This is a bit of a cheat, really. I've cobbled it together from the history given
on Now We Are Ten (which I "borrowed" from the official site), Death Rides a Pale
Cow, and from various interviews and articles that I've come across.

The band started in Wagontown, apparently located in Pennsylvania's Amish
countryside. That's where Joe and Rod first met in high school. Joe and his friend
Garth made comedy tapes at home, based on the idea of the Dead Milkmen. The original
DM were an imaginary band led by Jack Talcum, and were featured in Joe's Dead
Milkmen Newzletter, which was a takeoff on the Paul McCartney & Wings newsletter, of
which Joe was a subscriber. On New Year's Eve 1979, Joe and Garth recorded "So Long
Seventies", which was the first recording by "The Dead Milkmen".

Rod was working for the school paper, and when he heard a copy of the tape, he
asked to join in, playing banjo and making up lyrics on the spot. Joe and Garth
graduated, while Rod still had a year to go. Joe was a communications major at
Temple and Rod sent lyrics which Joe set to music. At Temple, Joe met David
Reckner who would become the Dead Milkmen's manager. At the time, Reckner was a
manager for high school friends of his, Dean and Mike.

At the Temple dorms, Joe became friends with another Joe, whose older brother
Dave played the bass. Dave and Joe started putting songs together with Rod's lyrics.
In the summer of '83, Dean and Mike's band called it quits, so Dean got together
with Joe and Dave for rehearsals.

Soon after, on July 23 (or 21) 1983, the Dead Milkmen played their first gig, at the
Harleysville Youth Center. Having missed every rehearsal, Rod finally showed up, which
was in fact the first time he had met Dean. There were about 14 people present.

Many gigs in the Philly underground scene followed, culminating in their biggest break,
when they recorded Dead Milkmen Take the Airwaves in a live studio performance on WXPN's
punk program.














Joe Jack Talcum: I was writing a parody of fan club newsletters and that's
how the band started. I was actually in the Paul McCartney and Wings fan club-I guess I was
the only one in Pennsylvania- and I used to get these ridiculous fan club newsletters-

Rodney: Technically, we're not really the original members,
'cause the original members never exisited, except on paper.

Dean: Our very first show was at the Harleysville Youth Center.
The band had never played a live show before- so we were kind of excited about it.
That was the first night I met Rodney. They said,"This is Rodney, he wrote the lyrics,
he's going to sing for you." There were about 14 people there.

Dean Clean: We've been together as a band for about three years.
I joined two years ago in July and Dave and Joe and Rodney were together making
noise for at least a year before that.

Dave Blood: I was learning to play my instrument. Joe was teaching
me how to write songs. Joe is pretty much a tunesmith already. We learned together
to play our instruments. What's neat is that me and Joe learned with each other
so that's why we mesh so well. It's helped the song writing in the band.

Joe: Dave Blood (bass) and I went to Temple, Rodney Anonymous (vocals, keyboards) went to Westchester
University, and Dean Clean (drums) went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

Shawn: What did you study at Temple?

Joe: I was a communications major, RTVF (radio, television, and film).

Joe: Well, it was July 21, 1983 at the Harleysville Youth Center in Pennsylvania. It was a success for us,
because it was the first time that all of us performed together. Prior to that, it was me, Dean and Dave. Rodney
would write the songs for us and we would go and practice them. For this show, the band that was booked had
canceled out at the last minute, so we got our chance to play.

We had one problem, though. We needed a front man and none of us wanted to do it, so Rodney stepped in.
There were a bunch of kids there, many of whom began watching us practice every Saturday, so I guess those
kids were the original "Milk-Heads."

Shawn: Do you guys have any new material in the works?

Joe: Yes, we just finished recording an album, "Soul Rotation." This is our sixth album and it's different
from the previous ones in that I sing most of the songs. For our first album, Rodney did most of the
vocals and we had a deal that if it was a success, he would be the lead vocalist for the first five releases.

On this album, Rodney sings three of the songs, and one of them is sort of like a rap. Also, this is the first
album where neither Dean nor Dave sang any of the tracks. Nonetheless, our style is still the same and
everybody is very excited.