Section: iTunes, Features, Interviews, Originals
I’m going to be honest with you; I didn’t get the Dead Milkmen right away. My brother did, and he played them relentlessly. It annoyed me. It annoyed me through 1985’s Big Lizard In My Backyard and 1986’s Eat Your Paisley! He then went to college, and I didn’t hear them much again until I saw the video for “Punk Rock Girl” on some Canadian music channel when I was there for spring break in 1988. I found myself missing the Milkmen enough to recommend a friend buy the album. He did. And when I first heard the song “Stuart,” that was the moment when I got the Dead Milkmen.
Circa 1990: Rodney Linderman, Dave Schulthise, Dean Sabatino and Joe Genaro
They became one of my favorite bands. I appreciated them so much that I enjoyed what they were doing with Soul Rotation, and I proudly state that one of my favorite albums by them is Not Richard But Dick.
The band split up after 1995’s Stoney’s Extra Stout (Pig), and their story seemed to come to a tragic end when bassist Dave Schulthise committed suicide in 2004. But the remaining members never really went away. Drummer Dean Sabatino maintained the band’s website, continuing communication with fans while promoting various solo projects. As such, when they started performing the occasional one-off gig again in 2008, their fans were there waiting for them. The shows were successful enough for them to reform, and in March of this year, they released their first album of new material in 16 years: The King in Yellow.
After buying the album from their website on drop day, it occurred to me how much times have changed. I no longer had to rely on my brother or Canadian television to let me know what bands were up to; I could hear it directly from the drummer. And so, I contacted them to talk to them about this, and Dean Sabatino was kind enough to enter into an e-mail conversation with me.
Appletell: When the Dead Milkmen split up in 1995, I believe Joe said something to the effect of “No one understands us anymore.” 16 years later, do you think people are ready to understand the Dead Milkmen again?
Dean: I think so. In the mid ‘90s we were in the post Reagan/Bush Sr. years, Grunge was about over and the dull music of the late 90’s took over. I think things are back to being as messed up now as they were in the mid ‘80’s when we got started—the economy, the Tea Party idiots, reality TV—so, plenty of topics to write songs about. It’s also interesting to be playing shows again and to see the crowds—a wide range of ages. We have old time fans and new kids as well. It’s been really great.
Appletell: When the Dead Milkmen started performing again around 2008, with Dan Stevens now on bass, was there always an intention to go back into the studio, or was it the success of the shows that pushed you towards recording new material?
Dean: It was not planned. We sort of fell into it. We all had fun at that first show in Austin. It was a collective decision—that, “Hey, this is fun, let’s see what happens next,” kinda thing. We did not pressure ourselves and put a deadline on anything like “The album must be done by this date!” We began writing the spring of 2009 and it was about two years later that The King In Yellow was released.
Appletell: Let’s talk about the album for a minute, then. It’s the first you’ve recorded without original Dead Milkmen bassist Dave Schulthise, who committed suicide in 2004. Considering this, the fact that the opening track on the new album is about a murder/suicide seems a pretty bold move even for the Milkmen, despite no direct reference to Dave in the lyrics.
Dean: There wasn’t a conscience decision to address David’s suicide in any particular way. The title track has more to do with the loose “concept” the album ended up having in which all the songs are related in some way. The song itself “The King In Yellow / William Bloat” was born in rehearsal when we took a bit of song structure that Joe had written and inserted an old Irish murder ballad that Rodney was familiar with in the middle. As Rodney related on our bulletin board a while back, the album begins with a king and ends with a dethroned queen.
Another comment I’ve heard is that the new record if very dark and not as “upbeat” as our older material yet I’ve also heard lots of folks say its great and it fits in with all the older material, like we never stopped. We certainly didn’t set out to write a “heavy” record and I don’t think any of us view it as such.
Appletell: I don’t know if I’d say it’s “heavy,” so much as there are just more songs about murder and fewer about Sha Na Na and mongoose women. But it’s interesting that you’re already hearing fan reaction. Back when Stoney’s Extra Stout (Pig) was released in 1995, the Internet was still more or less in its infancy. Certainly not we’re used to now, in which bands can remain in constant two-way conversation with their fans. Do you think this is a good thing for the Dead Milkmen, or do you prefer the days when concerts were pretty much the only direct fan interaction a band could have.
Dean: I think it is a good thing. You can have a discussion about the show, songs or current events if you want. We have always been pretty approachable. Back in the day we used to send out a snail mail “Newzletter” a few times a year with stories, cartoons, articles and an announcement or two about a tour or LP release. I think we had almost 10K people on our mailing list by the end. The newzletter was a remnant of Joe’s early school project where he created a fictional band called the Dead Milkmen and created a fanzine for a creative writing class. The name existed and the band was born from it. So we have tried to communicate with our fans from the get go.
One of the more humorous recent examples of us communicating with fans is Rodney’s anti vinyl record rants and the back and forth he’s had with our fans on the Milkmen bulletin board. (I’ve largely stayed out of it, but I personally have nothing against vinyl).
Appletell: I’ve read that on the forum, and I’m surprised by some of the “logic” on there…specifically, the “If I can’t buy vinyl I’m going to download it illegally” stance. Where do you weigh in on the convenience of digital releases vs. the potential for illegal downloads?
Dean: Some folks just won’t pay for a digital download. Bands are now putting special packages together for premium prices. We haven’t done that. It was sad to see the new album on the bit-torrent sites within a week of our release. I think the sales loss can be offset somewhat for bands that are touring, etc.
I do like digital releases and buy most of my music that way now. I do still buy CDs once an a while. I think certain fans will still buy it for the liner notes and packaging.
Appletell: The new album was available through your website about a month before it appeared in iTunes. Is there a specific reason for that, or was it a simple of matter of the time it takes to get an album listed in iTunes?
Dean: There was a reason for that. We wanted to offer the new recording just from our website for a month just to get a feel for how it all worked. This way of doing things is all new to us. We only offered it digitally and only as a complete album. Part of this was to raise some funds from sales to be able to then get physical CDs made. After a month we had the artwork done and funds to press up 1,000 discs. We then turned on CD sales, individual track sales, as well as activated the online sales distribution channels. I have to say that so far working with Nimbit—our online partner who handles the backend for the website shop—has been good.
We were able to turn on iTunes, Amazon, emusic, Rhapsody, and Napster, and only iTunes was active a day or two later—really fast. The others have still not come online [as of the time of this interview]. We’re told it could take weeks and we really won’t know for sure when without manually searching once an a while to see when the new disc comes up.
Appletell: Pretty much your entire catalog is now available in iTunes aside from the albums recorded when you were with Hollywood Records. Have there been any discussions with them regarding making Soul Rotation and Not Richard, But Dick available again digitally?
Dean: I think we’d like to be able to do that someday but we’d have to buy back the rights for those from Hollywood. Some informal conversations have been made over the years but I don’t see it happening unless we really “strike it rich” and can afford to pay them back for the production and marketing costs they incurred when we made those discs.
A gem from the Hollywood Records era.
Appletell: Shifting away from iTunes, then, the members of the band have been active on the web. Of all the accessible web technologies available today—YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, etc.—which do you wish you’d had back when the band was coming together in the early ‘80s?
Dean: I sound like an old man when I tell younger bands that they have it easy these days—especially when touring. Our first real tour was the summer of 1985. Dave Blood and I used the “Scene Reports” in the back of Maximum Rock ‘n Roll punk zine to book the two month tour. All we had were a few phone numbers and snail mail addresses to contact mostly kids in towns across the country to try to set up shows that would take us from Philadelphia to California and back again.
We got it more or less booked with lots of holes and hopes of getting more shows along the way. We did make it to California. We spent two weeks on the floor of our manager friend’s aunt’s house in Orange County. Over those two weeks we played four shows and made a grand total of $100 bucks. We had no Internet, no cell phones (does anyone remember pay phones!?!) no laptops, no WiFi, no nuthin!
These days, with the access to information about clubs and email access, the Internet is a great asset to bands. Facebook seems like a pretty good “all-in-one” resource. You can create a fan page, contact your friends and fans, announce gigs and releases and even sell stuff directly there.
That being said, there is a Dead Milkmen page on Facebook but someone else started it a long time ago and we don’t have access to it. It was started by a fan, probably, but I suppose we should see about getting it in our control…
Circa 2011: Dan Stevens, Dean Sabatino, Joe Genaro, Rodney Linderman
Appletell: The RIAA continues to blame the Internet for slumping music sales, but you’re saying bands can benefit from the tools available to them. Do you think a middle ground can be reached? Should bands and record companies even bother trying to find one?
Dean: I personally think bands should try to do things themselves more and more, but I also understand how handling the business side of things can be a distraction to the creative, making music part of band life. For some, the “getting signed” and working with a record company is still a desired goal. Whatever the path, either the label or the band will need to use these newer technologies.
- For more information on The Dead Milkmen, visit www.deadmilkmen.com. The King In Yellow is available now on iTunes.
Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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