards, The Dead Milkmen were unable to feature any of the songs on either "Soul Rotation" or "Not Richard, but Dick" on any of their other CD compilations. The Milkmen were able to smuggle "If I Had a Gun" onto their live compilation CD "Chaos Rules: Live at the Trocadero".
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 Schulthise, who was suffering from tendinitis 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.
Post break-up
Linderman performed with a gothic, Celtic rock/punk band called Burn Witch Burn, from 1994-2001, and released two demos and a self titled studio album in 2000 on the Philadelphia label Razler Records.
Sabatino 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. Sabatino is also the only Milkmen alumnus to have played in a group prior to the Milkmen, being the '80s Philly band Narthex.
Genaro has remained the most musically active member of the group since its split, consistently recording original music and performing live. He and Sabatino formed a new band, Butterfly Joe, performing material based on Joe's solo home recordings, from 1993-1999, and releasing a self-titled album on Razler Records. Genaro played in Touch Me Zoo, which was a home-recording-only project from 1990-1993, and a live band from 1994-1996. Genaro 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. Genaro also frequently performs solo under the name Joe Jack Talcum; he's released about a dozen self-recorded cassettes between 1984-1997, some of which was compiled onto a CD released on the Valiant Death Records label out of Richmond, VA. Genaro's first proper solo release since Butterfly Joe is a split CD/LP with Mischief Brew called Photographs from the Shoebox, released in 2008 on Fistolo Records.
Schulthise 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. He hoped to contribute to the country’s re-growth and development. He fled in April 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia. For the next few years he worked as a custodian in Philadelphia. Schulthise committed suicide on March 10, 2004. His death was featured in The New York Times and Rolling Stone Magazine. He and Joe started the band Ornamental Wigwam in 1989, they were to record an album at Studio Red in 1990, but lost interest in it as The Dead Milkmen began a year of non-stop touring in support of Metaphysical Graffiti.
Reunion
After Schulthise's death, the surviving Dead Milkmen took the stage once again for two consecutive nights in November 2004 at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia. Proceeds were donated to a variety of mental health organizations and to a Serbian monastery that Schulthise supported. Dan Stevens, bass player of Genaro's band The Low Budgets, performed on bass.
In 2008, the band announced its plans to play the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX , their first performance since the Schulthise memorial show, with Stevens again on bass. When asked if they were planning a corresponding tour, the band said they were not planning to do so. However, the band played two back-to-back "warm-up" shows in Philadelphia during a weekend in October, 2008 prior to November's festival. Both shows, including one at the small bar Johnny Brenda's billed under the pseudonym Les Enfants Du Prague, and another at the all-ages venue the First Unitarian Church, sold out despite the former's lack of proper billing.
Following their success via the Austin and Philadelphia performances, the band announced its plans to continue as an active group, playing concerts and have confirmed that they are working on new material.
Members
* Rodney Linderman - vocals, keyboards, tin whistle (1983-1995, 2004, 2008-present)
* Joe Genaro - vocals, guitar, keyboards (1983-1995, 2004, 2008-present)
* Dean Sabatino - drums, percussion, vocals (1983-1995, 2004, 2008-present)
* Dan Stevens - bass guitar (2004, 2008-present)
* Dave Schulthise (deceased) - bass guitar, vocals (1983-1995)
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