If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook Today marks the tenth anniversary of the very first time I ever saw The Dead Milkmen, so it's quite fitting that I can bring you new music from them today! "King of Sick" is more synth-heavy than you'd expect, but has all of the attitude of a standard Dead Milkmen song. Of course, any song with the word sick in its title that also mentions germs is going to certainly seem COVID-19 inspired these days. But for those of us that have been craving new music from the Dead Milkmen, "King of Sick" definitely helps tide us over. The current world climate needs more music like this. You can listen to "King of Sick" below. The song is available on 19 NOTES ON A BROKEN SYSTEM, a benefit compilation featuring all Philadelphia bands and benefiting Amistad Law Project and Philadelphia Community Bail Fund. It also features The Ramoms doing "Gritty is a Punk," which you truly must hear. You can get a copy here . For more on The D...

Photo via Facebook 7th Victim is the project that allows Rodney Anonymous to explore his love of electronic music much more than Th e Dead Milkmen ever could. Plus, they have the greatest Bandcamp bio of all time:  "When you think of Philadelphia-based electronic acts, only one name comes to mind. That name is Void   Vision. But sometimes they're not available. For those times, there's 7th Victim. Formed in Stocksbridge, UK in 1976, 7th Victim has played shows with Joy Division, The Clash, The KLF, and Depache Mode.. Except for when they haven't. Which they didn't. Why are you still reading this?" As you can tell from that bio and the name of their latest single, "Missing Girls In Gothic Garb," 7th Victim are surprisingly fun. Their latest single is very 80's style electronic. It's minimal and I hesitate to call it New Wave and compare it to early Depeche Mode (for obvious reasons), but... You can listen to "Missing Girls ...

For casual fans of The Dead Milkmen, this new EP from Rodney Anonymous's other band, 7th Victim, might come as a surprise. If you've been following their recent output, 7th Victim makes perfect sense. This new project lets Rodney indulge his love of electronic/synth music. On The Tombstone Jacket EP , which consists of four rough mixes of songs that will be on their debut album, Rodney provides "electronic tomfoolery" behind Janet Bressler's vocals. As for what the music sounds like, it's not like the mainstream industrial I'm familiar with (sorry!), and if I'm going to compare it to anything it would be John Carpenter's film scores. Rodney does assume vocals for one song, "Kleptoid," which is about how the band formed in Stockbridge, UK in 1976 opening for Ted Nugent. So there are some similarities to The Dead Milkmen. You can listen to "Her Name is Witch" below. Giallo, the debut album from 7th Victim, will be out in the f...

Photo via Facebook As a Halloween treat to us all, Rodney Anonymous of The Dead Milkmen is slowly rolling out "The Halloween Demos." I think I'll do the lazy journalist thing here and use Rodney's own words to explain them: I’ve probably written fifteen or sixteen songs this year. Of those, I’ve submitted at least a dozen to the Milkmen as demos. Out of those five or six will probably land on the next Milkmen album if I’m lucky.  That’s the way songwriting works in our band: everybody writes and  submits songs (or parts of songs) and we keep a few and the rest are never heard form again. It’s pretty much the same process the Duggars use to decide which of their children they’ll allow to live. Normally, I don’t share my demos with people outside of the band. This is because the songs always tend to sound better after the other guys contribute to them. Or, in the case of the songs that get scrapped, I relieved that I was sparred the embarrassment. That said, ...

Halloween is my absolutely favorite holiday of the year, and I'm always looking for songs besides "Monster Mash" to listen to. This year, Rodney Anonymous posted his Halloween playlist over at www.deadmilkmen.com , and I threw it all on a Spotify playlist for us all. It has some fairly obvious ones, like Social Distortion's "Mommy's Little Monster," but there are also some surprises. White Zombie's "I'm Your Boogie Man" seemed too obvious, while there are some fairly obscure picks like Dead When I Found Her's "No More Nightmares." It's perfect for parties and background music while handing out candy. The Dead Milkmen have two upcoming shows: Tomorrow night at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA and October 30 at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia. For more information, head on over to their website .

Starting last year, The Dead Milkmen started following up their 2011 comeback album by releasing 7” singles, available for both download and as a physical record. The first one to be released was “Dark Clouds Over Middlemarch.” The B-Side is “Ronald Reagan Killed the Black Dahlia,” a song implicating Ronald Reagan in the Black Dahlia murder. Both songs feature Rodney Anonymous at the top of his game. Most punk bands from the 80s/90s tend to have mellowed out with age and even at their most rocking, their new material is almost easy listening compared to their original output. Apparently the secret is to take 16 years off. Rodney just sounds like he’s been festering since 1995, just waiting to get his chance to attack mainstream American culture and politics. There is also a digital bonus track (all vinyl copies come with a download code for both tracks and a bonus song, as well) of a cover of ROME ’s “Little Rebel Mine” as a duet with Audrey Crash. The second single, “Big Words ...