Sorry I've been out of commission for the last little while. Shit has, once again, been rather insane in the world of sports media. Add that to a two-and-a-half day jaunt to the 519 and you come up with very little time for the Interweb.
There's no real theme this week, just a battle between two bands I fucking love.
The Main Event
In the red corner, from Coventry, England, the band that single-handedly brought back ska, pork pie hats and tonic suits, THE SPECIALS!
The Specials were formed in Coventry in 1977 by Lynval Golding, Horace "Sir Horace Gentleman" Panter and Jerry Golding. Between 1977 and their 1979 debut on wax, they went through five different names. (The Automatic, The Coventry Automatic, The Special AKA The Coventry Automatic, The Special AKA and eventually, The Specials.) They also toured with The Clash before founding their own record label, 2-Tone Records, and hiring Elvis Costello to produce their debut full-length.
The band released two full-length albums, their self-title debut and 1981's More Specials, and eight hit singles, before co-frontmen Terry Hall and Neville Staple left to form Fun Boy Three with guitarist Golding. The rest of the band continued on under the old Special AKA moniker, releasing one more album, In the Studio, and two more hit singles. The Special AKA broke up in 1984.
They've reformed twice, in 1996 and again earlier this year.
This is the video for "A Message to You Rudy."
The Competition
From Philadelphia, PA, a band that walks the thinnest line, THE DEAD MILKMEN!
The Dead Milkmen were founded in 1983 by Joe "Joe Jack Talcum" Genaro. He was later joined by buddies Dean "Clean" Sabatino, Dave "Blood" Schulthise and Rodney "Anonymous" Linderman.
The band release eight studio albums, plus a gang of EPs, self-released tapes and a live album.
The Milkmen became semi-famous in 1987 thanks to a Detroit Tigers rookie names Jim Walewander, who was a huge fan. When Walewander invited the band to Tiger Stadium to watch a game and meet the team, they had the following conversation with Tigers' manager Sparky Anderson.
Sparky: "Well, hello, boys."
Rodney: "WE LOVE SATAN!"
Sparky: "Well, gotta go, boys."
The band had a brief, unsuccessful stay on Disney owned Hollywood Records in the early '90s before releasing one final independent album and breaking up in 1995.Since the break-up of the band, Genaro has released solo material as Joe Jack Talcum and as part of Joe Butterfly with Sabatino. Sabatino also drummed with Big Mess Orchestra.
Linderman recorded several solo projects.
Dave "Blood" Schulthise left music following the break-up of the band. He briefly attended Indiana University, moved to Serbia in the middle of that country's civil war, returned to Philadelphia and started working as a janitor. He killed himself in 2004. When I found out, I was sad. For me, the death of Dave Blood was a way bigger musical tragedy than that of Kurt Cobain, but it's gross to compare things like that. Let's just say that people should have made a bigger deal out of his death than they did.
The remaining three Milkmen have reunited twice. Once in 2004 as part of a benefit in memory of Blood, and again in 2008 as part of a festival.
This is the video for their biggest, and only, hit,"Punk Rock Girl."
Comment to vote, voting closes on Friday.
7 comments:
I actually had to watch both of these videos twice to decide which one I like better. I think this is because I like neither.
Although I'm all for Punk Rock Girls, I'm not at all into the singing of the singer of the Dead Milkmen. Or the guy himself. Maybe this is because I've just been through a weekend of watching amazingly hot black metal rocker dudes pound away on their instruments while wearing their tight black jeans and their spikes which protrude from various places and watching their long luscious hair flying around them in cascading waves of sexiness. It was too much, I think. I've ruined nice boys like the ones in these videos for myself forever.
Although that guy singing in the middle for The Specials had me turning my head.. Rufus? Is that you? Even though it looked like there was a point where he didn't remember the next line of his song, I'm voting for The Specials. Their ska style reminds me of the feel-good times of old-school No Doubt.
The Specials.
Oh, The Specials. I am such a sucker for porkpie hats. My husband has one from the 60s and I'm pretty sure that's where the crush started. Also he does a kicking Tom Waits impression. Meow.
Where was I? Yes, my vote is for the Specials.
Also, the Dead Milkmen are probably way too cool for this and everything, but points off for thinking California Dreaming is by the Beach Boys. It's the Mamas and the Papas, bitches. Give the Haligonian songwriter his due.
the specials, no question.
look at those suits!!
and they're pretty fun, and they toured with the clash...all this just adds to the skinny tie amazing-ness.
Specials by a wide margin. You may as well have had the other video be "Are You Jimmy Ray". because then it would have at least been close.
Also, I'm a ghost.
WHO WANTS TO KNOW
WHO WANTS TO KNOW
The Dead Milkmen get an easy win here with me because I just can't stand The Specials. I couldn't even watch the whole video.
I always sort of liked The Dead Milkmen too, although not enough to ever buy one of their cds.
years ago while slaving away at bluenotes the song selection disk was on a four hour rotation. working twelve hour shifts for five days a week with four weeks a month meant that any song on said disk was from that point on ruined for me.
please place my vote with the specials. i can no longer hear 'punk rock girl' or the vandals' 'oy to the world' without wanting to cry and fold stuff at the same time. :(
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