3.13.2004
dave blood r.i.p.
the bassist for the dead milkmen passed away today. and as a fellow philadelphian, i thought i'd jot down some recollections or something...
the milkmen were arguably the first punk band that i ever heard of (ok, maybe the exploited or the sex pistols or black flag)... growing up in philly, you had a kind of vague awareness of them, punk or not. and in high school, i spent many an hour with their records (metaphysical graffiti especially). they were sort of gabe's band to me, being that my friend gabe was obssessed with them. i can remember bopping my head along with him as he recited all the lyrics to "stuart" (our skate-rat bangs swaying in the breeze). i only knew the bit about "what the queers are doing to the soil"... hahahaha... gabe was more hardcore about them.
i saw the milkmen a few times in the early nineties, and i was even at their second-to-last-show ever, at the trocadero, in '94 or '95. i remember they opened with the very un-PC "rc's mom" ("gonna beat my wife/ hehehehehe"). the whole crowd sang along to, like, every song. very philadelphia. and a lot of fun. they were great live.
one of the things that i liked about the milkmen was how they managed to be really crass and cheap without coming off too macho. this, in my estimation sets them a bar above bands like fear or the meatmen. they were sorta like a more innocent (and apolitical) version of the dead kennedys in a way...
(i dunno, i'm not really an expert on punk.)
suffice to say that when i think of myself in my early high school days, the milkmen are always one of the key nostalgic ingredients... and that nostalgia just got a bit more bittersweet, i guess.
the milkmen were arguably the first punk band that i ever heard of (ok, maybe the exploited or the sex pistols or black flag)... growing up in philly, you had a kind of vague awareness of them, punk or not. and in high school, i spent many an hour with their records (metaphysical graffiti especially). they were sort of gabe's band to me, being that my friend gabe was obssessed with them. i can remember bopping my head along with him as he recited all the lyrics to "stuart" (our skate-rat bangs swaying in the breeze). i only knew the bit about "what the queers are doing to the soil"... hahahaha... gabe was more hardcore about them.
i saw the milkmen a few times in the early nineties, and i was even at their second-to-last-show ever, at the trocadero, in '94 or '95. i remember they opened with the very un-PC "rc's mom" ("gonna beat my wife/ hehehehehe"). the whole crowd sang along to, like, every song. very philadelphia. and a lot of fun. they were great live.
one of the things that i liked about the milkmen was how they managed to be really crass and cheap without coming off too macho. this, in my estimation sets them a bar above bands like fear or the meatmen. they were sorta like a more innocent (and apolitical) version of the dead kennedys in a way...
(i dunno, i'm not really an expert on punk.)
suffice to say that when i think of myself in my early high school days, the milkmen are always one of the key nostalgic ingredients... and that nostalgia just got a bit more bittersweet, i guess.
