The spectacularly inconsistent punk band the Dead Milkmen have been kicking around since 1979. Their debut album Big Lizard in my Backyard from 1985 yielded the college radio classic Bitchin' Camaro, spawned the cult hit, Takin' Retards to the Zoo, but also gave us the horrible Spit Sink.
And that's the Dead Milkmen's career in a nutshell. You are really rollin' the dice when you buy that Milkmen album. There's the rapturous highs and the cringeworthy lows. So with mild trepidation, I sampled the new Dead Milkmen EP Welcome to the End of the World. Shockingly, what I found was a solid, catchy pop-punk effort, top to bottom.
Surf meets Punk in the Battery Powered Rat
The Dead Milkmen released the video to the song Peter Bazooka off of their "last" album Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig) in 1995. For some reason, the story of Peter Bazooka seems relevant today, but that's another story for another day. The Dead Milkmen had released 8 (!) albums then rode off into the sunset.
I have listened to their hits on many occasions throughout the years, but have had absolutely no desire to listen to any of their old releases from start to finish. They re-united for good in 2008, but I never gave them another chance until 2017. Somewhere between Bazooka and today, they lost a little snottiness and upped their game in production and musical diversity. It was like they (gasp) grew up.
5 of the 6 songs on Welcome to the End of the World are keepers. There's no Stuart in the bunch, but that's okay, with 3 of the 4 original members still on board (Dave Blood passed away in 2004), I kinda like the new Milkmen sound....
The Dead Milkmen - Subtle?