The Dead Milkmen interview

Watching Bad Horror Movies With

The Dead Milkmen

My Interview With Rodney Anonymous

I have been a devoted fan of the The Dead Milkmen ever since I heard their first single “Bitchin’ Camaro.” I have seen the band grow from fledgling college punk band into popular legends. Practically everyone has heard of The Dead Milkmen, or at least seen the video for their smash hit “Punk Rock Girl.” I am such a fanatic of their music that I even got booted off Kean College’s radio station WKNJ for playing one of their songs. The Dean told me to stop playing their music if I wished to stay on the air and I said: “Fuck You, Dickhead!” So, I was soon out of my disc jockey job.

Now, when I saw I had the chance to talk to them in person, I grabbed it. While I wait for them to call, I’ll give you a bit of background information on the band. The Dead Milkmen are a Philadelphia based band consisting of Rodney Anonymous on lead vocals, Joe “Jack” Talcum on guitar, Dave Blood on Base, and Mallory on drums.

RING!!!!! Oh, wow! There’s the phone. I take a long swig of my Coke, swallow and run towards the phone. Rob Hauschild, manging editor, has answered it and calls out to me. “Dave! It’s that Dead Milkman guy, Rodney Anonymous!”

I get on the phone and-

David: Burp!

Rodney: (Sarcastically) Nice Belch.

David: (Laughs) I guess we’re ready. Alright, my name is David, And this is...

Rodney: This is Rodney...

David: ...From The Dead Milkmen. What’s happening, man?

Rodney: I’m sewing my coat.

David: What are you selling your coat for?

Rodney: Sewing. Because the button fell off. So, I am attempting to sew the button back on. So, as I do this interview this is a great Zen-Wha thing. I’m doing the interview and sewing my coat at the same time.

David: Cool. Alright, first I want to tell you that I’ve been a fan forever. You guys were the first punk show I went to see. I saw you guys in Philly and it was the first time I ever slam danced.

Rodney: Oh, my God!

David: I had just started college and was introduced to slam dancing when you played with Electric Love Muffin. That was a good show.

Rodney: Yeah.

David: Since then I have seen you guys four times. But, uh, I am never invited backstage or anything. It’s ok, though. I won’t take it personal.

Rodney: It’s really dull backstage. You spend all your life when you’re younger thinking: “Wow, backstage! That’s got to be really happening.” And then you get backstage and notice how dull it really is. For example, to burst your bubble about that show, after the Love Muffin show, we had a party at my house. We and the Love Muffins sat around, drank coffee and watched a 50’s horror film.

David: What horror film was it?

Rodney: Uh, uhm wait...Oh! “Horror At Party Beach!” Filmed in Stanford, Connecticut!

David: Awesome! So, the first question: How did The Dead Milkmen... How did you get together and where did you get the name from?

Rodney: Uhm, Joe. When I was in high school, Joe, our guitar player, had written a short story and in the story there was a band that had existed forever. They started in the 20’s or something, under some name. And they kept changing and mutating. And by the time they made it to the late 70’s, (which is when he wrote the story), they had been a folk band named The Milkmen. And the members kept quitting and they kept hiring new, younger members. These younger members were punks. Like, these English punks. And they changed the name to The Dead Milkmen. They had a compromise struck between the punk and folk contingents of the band. So, he had the band name and he started putting out a Dead Milkmen newsletter. He created a need for the band before he created the band. And then I joined. I was in high school and he gave me one of the tapes and a newsletter. And I said: “can I be in this band?” and he said: “Yeah.” So, it was me and him for a while, and then we found Dave Blood and Dean Clean. So, then we had four people and that’s all we needed.

David: What were your musical influences?

Rodney: I used to like Frank Zappa a lot.

David: What other influences do you have?

Rodney: Well, Joe used to like the Beatles and stuff like that, but I used to like the Stones. I basically liked anything my sister hated. She used to listen to Fleetwood Mac and that girly stiff. That’s how I discovered the Dead Boys when I was younger. I was reading Creem Magazine, Not the crap it is now, The old Creem Magazine. Anyway, there was an article on the Dead Boys. I was about 10 or 11 years old. I remember asking my older sister about the Dead Boys. And she’s like: “They’re not a good band like Fleetwood Mac!” So, of course, right then and there I knew I liked them.

David: Do you guys know you’re going to be playing at Kean?

Rodney: Where?

David: Right here at Kean College.

Rodney: Oh yeah. Yeah. I just found out about it. Yeah.

David: Are you excited about that, or what?

Rodney: (Sarcastically) I’m thrilled. Thrilled and exasperated. (laughs) I love the State of New Jersey. Am I correct? (In a overdone Jersey accent) I love the State of New Jersey. Every chance I get to vacation in Jersey, I do it. (normal accent) What part of Jersey is that in?

David: This is in Union. A couple of minutes from Newark.

Rodney: Oh, good! I can tell my friend Tina to come see me.

David: Yeah. i wanted to ask you: why do you think Philly is called the City of Brotherly Love?

Rodney: I have no idea. I’ve lived here for ten years and it escapes me everyday.

David: So what is your least favorite city you ever played in?

Rodney: There’s a city I came across once and I absolutely hated it. I can’t remember the name though. Let me see... I have a couple. Oh, wait. My least favorite city in the whole world is called Hamilton, Ontario. It’s in Canada. I got beat up. I mean, I never, ever get beat up. We had two great, big hockey-playing toothless guys jump out of a car and beat a roadie and me up. Just cause we told them their headlight was out. They thought we were fucking with them. Considering the size of the guys, we did pretty well though. That’s my least favorite city in the world.

David: Okay, another question: What happened to Dean Clean? Was he replaced by Mallory?

Rodney: He wasn’t really replaced. he just changed his name. It’s the same guy. Funny thing is, not many people knew. So there were all these arguments. People would say: “Hey, man. Mallory’s a whole lot better drummer than Dean” or “Dean was a lot better than Mallory!”

David: I thought they looked alike. That’s why...

Rodney: (Screaming) They are the same person! (Relaxing) What happened was, you see, he was the first one to start changing his name. And then the rest of us go into the changing our names thing. Now, instead of replacing band members...

David: ...You just change your name!

Rodney: You got to fill out a lot of forms, though!

David: And you’re now H.P. Hovercraft?

Rodney: H.P. Hovercraft. It is literally impossible to get fired from this band. I’m serious. I tried everything possible for the last ten years to get fired and uh...Actually we’re coming up to, I think it’s June 13th is the ten year anniversary of the band.

David: Really, wow. That’s a long time.

Rodney: Yeah, it’s a long time to hang out with the same four guys. I’m beginning to understand what the Beatles felt like. Except, at least they didn’t have to tour.

David: Are you guys working on a new album?

Rodney: In twenty minutes I am supposed to go into the studio to lay down some vocals on tape. We have about ten new songs. What we do is write about 15 songs and tape them on an 8-track and then we continue writing and experimenting until we come up with something.

David: So, when you play here, are you going to play some new songs?

Rodney: We might. I don’t know. I got to see how many songs are coming along. Not everybody knows the new songs. Their parts to them.

David: On the last album I noticed that Joe sings most of the songs. Why is that?

Rodney: Yeah, I didn’t think I was going to sing anything on this album. I was busy with the keyboards. I wound up putting a lot of keyboards. I was real busy.

David: Too busy to sing?

Rodney: Not only that, but I also thought it would be great if I just played keyboards, stopped being the singer and just became the keyboard player. I can’t think of any band that has ever done that. That’s why I changed my name. I thought: “That’ll be great! Everybody will think I got fired” and I’ll reappear as someone else.

It would be the first time in history someone has disappeared but stayed in the band. Now, I’m singing on a bunch of new stuff and I’m keeping the keyboards simple. I had a lot of fun on that last album, but now I’m sticking to the basic keyboard sounds. I don’t know. I have to see what direction this album takes us.

I was just doing xylophone for one of the new songs. It’s called “I Dream Of Jesus.” It should make it on the next album. It’s about a kid whose mother finds Jesus trapped in a bottle and puts him on top of the T.V. and the deal is that if she wants to she can let Jesus do her bidding. So that’s what the song is about. It has xylophone on it, cause we thought it has to sound completely insane.

David: Another question I’ve been asked to ask you: Are any of the characters you sing about like “Stuart” or “Punk Rock Girl” based on real people?

Rodney: Oh, sure! The actual guy Stuart...the name Stuart comes from, uh, we used to have a roadie who was with us cause he was hiding from a chemical company that wanted to kill him...

David: (Laughing incredulously)

Rodney: No, man. It’s true. He was a chemical engineer who informed, uh, he’d been a whistle blower on a chemical company. Something illegal they were doing. So, they tried to kill him. So, he came on tour with us to hide out until the heat blew off.

While we were on tour with him, he lived in a trailer park. Some guy came up to me on tour. He was this big Grizzly Adams-type and said (in a redneck accent): “I like your band cause you know what the queers are doing to the soil.” He was dead serious. (laughs) He scared the shit out of me. I didn’t know how to react, so I was like (in a proper English accent): “Why, thank you!” I was like, God get me out of here. I felt like telling him: “Hey, thanks for the song idea.” So, I worked that into a song.

David: Ever considered putting together a single collection or something?

Rodney: Ah, I thought about it. There’s talk about putting together a bunch of live stuff. But I don’t really like a lot of live stuff. I think it’s sort of detrimental. What we’re going to do is hard to tell.

Hey, I finished my coat! Time to turn on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

David: That’s alright. Do you like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?

Rodney: Actually, I was getting cable illegally. I got an apartment and there was a cable thing, so I hooked it up and, lo and behold!, stuff came through! But I couldn’t get the channel that Star Trek was on. But the other day, the cable company came to my house and now the cable is gone. So now I have to get that channel.

Normally, I’d be watching Jane Pratt. They had King Missile on the other day. It pays to watch to watch those shows. I’ve been watching talk shows for years, waiting King Missile and finally, the other day, Jane Pratt had King Missile. Maybe, I’ll hold out and see if The Butthole Surfers ever come on.

David: Well, dude. I guess I will let you go now that your coat is done. And I’ll meet you here when you play. Maybe you’ll let me go backstage?

Rodney: I don’t know. What day is that? April 9th.

Luigi: (Voice comes out of nowhere. Apparently he’s been eavesdropping on another line.) April 20th.

Rodney: Okay, the 20th. Yeah, sure. Come on backstage. Just remind me. Scream up: “Hey, you said to come backstage!”

David: Alright, cool. Thanks, man. It was nice talking to you.

Rodney: Alright, bye!

So, there you go! I finally spoke to one of my teen idols. I am complete now! Anyway, Check out The Dead Milkmen here at Kean College on April 20th. Maybe I’ll even let you come backstage with ,e and drink coffee and watch cheesy horror flicks with The Dead Milkmen.