09 February 2024

9 February 2024 - The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl

I used to love The Dead Milkmen.  I was introduced to them when a kid I met at summer camp wore his Big Lizard In My Backyard shirt.  I was intrigued. So I checked them out.  The jokey pop/punk fusion was fun and different and kept me interested.

Fast forward a couple of years, and they release this as the lead single from their 4th album, Beelzebubba. MTV starts playing the song in heavy rotation during the day, and people love it.  Turns out, it was a song the band had written many years earlier and were heasitant to record as The Dead Milkmen (they had a side project called Ornamental Wigwam that they used for it).  
 
By far, this song was their biggest hit - their only song to hit any Billboard chart (#11 on the Modern Rock chart) - and remained a staple of their live sets, especially after they reunited (they broke up for ten years and reunited soon after the tragic death of bassist Dave Blood).

Listen closely to the song, and you will hear references to Philadelphia locations, like the iconic punk rock store Zipperhead.  


Famously, the song mentions Mojo Nixon, who was their Enigma Records labelmate and fellow jokester.  In 2015, he made a suprise appearance on stage during this song right after them mention him.  

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