nude highway driving

Just as I was enjoying a flood of “back in the day” memories from my last post, I learn that Dean Clean, drummer for The Dead Milkmen, has started a blog called … 18 years ago … where he is posting his tour diaries, beginning with their first “big” tour in 1985. He intersperses modern-day background information and updates throughout the posts to help with context, and the few he’s got up are fun reads.

I’ve added it to my daily reads and can’t wait for updates. For some reason I love reading about bands that enriched my life as a teenager and what they were going through or thinking while I was flipping out to their music in Southcentral JoMo. That’s why I ran to the store to buy “Get In The Van,” Henry Rollins’ Black Flag tour diaries, when it came out, and also dig Michael Azerrad’s “Our Band Could Be Your Life.” When you’re stuck in a Midwestern town where maybe 10 others listen to punk and indie music, the bands play a huge role in your life and you lose yourself in their music.

It’s also fun to remember the shows. The Dead Milkmen live are like little kids on acid. I first saw them in 1988 in Springfield, Mo. Cool shows almost never came to small-town Missouri back then, and when they did they were packed and the crowd went all out. Two years later I got to interview the band when they came through Syracuse with Mojo Nixon. They closed their set with a cover of the Misfits’ “Astro Zombies” that sent the oversold dive club into a blur of sweaty chaos. It was winter in central New York, and anytime someone backstage opened a door the cold air mixed with the body heat to create a poor-man’s fog machine. The very next year I caught them at The Borderline in London, a small club I returned to the following night to catch a secret REM gig. I think the last time I saw them was at our “senior celebration” at the university.

I’m glad Dean kept a diary of their escapades - I wish I had one of mine. The Dead Milkmen were one of Life’s giant reminders to never take anything too seriously, and their music kicks ass. Thanks to them if I ever have a boring day, with nothing to do … I’ll just get a bus.