WHADDAYA MEAN, I'M TRYING TOO HARD??!??!?!??!
After Simon and Garfunkel split up, guitarist Joe Genaro decided to that's no what The? Adse FTHIS is rilNOOO! Dcmo ne t; you're NOT A REAL COP lgge th'at s not what NO styio pati!!!
(six months later)
After the Dead Milkmen split up in that year of infamy in the mid-90s that you can likely find on a REAL web site somewhere (as opposed to this piece of crap you're reading, which is really just a webcam I'm holding pieces of paper up to), guitarist Joe Genaro combined two of his pseudonyms from that band - Joe Jack Talcum and Butterfly Fairweather - into the phrase "Butterfly Joe." He then grabbed the drummer from The Dead Milkmen, a man named Dean "Clean" Sabatino (I don't know whether or not he's related to Jennifer Disabitino, who just got let go from ComputerWorld because they're ASSHOLES who don't know talent when they see it - my guess would be that they're not related, since they have different last names), bassist Joe Quigley and a guy named Andy Bresnan who as far as I can tell plays every single musical instrument ever built, including those in your very own home! Watch your chimneys! Here comes Bresnan again! He provides this disc with fantastic amounts of ukuleles, accordions, ocarinas, horns, tubas, synths, strings and potfors.
He: What's a potfor?
She: To cook with,
silly!
If you like the melodicism of the Dead Milkmen but tire of the sophomoric humor that you find here on www.markprindle.com (FAAAAART!), this CD might be right up your alley. For those not in the KNOW (which would be an AWESOME name for a radio station, btw - except somebody would have to make the decision whether to pronounce it "Know" or "K-Now." Me, I'd go with "Kn - OW!" Like you're in a doctor's office and he's testing your reflexes - "Hey, why are you rearing your hammer back behind your head? LET GO OF MY KN - OW!!!!!" These are important decisions to be made by media professionals, however. You know, the people who decided that listeners really really want to wake up in the morning to hear worthless morons chit- chatting about "cheerleader muff" and making hateful, uninformed kneejerk comments about current events.), Joe Genaro was the guy in the Dead Milkmen who actually *sang* (Rodney Anonymous was the one who *talked*). You probably know him from "Punk Rock Girl" or perhaps "Methodist Coloring Book." He has kind of a bratty but lovable voice, and he is so obviously genuine in such gorgeous little tunes as "San Francisco" and "Fancy Walls" that it would be pretty hard to fault him for his occasional over-cutesy delivery (you kinda want to give the snotty little Violent Femme-sounding guy a manly kick in the groin during "Give Me A Kiss" and "Don't Do This To Me Baby," for example).
The music is melodic but acoustic. Acoustic with all those neat instruments I mentioned played over it. And I mean acoustic BASS, not just acoustic guitar. Even the DRUMS are acoustic! No studio trickery here! They didn't even use mics or tape! You buy this CD, they come to your house!
Okay, a few songs use electric instruments. Like the surf-spy "Seventeen"! It's surf-spy!
And diverse? YES! From the jaunty to the melancholic, from the fast and bouncy to the lushly, beautifully orchestrated, from the marching band to the 4-part vocal harmony intro, from the psychedelic backward guitar noises to the Pachelbel's Canon ripoff. It's all here, and - aside from the not too good "Don't Do This To Me Baby" - any humorous lyricism you find is of the bouncy goodtime Vaudeville "What did her autopsy reveal? Nothing! Nothing! She died of a broken heart!" variety rather than the "Oh Dear God Please Laugh At My Bob Hope-Style Jokes" lyrics that marred some of the Mead Dilkmen's output (like "Beach Party Vietnam," "I Dream Of Jesus" and of course the WORST offender, "Tugena," an instrumental b-side with no lyrics.).
I lost my place in all the wordiness. I mentioned that the album is very poppy and light-sounding, right? Like a Camper Van Beethoven/early Violent Femmes young vegetarian hippy high school kid lightness, right? But the hooks are PURE Dead Milkmen. This guy Joe has music runnin' `round his brain, just like The Easybeats of Australia! I bet you Friday's On His Mind! He Made His Bed, Now He's Gonna Lie In It! He's Sorry! He's Women (Gonna Make You Feel Alright)!
In the final analysis, seventeen songs is a goodly amount. Dead Milkmen singer Rodney Anonymous also has a new band - Burn Witch Burn - but they're more of a goth band. Say! Speaking of goth, have you had a chance to check out some of the latest releases from Dancing Ferret Discs? Well I have! Here! Let me take you on a journey...
Album: Wishfire
Band: The Cruxshadows
Label: Dancing Ferret Discs
This CD was created entirely on a Macintosh. Yet somehow it plays fine on my PC. I struggled with this idea for about 45 minutes before accepting the fact that producer "Rogue" is even more of a genius than he was depicted in the recent biopic "Moulin Rogue." Getting past this amazing feat of nature, we find dark goth dance/pop music combining violin, guitars, Pet Shop Boys-style "soulless Brit" vocals and synths aplenty. Reminds me of early Ministry (REALLY early Ministry), umm. god, who else sounded like this. It's very mid-80s-sounding for goth girls who like to go to dark vampire clubs and partake in (DUDE! I JUST TOTALLY REALIZED THAT "PARTAKE" IS JUST "TAKE PART" WITH THE WORDS BACKWARDS!!! THAT IS SO FUCKED UP! I better take a nap)
(20 Years Later)
Oh no! I fell asleep in the woods one day, lived 20 years of my life that way! My nagging wife took all my coin, all my friends I'd never join!
(Heh heh, the kids love my Devotions humor). Completing my thought, "partake in sweaty dancing and underage dancing." The mastermind "Rogue" has big ol' crazy stickin' up hair all nuts like Kajagoogoo, the keyboardist Chris Brantley has a hair style similar to mine (normal) but with more lavender and less uhh. is there a color called "bald spot"? Then the other two band members are WOMEN!!!!! Rachel McDonnell and Stacey Campbell. Incidentally, the violin sounds really nice, but I don't hear ANY guitar on this album. I mean, everybody knows that there is no bigger feminist and champion of women's rights than me, Mark Prindle, but who did she have to BLOW to get in this band? I guess it doesn't matter if she doesn't play the guitar, as long as she PUTS OUT! She sure does a great job wrapping her hands around that long, thick guitar neck, doesn't she? That's because of all her practice on COCKS!
Oh wait no - that's not a feminist. What's the word that describes the way I -
Ah yes! A pedophile. That's what I meant.
Album: Les Chansons Neurotiques
Band: Neuroticfish
Label: Dancing Ferret Discs
Ah boy. I'll never forget this neurotic fish I had when I was a kid! I won him at a school carnival for picking a lollipop with a dot on the end of the stick. And talk about anxieties! But that's not why we're here. We're here to discuss the latest CD by a man named Sascha Mario Klein who goes by the name "Neuroticfish" and lives in Germany or Belgium, I think. His music is electronic - synth-based one-man ruminations on pain and despair. Not like that crappyass Pretty Hate Machine assycrap though, mainly because Sascha has a sorrowful melodic European voice instead of a whiny assholish Trent Reznor voice. The music is just as minimalist and simplistic though, mostly repetitive, echoey bleeping and blooping. Some of the songs are supercatchy though! "Wake Me Up" in particular will make you dance like a Mafioso shooting at your feet!
Again, this music seems to be geared towards Gothic Grrrlz and young sad skinny boys who write poetry. And me? I'm filled with muscles and grit! Sports and America! Buxom blondes and steroid-addled penis! Who am I to judge faggoty music for fags?
Look, perhaps it would be best if you didn't look around online for a photo of me. If you DO find one and I'm all skinny and faggoty looking, that's some other guy with the same name as me.
Album: Into The Ice
Band: Paralysed Age
Label: Dancing Ferret Discs
A man named Michael. A woman named Andrea. Some guitars. A bit of bass. A sampling of keys. THE RECIPE FOR GOTHY GOODNESS! You can hear it as Depeche Mode or Duran Duran whatever you mopey kids listen to - I hear it as Killing Joke's slick period and I like it like that! Everybody has on serious faces, and Michael sings with a non-smiling serious voice as the fuzzy fuzz notey guitar, bassy bass note melodies and synth washes paint portrait after portrait of loneliness, unhappiness, gloom, melancholy, loss, a marshmallow cookout with the guys from the frat, depression and solitude. This is my favorite of the three by far. Just a really nice mood and interaction of sounds, if you're into the GOTHIC SENE at all.