Could punk have a sense of humor?<\/p>\n
Jello Biafra tried to inject some by covering “Viva Las Vegas”
\nwith the Dead Kennedys. But The Dead Milkmen were, to my knowledge,
\nthe most successful in their efforts, though they never rose above
\nthe status of a novelty band. Too bad – though I always wished they
\nwould have turned up their instruments, the musicianship was, at
\ntimes, quite good, and the lyrics could intermix comedy and social
\ncommentary well. The vocals… well, two out of three ain’t
\nbad.<\/p>\n
Their 1985 debut,
\nBig Lizard In My Backyard<\/i>, put Rodney Anonymous and crew on
\nthe map with “Bitchin’ Camaro,” a song which, with the opening
\ncommentary removed, is probably barely a minute long. In fact, many
\nof the songs on this one – I count 21 on the tape, which has two
\nbonus tracks – are over before you know it. And while there are
\nsome great moments on this one, it truly is a hit-or-miss
\ncompilation.<\/p>\n
Anonymous’s vocals occasionally sound like Johnny Rotten would
\nhave if he came from California. The guitar work of Joe Jack Talcum
\n(well, at least you can laugh at the pseudonymns) is often hidden
\nin the mix – bad move, while the rhythm section of drummer Dean
\nClean and bassist Dave Blood is surprisingly good. The biggest
\nnegative – the poor production, which not only hides the guitar,
\nbut often the vocals as well.<\/p>\n
The highlights on this one are the moments that the band is at
\nits sharpest in both comedy and commentary. “V.F.W.” is a song
\nwhich will never make it onto radio, but shows how good the band
\ncould sound with Talcum’s guitar in the forefront. The lyrics are
\nalso powerful, slamming the poor condition of the society we live
\nin. The country overtones on “Rastabilly” have to be half-ass, or
\nit wouldn’t be so funny. And, as politically incorrect as it is,
\n“Takin’ Retards To The Zoo” bores its way into your brain, and
\nyou’ll find yourself singing it out loud.<\/p>\n
And many of the other tracks aren’t bad, they’re just nothing
\nspecial. If you based your opinion solely on the opening track
\n“Tiny Town,” you probably wouldn’t be looking forward to listening
\nto the rest of
\nBig Lizard In My Backyard<\/i>. The problem is that many of the
\nsongs on this one fall into this category – they’re okay for a few
\nlistens, but quickly forgettable.<\/p>\n
Of the tracks that are complete failures, “Spit Sink” and “Right
\nWing Pigeons” are tracks you should quickly fast forward through.
\nThe slower tempo of “Spit Sink” just doesn’t seem to blend with the
\nstyle of the Dead Milkmen, while “Right Wing Pigeon” is a poor
\nattempt at dance music. (They’d eventually get it right with
\n“Instant Club Hit”.)<\/p>\n
I can’t speak for the CD – I picked up my copy of this album
\nback in the late ’80s – but the tape contains two bonus songs. Of
\nthese, “Gorrilla Girl” is okay, but not incredible. The other,
\n“Tugena,” demonstrates the instrumental prowess of the Dead
\nMilkmen, but is a little too weird.<\/p>\n
The Dead Milkmen are, without a doubt, an acquired taste that
\nyou may not like on first listen. But give
\nBig Lizard In My Backyard<\/i> a chance, and it will grow on you.
\nHad it been given a little more TLC in the production and mixing
\ndepartments, it may have been a debut legend in the punk world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5826],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-35729","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-dead-milkmen","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35729"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35729"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}