The Dead Milkmen - "Beelzebubba" (Enigma, 1988) [key tracks: Punk Rock Girl, Stuart, Life Is Sh**]
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"I do not like you college brat. I do not like you and your frat. I do not like you at the shore and I do not like you drunk on Coors. I do not like your average life, hope you do not take a wife. I hope you don't decide to breed 'cause that's one thing I do not need. I do not like you radical, I hate you and your fancy school. You're wrong about the working class and I hope they kick your Harvard ass. 'I do not like you, world of ours, I'd rather live on planet Mars and die from lack of oxygen than breathe the air of other men.'"
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GASP! Shock week continues. The funny thing is my stuff won't be truly shocking. Rock and roll is full of filth and horror, and a person could build a ghastly web page dedicated to it. The Scorpions once had an LP called "Virgin Killer" that featured a full frontal nude picture of a barely pubescent girl. GG Allin lives the sort of demon-possessed life Danzig sings about. Unsane used some truly gruesome (and real) crime-scene photos on all of their early releases. And let's not forget the Dwarves, who always incorporate nude women, little people, blood, and sometimes even crosses on their covers (not to mention their songs are about killing, rape, and deviant sex). So consider my shock collection as "eyebrow raising"; just shocking enough to still be fun.
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Carl's Favorite Songs - #45 - Fire Woman by The Cult
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The Dead Milkmen are the princes of slacker punk. More structured than the Butthole Surfers, less drug influenced than The Flaming Lips, a bit more serious than Ween, more musical than King Missile, and more humble than The Dead Kennedys. Every word, cover, and sound is satire of the highest level, yet they come off as bratty and crass. I have listened to The Dead Milkmen perhaps more than any other band, perhaps second only to the Doors (it would be close). "Beelzebubba" was the closest thing they had to a hit album, as it featured the easy-to-spin novelty song "Punk Rock Girl." This song got a lot of attention on MTV, Dr. Demento, and Weird Al TV. The problem is that the band became novelty, and no one realized that there was a lot of fun to be had in all of their stuff. Songs like "I Against Osborne" and "Sri Lanka Sex Hotel" that personify madness, "Bleach Boys" and "Smokin' Banana Peels" that skewer drug abuse, and "Stewart" that fillets Midwest yokel culture (a trailer park king tells a young boy about the horrors of homosexuals and carnivals rides, fearful of what the "queers are doing to the soil"). There is even a track "Born to Love Volcanoes" that criticises society's elite for supporting the arts and PBS when real social change is within reach if they would just write checks to worthwhile charities. "I guess (PBS) needs my money more than a bunch of pregnant teens," is surprisingly poignant for what you expect from the Milkmen. So what's shocking about the Milkmen? Their use of words. "Fu**," "sh**," and so on are on a lot of albums, but are they used in reference to government, religion, and crucifying Charles Nelson Riley? The things they say are incendiary, and not welcome in Iowan households... just ask my wife. You have one of two responses to the Milkmen; that they are quiet geniuses, or that they are totally offensive. Either way, they can shock you.
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It has been a long week for me. I am starting to get the blues again. This stupid weather... it was 80 for like a week, then now we are back to snow, cold, and gloom. I like gloom as much as the next metal head, but this is too much at the wrong time. I find myself not wanting to get out of bed, to go to work, or do my homework. I even lost interest in playing LOTRO or reading. My Wii has been off for 3 weeks. I just need a jolt of sunshine. I hope the record show this Sunday can bring it. Either that or the new JRR Tolkein book that comes out next Tuesday... nerd Christmas!
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Horns up.
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