Couch Flambeau “Mammal Insect Marriage” 1983. Ludwig Van Ear Records. It’s (unofficially) Milwaukee Day today (4/14 – 414 area code) so what better way to celebrate than with a little vintage Couch Flambeau. Formed in 1981, this is their first full-length LP release. Over the years they performed with big name acts like Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes, the Replacements and the Butthole Surfers. The guys still play occasionally around Milwaukee, every year or so at a local club, and frontman Jay Tiller, employed for years now as a sheriff, is still just as funny as ever, both onstage as well as off.

Classified as punk rock, it’s really more punk goes modern-experimental with a biting humorous edge . Their songs often give many nods to the Milwaukee area (i.e. the track “Hwy 100″ and ”Picasso’s Mailman” – shout out to Kenosha!) and to Midwestern culture (”Mobile Home” – their hit single, so to speak, though not on this LP).

Here is a photo of Jay (and his wife Renee) from 2003 at a wedding of our mutual friends, Greg and Natalie. I cannot remember exactly what happened, but he had the whole table in tears of laughter about the soup.