The Dead Milkmen

And for me personally, it's because I had a big brother who was obsessed with punk.

The Dead Kennedys, the Dead Milkmen, the Ramones, but also heavy metal, Metallica.

And of course, if rock and roll came on, he was there for it.

Black leather jackets, pins all over them, auto mechanic, NASCAR fan, and gay.

Today, it's gonna be a special rewind episode.

I'm looking back on my interviews with Superchunk's Mac McCaughan and the Dead Milkmen's Joe Jack Talcum.

Uh, they stretch back to just, uh, 2017, 2018, and, uh, and it's all about, uh, you know, why music, why new music still matters decades into their career, especially at that point.

Uh, Mac will be looking back at the urgency and anxiety that fueled What a Time to Be Alive, uh, during Trump's first run.

And, uh, and Joe Jack Talcum's gonna explain why the Dead Milkmen only agreed to reunite if they kept writing.

But we're gonna start with my 2017 interview, uh, with, uh, with Mac from Superchunk.

They hadn't planned on recording a new record at that time, but with the '26 election, uh, hitting a nerve with the Chapel Hill band, the songs flowed fast and ferocious, as he'll say, uh, leading to that record, What a Time to Be Alive.

We're gonna continue this special rewind episode with my, uh, 2018 interview with Joe Jack Talcum.

Plumb it, plumb it, plumb it, plumb it, plumb it, plumb it, yeah.

That is The Dead Milkmen and Plum Dum, and that comes from their debut full-length record, Big Lizard in My Backyard, originally released back in 1985.

The Dead Milkmen, that was one of the first punk rock records yours truly ever heard Yeah, I got it on a cassette tape, uh, from a buddy.

He put that s- that record, Dead Milkmen, Big but Lizard in My Backyard, uh, on one side, and Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks on the other.

So there you go, [laughs] a very Philly introduction to punk rock, I suppose.

Before Dead Milkmen, we heard something brand new from Barbacan Estate.

Song for Derek, the name of that track.

That comes from the upcoming record from Barbacan Estate called Rock Drill.

Nobody wants skid marks on their heart.

Well, if we're getting into novelty songs, I'm thinking I thought up Bitchin' Camaro by the Dead Milkmen, the Philadelphia punk pop band from 1985.

They just write really funny songs.

They chant Bitchin' Camaro, and then he says, I ran over my neighbors, and I won't get arrested because my dad's the mayor.

I would say Boise, Idaho.

Didn't the Dead Milkmen sing about Boise, Idaho in the song Stewart? No, that was Des Moines, Iowa.

Different place.

Different place.

And I think he does pretty well with this one.

Wasn't that a Dead Milkmen?

Shoot up or shut up.

[laughs] I was gonna say, the-

Yeah, that's...

Nice job.

There could've been a Dead Milkmen song in this movie.

Probably only played for, like, 10 seconds, but...

It kept people laughing at themselves while still breaking the system.

Another great example is the Dead Milkmen.

Though more often tagged as punk pop, they brought a goofy sensibility to 1980s punk.

Punk Rock Girl and Stupid Cup of Coffee turned everyday life into satire, and their music videos were just pure absurdity.

And, but, but as a side note to me, I always kind a c- I would go to shows.

I would go to local shows because again, I'm a skateboarder right? I'm hanging out with all these punk rock kids so I'm going to Fugazi and I'm going to see, uh, The Dead Milkmen and, and all these punk shows.

So it was in, it was in th-, it was becoming a big part of the thread of, of what I really wanted to do.

And i- in any way, that conversation ended up being had and yeah, we started playing punk rock music.