Beelzebubba

<i>Beelzebubba</i>

Beelzebubba

Album by the Dead Milkmen

Beelzebubba is the fourth studio album by the American satirical punk rock band the Dead Milkmen, released in 1988.[8] It peaked at No. 101 on the Billboard 200.[9] The album contains perhaps the band's best-known song, "Punk Rock Girl".[10]

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Five tracks from Beelzebubba ("I Walk the Thinnest Line", "Stuart", "Punk Rock Girl", "Smokin' Banana Peels", and "Life Is Shit") are included on the band's 1997 compilation album Death Rides a Pale Cow: The Ultimate Collection.

Overview

Beelzebubba was recorded in Austin, Texas, and was produced by Mike Stewart and Brian "Orchid Breath" Beattie.[6][11] The cover photo is of Rodney Linderman's father, also named Rodney.

The album includes the song "Punk Rock Girl", which was released as a single. The song debuted on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart on January 7, 1989, at position 27;[12] it spent ten weeks on the chart,[13] peaking at number eleven on February 4, 1989.[14] The video was filmed in part at Eastern State Penitentiary.[15]

The track "Stuart" features Dead Milkmen vocalist Rodney Linderman speaking rather than singing; the song is presented in the form of Linderman rambling to an apparent man named Stuart in a trailer park about what "the queers are doing to the soil", which he claims is related to building "landing strips for gay Martians".[16][17]

In 1989, the Dead Milkmen released the Smokin' Banana Peels EP, which contains remixes of the song "Smokin' Banana Peels". It also contains several previously unreleased songs.[18]

Critical reception

The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins wrote that "it's 'Punk Rock Girl', the only song that shows some vulnerability amidst all the attitude, that redeems the record."[1] Trouser Press thought that "the Milkmen's skimpy charms run very thin on Beelzebubba, an album with precisely three assets: a great title, amusing artwork and the catchy but dumb 'Punk Rock Girl'."[18] The staff of People wrote: "You won't find the Dead Milkmen beating any dead horses. They just tickle one and move on to their next victim."[19]

James Muretich of the Calgary Herald wrote that the album "rides a sound of manic, minimalist rock that leaves behind such hit-and-run victims as homophobic trailer park residents, bleach boys (people with strange drinking habits) and PBS."[20] Tom Barrett of the Vancouver Sun called Beelzebubba the band's best album and "a flying drop kick of a disc that pokes savage fun at hippies, frat boys, Bob Hope and homophobes."[21]

In a retrospective article, Nicholas Pell of LA Weekly called the album "a bona fide rock & roll masterpiece" and "nothing short of the White Album of its day."[22]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by the Dead Milkmen

References

  1. [1]
    Jenkins, Mark (December 30, 1988). "Milkmen Driving on Empty Thoughts" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  2. [2]
    Beelzebubba at AllMusic
  3. [3]
    Popson, Tom (20 Jan 1989). "CAJUN, ROCK, FOLK AND MORE FROM THE INDIE WORLD". Chicago Tribune: North Sports Final 1.
  4. [4]
    "Robert Christgau: Album: The Dead Milkmen: Beelzebubba". www.robertchristgau.com.
  5. [5]
    Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 2. MUZE. p. 803.
  6. [6]
    MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 319.
  7. [7]
    Moon, Tom (27 Nov 1988). "The Dead Milkmen Beelzebubba". The Philadelphia Inquirer: G12.
  8. [8]
    "Dead Milkmen | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  9. [9]
    "The Dead Milkmen". Billboard.
  10. [10]
    "Modern Rock Tracks – For Week Ending January 7, 1989" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 101, no. 1. Prometheus Global Media, LLC. January 7, 1989. p. 14. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  11. [11]
    Blackstock, Peter (3 Feb 1989). "Dead Milkmen achieve an obnoxious success". Austin American-Statesman: F2.
  12. [12]
    "Modern Rock Tracks – For Week Ending January 7, 1989" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 101, no. 1. January 7, 1989. p. 14. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  13. [13]
    Joel Whitburn Presents Rock Tracks 1981–2008. Hal Leonard Corporation. 2008. p. 70. ISBN 978-0898201741.
  14. [14]
    "Modern Rock Tracks – For Week Ending February 4, 1989" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 101, no. 5. February 4, 1989. p. 16. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  15. [15]
    Weidman, Rich (2022). Punk: The Definitive Guide to the Blank Generation and Beyond. Backbeat Books. p. 164.
  16. [16]
    Moore, Bobby (May 6, 2015). "The Dead Milkmen return". Creative Loafing. Archived from the original on March 3, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  17. [17]
    Molseed, John (May 17, 2015). "Dead Milkmen's Joe Genaro at Octopus Monday". The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  18. [18]
    "TrouserPress.com :: Dead Milkmen". www.trouserpress.com. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  19. [19]
    "Picks and Pans Review: Beelzebubba". People. November 21, 1988. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  20. [20]
    Muretich, James (26 Jan 1989). "Disc". Calgary Herald: E5.
  21. [21]
    Barrett, Tom (2 May 1989). "Reality makes Dead Milkmen feel alive: These funny guys fling abuse at whatever comes their way". Vancouver Sun: B5.
  22. [22]
    Pell, Nicholas (February 17, 2016). "Unpopular Opinion: The Dead Milkmen's Beelzebubba Is the White Album of Its Day". LA Weekly.
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