What Comets, Stars, and Moons are all about

I don’t consider my introduction to the Dead Milkman as part of my path into punk rock. For me, the Dead Milkman were part of the bridge between “Weird Al” Yankovic and a larger goofy music Universe because they came at a time when I didn’t have easy access to money or unmonitored music store consumption.

I consider myself part of the final “Community Bus Stop” generation. I grew up in a rather safe development called “Pilgrim Hills” which was composed of roughly six streets making up around 2.5 miles of road. When I was growing up the busses would pick up fifth grade and up at one of three bus stops in the development and starting in ninth it was one of two bus stops. These days, when I go home, it makes me sad to see that every grade is picked up in front of their homes – even high school. This is detrimental to the growth of kids for many reasons. One, you lose out on meeting the other kids on your block and suffering together through the winters when the bus is running late. Two, and I hate to say it as a former target of a neighborhood bully, but you lose the neighborhood pecking order. Don’t take this the wrong way, I hated being bullied, but for as horrible and awful and spirit crushing as it was, it made me who I am today. It also forged alliances within the neighborhood as we plotted ways to get back at or deal with the bully. Three, you lose the independent streak of not going straight home from the bus stop no matter how many times mom tells you to come straight home. So many times we would get off the bus, throw our book bags in the front yard of the kid who lived nearest to the bus stop, and run off and get mucked up and filthy in the woods or have a spontaneous snowball fight. Four, exercise. Hello, will it kill your kid to walk half a mile in the morning?

Anyway, what does this have to do with the Dead Milkmen? The bus stop is where I was given a copy of Beelzebubba and it quickly became one of my most played cassettes of my formative years. The tape came from a kid who was two years older than me and, while I didn’t at the time get many of the tongue-in-cheek references, it was goofy and silly enough for me to enjoy. I didn’t know what a “punk rock girl” was, but I sure did want to hang out with one, because, to quote my 11-year-old self “hey, they started playing the Beach Boys on the jukebox and she started screaming! I love the Beach Boys, too! Wow, punk rock girls are cool!.” The other song I listened to a lot was “Stuart.” I don’t recall if I had any concept of the words “queer” and “homosexual” at that age and I think I liked it because it referenced aliens. The album also taught me that trying to burn banana peels is not such a good idea. It wouldn’t be for a couple more years that I would actually learn about the history of the Dead Milkmen and discover that they had more albums, such as the seminal DM album Big Lizard in my Backyard.

Below are the two songs I listened to the most:

Dead Milkmen :: Stuart

Dead Milkmen :: Punk Rock Girl