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RE: New Wave Rats eat Milkemen for breakfast!



>From: Marc/Carolyn Hurwitz <hurwitz@ieee.org>
>>I'll have to get back <RATS> to you with a list of songs.<
>Kevin:
>Hey!! Are you trying to send us a subliminal message that the Who are
>actually rats?!  Better watch that stuff. <g>

Who, me?  Oh, that was a mistake.  Sorry.  How could you think I'd try and
insert a subliminal? ;-)

>From: "Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>
>Subject: Cameron can you hear me?

>>The Who.
>Kevin:
>Good point.

I get lucky, now and then.

>>Add to that English Beat and Gen. Public, and you've got my NW list.
>I have a much longer list, but I am "obsessed" with music as my mother used
>to tell me.

IT's funny, but in this genre of music and actually even more so with Punk,
I was much more active/into the local/less-mainstream music scene.
I grew up with the drummer (after 1986) of Government Issue (Pete Moffit).
Went to High School and was good friends with the bassist Andre` Lee of Dead
Kennedy's (pretty sure it's DK.  It's been so long and so
many.....ahem.....parties since;).  Was/am very good friends with
singer/guitarist Rusty Jones of Road-side-Pets, and also very good friends
with singer-guitarist Tod Morse of Outcrowd (who opened for Dead Milkmen in
B-more back in '87.  Hence the opportunity not-taken to, um, do some stupid
injecting).

>>Any Dead Milkmen fans out there?
>Yeah, I like them. I have the single of Too Drunk To Fuck, for instance.

I can barely remember their albums.  Eat your Paisley, um......,
um.....What's the one with the big Green monter thing on the cover?
I do remember very clearly tearing my favorite pair of VANS and breaking my
watch while Slam Dancing at a DMM show in OC Maryland back in ....um.....
'87? .
Anyone out there have a "Bitchin' Camero" ? ;-)

>>I'll have to get back <RATS> to you with a list of songs.
>You're a mindreader (see my new sig).
>        Cheers                 ML

One of the stupidest political blunders I've ever seen.  Accident my ass!
Sorry.

>From: Jeff House <jjthandmeh@juno.com>
>Subject: MSG buzz, Wallflowers, Root Boy, Crack
>Kevin and Mark:  Dead Milkmen? what the hell is that?  Since you guys are
up
>on 80s obscure Americans - try these.  Two acts that were fun in my youth
in
>Maryland were "Root Boy Slim" and "Crack The Sky".  Any knowledge of them
>and what became of them?
>Jeff

Ahhhh, my Maryland brotha.  I remember those bands.  No clue what became of
them though.

>From: Jeff House <jjthandmeh@juno.com>
>Someone tell me not to feel bad for misleading you nice folks, please.
>Jeff

Hey, someone's got to do the leg work in these instances. You're providing
an invaluable service.
Really.

>From: "Derick Bhupsingh" <circles01@hotmail.com>
>subject: Re-What is new Wave ?
>Stands to reason. Whatever your thoughts,I liked
>it.
>Regards,
>Derick.

Thanks and good points by you!

>From: "Derick Bhupsingh" <circles01@hotmail.com>
>Subject: MSG - I really wanna Go !
>I will be free to see at least one or two shows at MSG.  Hope to see you
there.
>Regards,
>Derick.

Ok, now I'm bummed.  I've lost all hope for the 10/9 show.  Guess I'll have
to spend all my energy at CLEVELAND!!  Oh, poor Schrade. ;-)

>From: "L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>
>Subject: RE: What the F is New Wave anyway??
>NewWave seems to be a very broad style.

One of my first realizations as I tried to justify my thoughts.

>Is NewWave a group of artists who typically disregard genre 
>distinctions and mix them all together?  Is this the same as NewAge?

I see it *slightly* differently.  I see it as a "calming" of the punk era of
the late 70's and early 80's.
While New Wave definitely mixes other genres, it's more of a "state of mind"
or attitude.  In a way it's a blurring of social values.  Sex roles, drug
influences, etc.  I think this type of music was a way to express this
blurring of classic social roles.  Blurring social roles, blurring musical
roles.  Hmmmmmm, is this making sense?

>There's actually a pretty sharp break on WAY--he's already made the change.

>I'd thought it was just that he was leaning toward jazz very heavily, but 
>I'm thinking you've pegged it correctly.

I think we're both right here.  A change definitely occurred by the time WAY
was made, but it wasn't New Wave yet.  *That* was still developing.  The
change was definitely jazz.
So, to re-cap, we have Rock flowing into Jazz, then flowing into New Wave,
and then flowing back into rock?  Go Pete, Go!!

>Pete has such a feel for cultural  movements, you can bet he felt it coming
early on.  I thought >The Who followed him extremely well on WAY.  This was
a terrific new sound for them, very 
>cutting edge and tightly done. 

Agreed, all around.

> (insert *FD*) This one isn't so tightly done.  I mentioned already that
the bass seems too 
>prominent on some of these songs, as well as the fact that it was another 
>huge change in direction.  Still, when you listen to the live tracks, they 
>seemed to have worked it out after a little practice.  The album was just a

>little hasty--harder for them to do this than the material on WAY.

I think this supports my argument.  There was a struggle in this album.
Pete wanting to push the envelope/genre-edge further, and the rest of the
band struggling to keep up.
Also can't dismiss the difficulties in working with a completely
new/different drummer.

>Pete reflects culture--"channels" (as he says) the collective
consciousness. I'd say Pete got 
>to feeling really sick of disco and looked around for something different
to 
>do, synthesized a sound and style, and lo and behold, other artists came up

>with something similar.  That's what makes the beginning of a movement.

Age and perspective have allot to do with this as well.  If Pete, at that
time, were 15 years younger, I could see him being as into the Punk Scene as
some of the harder core bands of that time.  Yet, because of his more mature
age, his "collective consciousness" was more sedate and refined........ala
New Wave.

>Do you mean in their solo albums?  I'll agree that John has stuck with RnR 
>and even tends to roots rock.  In that time period, Roger was doing MCVICAR

>and PARTING SHOULD BE PAINLESS, though, which don't seem especially RnR.  
>Since you mention it, I think they have a little touch of NewWave to them, 
>too.
>keets

Can't say I've listened to Roger's solo stuff.  Never have been motivated.
Maybe some of Pete's thinking rubbed off on Roger.  This would support the
claim of Roger's intelligence.
What I was meaning was that Roger took Pete's music, which to me sounds very
New Wave-ish, and added the RnR voice/edge.  Pete's written in the past that
The Who takes his music and changes it.  This has obviously been a good
thing, but at times has also frustrated Pete in that it changes it sometimes
from the original intent.  I think someone already mentioned Pete's reaction
to hearing Rog sing Quad for the first time.
John's roots are firmly and happily planted in good 'ol RnR.  Thank you
John.

>From: "kidsallright" <kidsallright@gateway.net>
>Subject: The Dead Milkmen
>Mark,Kevin,et all
>Is this a joke or what ! The Dead F----- Milkmen ! Ha! ha! Are you =
>serious ?
>Please tell me more. I'm still laughing !!
>Regards,
>Derick.

Not a joke at all!  They did some really good stuff for a while there.
Their best albums came out between '85 and '88.  They even had a video on
MTV at one time...."Punk Rock Girl".
This band was an "off-shute" of the harder Punk movement, in that it added a
kind of sarcasm of the whole Punk scene.  It was almost like they were
making fun of punk (through humor), yet played this "sarcastic poking at
punk" in a hard-core punk style.  Good Stuff.
I recommend finding some of their stuff for a listen---if you're into that
kind of thing.  It's not for everyone. ;-)  I'll re-familiarized myself with
their albums again and advise.

Kevin in VT (goin' back to Cali..to Cali..to Cali)