The Dead Milkmen on the Origins of Their New Single “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)”: Exclusive
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The post The Dead Milkmen on the Origins of Their New Single “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)”: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Origins is a recurring series giving artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, punk legends The Dead Milkmen dig into “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)” from their upcoming album, Quaker City Quiet Pills.
The Dead Milkmen are back with the new single “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)” from the just-announced upcoming album, Quaker City Quiet Pills, their first studio LP since 2014. To go along with the song’s release, the legendary punk band is sharing the origins of the track exclusively with Consequence.
Quaker City Quiet Pills, the band’s 11th album overall, arrives June 8th via the indie label The Giving Groove, with pre-orders on vinyl and CD available here. It comes the same year as the band’s 40th anniversary, with the punk icons having formed in 1983 in Philadelphia.
“Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)” is about what you probably think it’s about, with lyrics like, “They’re coming for his Jesus/ They re coming for his gun/ Grandpa’s not a racist/ He just voted for one.”
As for the album, guitarist-singer Joe Jack Talcum says, “To me, it’s like a greatest hits of all our styles put into one album. It checks all the boxes of things that fans have liked about us since our first album. It has political satire. It has the funny lyrics, the simpler punk songs like we started out with.”
For this exclusive “Origins” feature, each member of the band chimed in with their own inspirations for “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One),” with lead singer Rodney Anonymous including some hilarious anecdotes about his own feelings towards elder bigots.
Check out the song below, followed by the members’ accounts of how the track came together, as well as the cover artwork for Quaker City Quiet Pills.
Rodney Anonymous — Pissing Off Racists
I woke up one morning and felt like pissing off a bunch of racists. OK, that statement is a half-truth. I wake up EVERY morning and feel like pissing off a bunch of racists. It seemed wise to begin this project by pissing off a bunch of elderly racists. Of all the racists, the elderly ones are the slowest moving and, therefore, the least likely to catch up with me should they decide to pursue me. By the way, a group of elderly racists is called a “Thurmond” or an “Early Turd Special.” I also thought it would be fun to piss off the grandchildren of racists. Although more fleet of foot than their white-hooded grandparents, these folks are easily distracted by shiny objects. Should they decide to pursue me, I could just toss some dimes on the ground.
Considering the fact that 99.99% of all indie bands would rather have the entire Radiohead back catalog shoved up their asses than pen a political tune, I figured that someone outside of that genre should probably do it. If you go to eat breakfast only to discover that your grandfather has taken a dump in your oatmeal, would you say, “Well, that’s the way they used to do things back in Gramps’ day. I guess it’ll just take him some time to catch up with the rest of the world,” or would you say, “Do it again, old man, and you won’t need that Jazzy to make it across the room. You’ll be doing it on the end of my foot!” Well, the same principle applies when your grandfather votes for a racist. It’s just that the situation never came up on House (God, that was a great show).
Joe Jack Talcum — The Vandals Inspiration
The Vandals
For the guitar solo, my inspiration was The Vandals. I can’t play nearly as well as any of their guitarists, but that is the direction I was trying to go for the short solo verse — The Vandals of the early ’80s. It might sound kind of generic the way I played it. While I was playing it I could hear Rodney making fun of it. For the vocal harmonies, I was inspired by the chords of the song. I simply sang what I thought would sound good. No one stopped me or told me to do anything different. It sounded to me like a song that should have a “sing-along” chorus. The music — the chords and rhythm — comes from Rodney’s demo version of the song.
Dean Clean — Big Lizard Roots
Drumming-wise just wanted to keep it simple and straightforward. I feel like this album gets back to our Big Lizard [in My Backyard] roots, but at the same time still pushing our style further. Originally there was no break in the second verse, but Rodney suggested this brilliant idea and it nicely emphasizes the lyric line.
Dan(drew) — “Eastern” Bass Notes
The Dead Milkmen, photo courtesy of artist
Early on in the writing/practice phase, I remember having a very basic, bare-bones idea for the bassline in the chorus (basically just following the guitar notes). One night, during the drum/vocal intro, I started lightly messing with some bass notes high up on the fretboard. It sounded kinda “Eastern” to my ears, which I thought could be something a xenophobe would hate. It was determined that the intro would be best with just vocals and drums (with which I totally agree), so I figured I’d see if it worked for the chorus (and I believe it does). Not sure if that will actually piss any xenophobes off (consciously, at least), but here’s hoping. Also, we nixed the idea of a couple of notes or chords to accompany Joe’s “convoy,” because it was decided that it would be better if delivered alone and flat (with which I totally agree, too).
Quaker City Quiet Pills Artwork:
The Dead Milkmen on the Origins of Their New Single “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One)”: Exclusive
Spencer Kaufman
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