Irreverent Reverence - Four Albums by The Dead Milkmen | MUSIC is not a GENRE - Episode #3
SUPPORT ME ON PATREON\n\nWATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE\n\nPhiladelphia \u2013 my old hometown \u2013 has a rich musical history, and every few years there\u2019s a buzz about the scene there (NOW? - look up Mannequin Pussy). When I was a teen, the Philly area had some major acts either making their name then (The Hooters, Joan Jett, Robert Hazard & the Heroes) or starting out on their way to major success later (Boys II Men, Will Smith, The Roots, Live). I was immersed in the present and the possible. And like most of music fandom in Philly, I had a hunger for good music of any kind.\n\nThe Dead Milkmen are from Philly. Their first four albums were huge in my life during high school and college. I saw them several times live, usually in and around South Street. I loved how they were/are both punk AND meta-punk, killing the punk/surf-punk style while commenting on and sending it up at the same time, and throwing in whatever other genres (dance, pop, folk, hard rock) they felt like using. They had the punk \u201cdisdain\u201d for hippies down from the get-go, even though by then the either/or division was old news. So they made fun of hippies AND made fun of making fun of hippies. Punk and meta-punk.\n\nThey\u2019ve been through tons of ups & downs: their initial cult-to-chart years; their declining major label years; their hiatus and the tragic suicide of Dave Blood; and their reforming (yay!) a little over a decade ago. Their music from the last five years is better than it\u2019s ever been. Like Philly (and me), they don\u2019t quit. They\u2019re always ready to come back for more, whether as underdogs, veterans, or stars.\n\nLike them, I\u2019ve always been both directly in the mix and way out of it. It means my/our music is often on trend AND observational about what\u2019s going on, and has lots of genre-hopping & experimentation. This is why our music is both so vibrant & so hard to pin down. What I got from the Milkmen (among other bands) was what I call \u201cirreverent reverence\u201d \u2013 honoring or working within a style, but not feeling beholden to it, even to the point of commenting on or poking at it. Lyrics can be outwardly or subtly funny, openly or cleverly jabbing.\n\nHere are two recent examples that fit all that:\n\nREC - "The Garden\u201d (from the album Sympathy for the Weird)\n\nREC - \u201cXmiss\u201d (from the album The Sunshine Seminar)\n\nFavorites are: BLIimBY: \u201cBeach Song\u201d, \u201cBig Lizard\u201d, \u201cBitchin\u2019 Camaro\u201d, \u201cRight Wing Pigeons\u201d; EYP: \u201cBeach Party Vietnam\u201d, \u201cThe Thing that Only Eats Hippies\u201d; virtually all of Bucky Fellini; Beelzebubba: \u201cBrat in the Frat\u201d, \u201cI Walk the Thinnest Line\u201d, \u201cPunk Rock Girl\u201d, \u201cSmokin\u2019 Banana Peels\u201d.\n\n\n--- \n\nThis episode is sponsored by \n\xb7 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app\n\nSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/musicisnotagenre/support\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices