#NowPlaying THE DEAD MILKMEN - "NOT RICHARD, BUT DICK" (1993, @hollywoodrecords) "A CD, Tyler? Are you out of your goddamn mind?? You have so many of their records!! What will your follower think??" Well, I felt like listening to one of my favorite band's most underrated album, and they never pressed it on vinyl! So BACK OFF.
It's absurd how often the Dead Milkmen work their way into my cultural and social geography theories and spiels. Considering how often #RodneyAnonymous and Co. crossed the line of good taste, their satire was remarkably on-point and most of it has aged remarkably well. Some of the songs here took me a while to figure out, especially "Let's Get the Baby High," which manages to get...smarter? every time I listen to it. I dunno, man. See if you interpret the same thing from it that I did.
Seriously, though, this album's wonderful, and the Milkmen's well-documented disaster of a contract with Hollywood (who were owned by the Disney Company?) era deserves a second glance. It took me YEARS to realize how good this was (probably almost as long as Supergrass' skeleton album did). An interview I read years ago with Dave Blood (RIP) pointed me in this direction; it really may be their best performed collection of songs, which is saying a lot.
Dear god do we need a comprehensive history of this band or at least one @bloomsburypublishing 33 1/3 book, stat. At any rate, there's a lot more where this comes from, so prepare yourselves.
Top Tracks
1. "The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose"
2. "Jason's Head"
3. "Not Crazy"
@we.are.stuart #joejacktalcum #butterflyfairweather #daveblood #deanclean #thedeadmilkmen #collegerock #collegeradio #underratedalbum #90smusic @joe.genaro @deansabatino @rodneylinderman #philadelphia #philadelphiainlove #philly #compactdisc #outofprint #pressthisonvinylplease
#NowPlaying THE SLACKERS - "CLOSE MY EYES" (2003, @hellcatrecords)
So, @vic_ruggiero was in East Tennessee tonight with @punkrockdoll, but I couldn't make it to their show because it was way out in Blount County and I couldn't find a ride. I had a fun night in Knoxville (despite it being 4/20), but I still needed to put some Slackers in my ears to fill that hole in my soul.
This isn't necessarily my favorite thing they've put out, but the band doesn't have a dud in their 25-year catalog. My favorite thing I've ever read in a Pitchfork review was in that 10 they gave "I See a Darkness" in 1999, where the reviewer wrote how truly great songwriting sounds like you've heard the songs somewhere before, sometime you can't quite place (and Will Oldham is truly guilty of that). I don't remember my entry point for The Slackers, but they've been one of my favorites for most of this century so far since I saw them play Armory High (RIP) in Syracuse in 2002. As I dug into their catalog (especially "Red Light," which I now realize I should be featuring here but whatever, I got other stories about them for later installments), I had countless "this is a pretty great cover...I can't remember who sang it originally" moments, and every time I looked it up, and the answer was... Vic Ruggiero. Hope those people at @thetownsendabbey tonight knew what they had in front of them. Or at least kept their conversations to a minimum. Anyway, great get for a new venue in a far-flung place. And come to Knoxville proper soon, Vic!
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Top Tracks:
1. "I'll Stay Away"
2. "Mommy"
3. "Close My Eyes"
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#ska #rocksteady #newyorkska #hellcatrecords #vinylcollection #recordcollection #skavinyl #tradska #rudeandreckless #vicruggiero #33rpm #vinylpost #vinylnerd #vinyl #nowspinning #davehillyard #pickitup
