Bootleg of the Month ARCHIVESPast bootlegs:
August 2005
The Draco Reptilians @ the Khyber Pass Pub in Philadelpia PA - August 3, 1991. (mp3; 43.8 MB)
The Dead Milkmen performed as The Draco Reptilians at the Khyber Pass Pub (a small bar on 2nd Street in Philly) opening for Ben Vaughn's band, Pink Slip Daddy. We used this occassion to test out a new set of songs which would eventually comprise most of the 'Soul Rotation' album. This was before we went into the studio to record these songs, so some of the arrangements are slightly different than the album versions. This is the only time that I can remember the DM performing an entire set of new material (besides our first ever show, of course). September 2005
The Dead Milkmen Interviewed by Scary Mary and Fred from WBGU-FM, backstage in Ann Arbor MI - March 6, 1989. (mp3; 10.1 MB)
A couple of college radio DJs from Bowling Green University in Ohio came backstage with a cassette tape recorder to capture some "station IDs" and a short interview to be aired on their station later. This is the 'unedited' version. On the other side of the tape that they sent us is the feature that aired which has snippets of this interview interspersed with songs from our albums. (Fred later found some fame as Wred Fright, the singer-songwriter and novelist and is now a member of the faculty of Ursuline College. Scary Mary is now a blogging under the name Groovymarlin.) I was going by the name Jasper Thread at the time. October 2005
Touch Me Zoo - Live at the Khyber, Philadelphia, PA - 1994. (mp3; 17.8 MB) This was an early Touch Me Zoo show as a four-piece band, and it was our first appearance of many at the Khyber Pub in the Old City section of Philadelphia. If my memory serves me right, we opened for K. McCarty (of Glass Eye) on this date. This is a cheap, hand-held cassette recorder recording. The tape ended before the end of the set, so you miss one and a half songs. Here is the set list:
November 2005
Dead Milkmen - Rehearsal, Philadelphia, PA - 1991. (zip file of mp3s; 48.9 MB) My good pal Seven Morris digitized this month's bootleg, and broke it into 35 sections. Download all of the tracks in one zip file from the link above. This is a peek behind the scenes, during the rehearsals for some works in progress that would become key songs on the Soul Rotation album. This is all from one day of practice. The tape did not run for the entire session, though. It sounds like I was the person who stopped and started the recorder, which was probably a portable Panasonic cassette recorder with a built-in microphone. T-Day, November 2005
Dead Milkmen - Live, Atlantic City, NJ - October 27, 1984. (mp3 39.1 MB) Recorded live to cassette on a boombox device. This was a punk rock show we played with another local Philly band, Homo Picnic. Kind of rough around the edges, many of the songs at the time were new. We had been a band for about one year at this point. December 2005
Joe Jack Talcum - Live, Philadelphia, PA - December 2, 2004. (mp3, 62.4 MB) This is a solo, acoustic show - my last of several such shows at South Street's Club 218, recorded from the mixing console. This was a Thursday night show. I hit the stage at around quarter to one and by then had a few beers in me. I remember getting to the club around 10 PM thinking I was right on time, but I was way too early. I was the only person there besides the bartender. What else was there to do but drink? The set lasts about 54 minutes. Special thanks to Ed Farrell for booking the show, mixing the sound, and making the recording available. January 2006
Dead Milkmen - Live at Abe's Steaks, Philadelphia, PA - March 2, 1985. (mp3, 26.2 MB) Abe's Steaks was an actual steak shop (meaning Philly cheese steaks, burgers, fries, hoagies, etc.) on 40th Street just south of Market in West Philly that, for a couple years in the mid 1980s, held punk rock shows in the back room. You could get a cheese steak, fries and soda, and see a show for well under ten bucks! This show, one of several the Milkmen played at Abe's, was with other Philly bands: Psychotic Norman, The Johnsons, and The Fabulous Fondas on March 2, 1985. At this time, our first album, Big Lizard In My Backyard, was "in the can" but not yet released. We were just beginning to plan our first U.S. tour. The set lasts about 45 minutes. The recording was made with a hand-held cassette recorder by a member of the audience. Set list: Take Me Apart Nutrition Right Wing Pigeons Violent School Big Lizard Lucky Dean's Dream Vince Lombardi Service Center Serrated Edge VFW Swordfish Laundromat Song Meth Spit Sink Bitchin' Camaro Plum Dumb Tiny Town --------- The Fez Big Time Operator February 2006
The Town Managers - Live at a church youth center in Warminster, PA - March 6, 1998. (mp3, 14.7 MB) Warminster is a suburban town north of the city of Philadelphia near where one of the Town Managers (Brian) grew up. This show was recorded by someone in the audience on a voice-activated cassette recorder in monophonic one-track sound. The Town Managers were Rick Luau (Chris Peelout) on drums and guitar, Frick Jones (Brian Sprenger, now of Kablammo) on bass (set 1) and drums (set 2), and me on guitar (set 1) and bass (set 2). We usually played two sets, and on this occassion we played two very short sets. This was a free, all-ages show with a lot of bands. The performance lasts about 21 minutes. The songs are:
March 2006
Ornamental Wigwam - Eardrum Land Sessions Rough Mixes, 1987 (mp3, 11.9 MB) This dub of rough mixes starts off a little warbly. But, stick with it. The warble doesn't last. These three Ornamental Wigwam songs were recorded at Eardrum Land by Andy Bresnan and Chris Unrath. The first song is called Er Bits Du. The second song is an early version of Punk Rock Girl. The third, Song No. 15 was picked for inclusion in the You're Soaking In It compilation LP. April 2006
Butterfly Joe - Live in Toronto June 10, 2000 (mp3, 47.3 MB) Recorded direct to mini-disc at Rivioli, Queen St, Toronto, Ontario. We drove straight from Philly for the show. We stayed overnight in Toronto, and drove back to Philadelphia the next day, a Sunday. These are each about twelve hour drives. Butterfly Joe were:
May 2006
Campus Voice Encounter Episode 29 - The Dead Milkmen (mp3, 7.51 MB) Campus Voice Encounter was a syndicated radio show that was distributed on 12-inch vinyl records to subscribing college radio stations. It was a thing of the 80s I suppose. This is a short feature piece on The Dead Milkmen after the release of Eat You Paisley. This was probably from 1987. Each 12 inch disc contained ten episodes, to be aired daily. Each side contained one week's worth of episodes. The interviews were not all devoted to musical personalities. The week that this episode aired also enjoyed interviews with Brian Bosworth (Football), David Lynch (Movie Director - Blue Velvet), and Stan Lee (Marvel Comics) as well as John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards. Campus Voice Encounter executive producers were Jim Omastiak and Keith Bellows. The show was produced by Peter Gordon, for Thirsty Ear Communications, Inc., a company that began in 1979 in New York City and lives on today in the form a record label in Norwalk, Connecticut. June 2006
Dead Milkmen on WFNX FM Live recording from radio broadcast (mp3, 15.1 MB) During the Amok in America tour with The Cavedogs and Mojo Nixon, the Dead Milkmen stopped by the WFNX studios in Lynn, Massachusetts to promote the show in Boston. This is an off-air recording of the live radio appearance. Thanks to G. P. McLaughlin for providing the recording. July 2006
Dead Milkmen - Live at Penn State, State College PA, July 12, 1987 (mp3, 30.2 MB) A daytime, outdoor concert, this was one of the very few Dead Milkmen shows that were cut short. At the very end of 'The Thing That Only Eats Hippies' we were attacked by some theater students throwing raw eggs. One of the eggs managed to hit Dean and he stopped playing. The show was free and open to the public, though it was sponsored by the university and we were being paid to play. Security was lax. (I did not see who threw the eggs. It took us by surprise. However, I learned that the prime egg thrower would later go on to act in the daytime television soap opera All My Children. He also, coincidentally, worked with me in a coffee shop in Philly in the early 90s.) Songs:
Recorded on cassette by someone in the audience. August 2006
August 1983 Demo Recordings by Joe Jack Talcum and Dave Blood (mp3, 10 MB) This tape came to my attention after a shelf came crashing down off my wall a couple days ago. In the process of putting things back in order I came accross a cassette simply labeled 'August Demos'. I popped it in my deck and heard a song I had been wanting to hear for a long time, plus a couple others. These songs were recorded 23 years ago, shortly after the Dead Milkmen became a 'real' band. Phun is a song that never made it as a Milkmen song, somewhat to my dismay. The lyrics were by Rodney, the music was by Dave and me. I guess it just got lost in the shuffle of all the other songs we had going on at the time. This is the very rough demo that Dave and I recorded shortly after coming up with the music. I don't think any other recording of the song exists. Dave's voice is the first one you hear. The voice asking for the time is Dave's brother, Joe, who was my house-mate at the time. The next song is a demo by me, on acoustic guitar. The working title of this song was Before You Push The Button but it later became titled Song No. 15 when Dave and I recorded it as Ornamental Wigwam. (It was the 15th song on our first self-titled release.) The Wigwam version is quite different. We slowed it down and Dave added a dreamy repetitive bassline. (You can hear the Wigwam version on the Philly compilation You're Soaking In It and in the audio section of this site under "Ornamental Wigwam Live on Band Wagon".) The last song is not so much a demo, as I probably never played it for anyone, but rather just a memo to myself. I recorded it shortly after coming up with the music to Rodney's lyrics for Bitchin' Camaro. Rodney wrote the lyrics down on paper and gave them to me. This is something I recorded, as I usually did back then, so that I wouldn't forget how it went. (I always wrote the chord progressions down on paper, but not the rhythm.) It amuses me now that I also bothered to overdub a second guitar. The walking bassline introduction came about later - probably in the very next rehearsal which would have been less than week from the time this was recorded. The spoken imrpov conversation intro in the final version was Rodney's idea and the bassline was Dave's. September 2006
Dead Milkmen Live at the Trocadero Philadelphia PA, July 28, 1990 (mp3, 60.1 MB) This was recorded from the balcony of the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia by David Loundsbury. It is not the complete show, though a good part of it. This filled one side of a cassette. (Part two was not on the other side.) As the radio station dee-jay mentions at the start of the show, this was our homecoming show for the first Metaphysical Graffiti tour of the United States and Canada. We were glad to be home. October 2006
Unfinished Song Demo by Dave Blood and Joe Jack Talcum (mp3, 4.4 MB) This is the only song on a short cassette tape labeled 'Song No. 22' (Talcum - Blood). It is from the same time that KKSuck2 was written (late 1985). I'm not sure if it was meant to be an instrumental or simply was never finished. At any rate, it never made it past this stage as far I can remember. I think this was recorded on Dave's boombox upstairs at the 44th Street apartment. November 2006
The Dead Milkmen Live the Roxy, Los Angeles CA, February 13, 1989 (mp3, 63.9 MB) I'm not sure who recorded this show, or who digitized it. At the time of the show the album Beelzebubba was selling well. Punk Rock Girl was in rotation on MTV. We had a good crowd. Thanks to Cult Leader Lettuce for finding this bootleg and sending it to me. Here is the set list:
December 2006
The Dead Milkmen Early 1985 Rehearsal, Philadelphia PA (mp3, 30.9 MB) Cult Leader Lettuce found this bootleg on the Internet labeled as 'Dead Milkmen Rehearsals 1995'. The date is ten years off. It is actually from early 1985, circa March. It sounds like it was recorded in our basement practice spot, which we rented for a short while, in South Philly on 9th Street between Catherine and Christian. January 2007
Joe Jack Talcum Live (solo acoustic), Philadelphia PA, August 9, 2004 (mp3, 62.9 MB) This is the soundtrack to a video recorded by Ed O'Toole at my second-ever solo acoustic show. It was my first of a series of solo shows at Club 218 on South Street in Philadelphia. There are a few seconds of silence near the start of the program. It's not your player malfunctioning. This show was a benefit for the Dave Blood Memorial Fund. February 2007
Dead Milkmen Live @ Tipitina's, New Orleans LA, September 17, 1990 (mp3, 101 MB) I imagine this is one of the more well circulated Milkmen bootlegs. GlennK's Dead Milkmen site has a good description of it. It was recorded live at Tipitina's and broadcast on an FM radio station. Somewhat censored. This is a recording of what was broadcast. (Thanks to Lettuce for sending it.) March 2007
Dollar Signs In Her Eyes, Demo Recording, 1989 (mp3, 4.38 MB) This is my home recorded solo demo for a Dead Milkmen song that would be recorded for the album Metaphysical Graffiti the following year. This demo was recorded on my Tascam 4-track cassette recorder at around the same time I recorded the Halvin' My Baby home-recorded cassette-only album. April 2007
Solo Acoustic Record Shop Show - Joe Jack Talcum, The Great Escape, Bowling Green, Kentucky, January 26, 2007 (mp3, 24.7 MB) This short acoustic show was recorded at The Great Escape, a strip mall record store that sells vinyl, cds, dvds, comics, and more. I was under the influence of cough medication for this set. I was feeling a bit under the weather. (Brandon Harrod and Save Macauly the Band also played, but are not in the recording.) The songs are:
May 2007
These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (Guitar Version) (mp3, 3.02 MB) Unknown Instrumental (mp3, 4.34 MB) These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (Keys Version) (mp3 3.66 MB) - (Not Really) The Fresh Breaths, early 2000, home recordings The Fresh Breaths were Chris Peelout and me on acoustic guitars. We existed after the Town Managers broke up and before the Low Budgets were formed and we played exactly three shows. These songs have nothing to do with acoustic guitars and therefore should not technically be credited to "The Fresh Breaths". However, these recordings were made in that same time span by Chris and me, so what the heck? One word of caution: these are extreme low-fi recordings. I had a Sony MiniDisc player for a few months in the year 2000. I brought it to Chris's apartment for this session one Friday night. At the time, Chris lived in a second story apartment. We couldn't be too noisy because his landlady lived above him, so we recorded without amps using headphones and effects. These songs were recorded via Tascam cassette 4-track and mixed to two-track on the Sony MiniDisc. I think this was January of 2000, but I'm not entirely certain of the date. We both played guitars on the first 'Boots' which I sang, and we both played keyboards on the instrumental, and Chris played drum machine and I played keys on the second 'Boots' which Chris sang. ('These Boots Are Made For Walkin' is a cover of a Nancy Sinatra song. It was written by Lee Hazlewood.) My MiniDisc recorder stopped working sometime in the middle of the year (June). It would not record any new discs and eventually it stopped playing them. (It kept giving me TOC errors.) I decided to give the player and all of my discs to my friend Lettuce Head (a/k/a Cult Leader Lettuce) thinking he might be able to sort it all out. Lettuce claims the MiniDisc player was in fine working condition when he received it via the U.S. Postal Service, but I know for sure it was not working when I shipped it off. Anyway, I let Lettuce keep the MD player and discs, and he transferred some of the discs to mp3 for me, including these songs. June 2007
Struggle in the West (Goofadust) - Joe Jack Talcum, demo for Touch Me Zoo (mp3, 3.05 MB) This song was written and recorded in the spring of 1996. It was meant to be a Touch Me Zoo song (post-Lawn King era) but the song never made it past this initial 4-track demo stage. July 2007
House Party in Allston (Boston) MA, 07-07-2007 - Joe Jack Talcum [abridged] (mp3, 36.1 MB) This was recorded on a monophonic cassette recorder in a basement on Allston, Massachusetts at a house party during the solo acoustic tour I did with Ukebox. Things were a little slow to start out, but the energy picked up midset and really got crazy by the end. The tape player stopped before the end of the set, though. The songs are:
This set was dedicated to the memory of Scott Robb who passed away on July 2. My friend Scott Robb passed away in his sleep on Monday, July 2, while I was on tour. (I was playing in Asheville, North Carolina on that day, one of Scott's favorite cities.) Scott was a great guy. He was a bicycle racer who won gold and silver medals and toured the world. He had a great sense of humor and a voracious appetite for music. He turned me on to a lot of great music including Calexico and The Mountain Goats. I will miss him.
August 2007
'Yes and No' Interview - The Dead Milkmen (mp3, 7.7 MB) This silly interview was recorded on cassette by me during the Dead Milkmen's Bucky Fellini recording sessions in San Marcos, Texas in December 1986. Thanks for CLL Jason for converting it to mp3. September 2007
Dead Milkmen Rehearsals for Metaphysica Graffiti - The Dead Milkmen (mp3, 8.16 MB) Here is a selection from a rehearsal recorded in 1990 at the Delaware Ave rehearsal spot named 1020 RPM which the Dead Milkmen used. It was located at 1020 N. Delaware Ave (a/k/a Colombus Blvd.) in Philadelphia. The place no longer exists. The building at that address currentlty houses a recording studio and a mastering studio. Sometime during the rehearsals for the album that would be known as Metaphysical Graffit I brought my Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and recorded some of the rehearsals. These songs were culled form one of those sessions. All were recorded live with no overdubs. The first is a song that never made it to the finished album. I'm not sure why. The second track is one that later evolved into a song on the album name 'Epic Tales of Adventure'. The third track is one of the ad-libs we would eventually refer to as Earls, versions of which would appear on the final album without titles.
October 2007
Live in Jimmytown, 9/22/2007 - The Low Budgets (mp3, 41.64 MB) This live set was recorded in Jamestown, New York on the first leg of the Low Budgets United States tour in September 2007. For this leg of the tour, Dandrew was replaced by Pat "Tingles" Attack on bass guitar. There was some technical problem with the bass amp, which was borrowed from another band on the bill, and was the reason for the pause between the first and second songs. November 2007
Like to Be Alone (Demo) - Joe Jack Talcum (mp3, 4.9 MB) I recorded this 4-track cassette demo with my good friend Seven (of Touch Me Zoo) back in 1994 as a demo for the Dead Milkmen for the album that would become the final Milkmen studio album 'Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig)'. This track was recorded upstairs in my apartment on Buckingham Place in Philadelphia. The basement of that apartment is where the Dead Milkmen practiced in our later years and where we recorded the band demos for 'Not Richard But Dick'. (The picture inside Stoney's was taken in that basement.) Seven played snare drum and hi-hat and manned the board for this recording. December 2007
Happy Birthday (Demo) - Joe Jack Talcum (mp3, 5.2 MB) Yet another Tascam 4-track demo. This was from early in 1994. The first band version of Touch Me Zoo performed it live at several of our shows that year. Touch Me Zoo recorded a 4-track demo of the song, as well, in the summer of 1994. January 2008
Live in Providence, Rhode Island at The Living Room, March 17, 1989 - The Dead Milkmen (mp3, 64.1 MB) I'm not sure who taped this show or how a copy of the show came into my possession. The cassette is labeled '3-17-89 Living Room, Providence'. This show did not take place at the current location of the Living Room -- 23 Rathbone Street. But, from what I have read, the stage is exactly the same. I guess they moved the stage itself when they moved the venue. Anyway, we first played The Living Room in 1986 and it became the one venue in Rhode Island we would play regularly for the rest of our touring days. The manager's mom would provide bands with a home-cooked meal, which I remember being something we looked forward to on our New England tours. There was a spacious band room and always plenty of beer. The sound system was good and the sound guys were nice. It sounds like the person recording the show pushed the pause button a couple of times, perhaps as a way to get the set to fit on one side of a 90-minute cassette. Therefore, some of the songs get cut off. The entire show did not fit. Here are the songs that fit:
Just as the tape ends, Rodney is bringing the introduction of the Bitchin' Camaro to a close during our rendition of Proud Mary. February 2008
Oh Yeah! - The Town Managers (mp3, 3.54 MB) This is a song that Chris Peelout wrote for the Town Managers at the end of that band's career. (The Town Managers were Chris Peelout as Rick Luau, Brian Sprenger as Frick Jones, and me as Jonk Provoc.) The song is probably more well known now as a Low Budgets song. But it was a staple of the Town Managers live set in our last months together. This version was recorded off "the Internet" back in the late 90s by a guy who lived in Connecticut and came to our shows in New London. His name was John but he went by Simon. Anyway, he bootlegged it onto one of the very first CD-Rs we ever saw. We were all very impressed that someone could (and would) make a bootleg CD of our music and so he mailed us copies of it. March 2008
Street Beat Interview - Dead Milkmen and Cyndy Drue (mp3, 37.1 MB) Sorry for the delay in getting this month's bootleg posted. I will try to be less tardy with the April edition. This interview was recorded from a radio broadcast on Sunday night on WMMR-FM in Philadelphia, October 2, 1994. Street Beat was the local music radio show that aired about 10 PM every Sunday and was hosted by Cyndy Drue. On this night Rodney and I were interviewed to announce the breakup of the Dead Milkmen and to promote our final show which was held at the Trocadero Theater in Philly the following Friday and Saturday nights. April 2008
Live on WXPN, 88.9 FM, February 27, 1987 - Dead Milkmen (mp3, 51,5 MB) The Dead Milkmen Take The Airwaves, Part 2. Almost three years after our first live broadcast from Philly's WXPN radio station, we returned for another set. In late February of 1987 we were promoting an upcoming punk show at the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia which also included F.O.D., The Electric Love Muffin, and Ruin. Our album Bucky Fellini was "in the can" but had yet to be released. We were a bit looser for this performance than we were for the first. Also, the punk radio show had been moved from its late Sunday night slot to Friday afternoons, so this was an unusually early show for us to play. I am embarrassed by the fact that, near the end of the set, I stopped a song twice after screwing it up. How unprofessional! I also broke a string. Back then I had only one guitar, so breaking a string meant ad lib time. Soon after this show, and before embarking on our next major tour, I would purchase a second Gibson S-G to use as a back-up. Anyway, there are some good versions of Bucky Fellini songs on here, plus a couple Motown covers and one by Daniel Johnston. It was an odd set for us. The programs starts with Tacoland in progress. The person who taped this off the radio missed the intro.
Bonus Bootleg
Dead Milkmen Live at the No Bar & Grill - July 20, 1986, Muncie, Indiana. Recorded live to cassette on a hot, humid night. |
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