Depo Provera “The Depo Provera EP” 1989 (no label). Four song 7″ EP of snotty punk from Green Bay. We’re heading up that way this weekend for the Easter holiday and usually tune the car radio to 105.7 WAPL at some point (its playlist hasn’t changed much since the 1980′s when we lived there: we’re guaranteed to hear Aerosmith, Rush, Ratt and Zeppelin at some point) and the liner notes inside this EP are hilarious, including this: “No particular thanks to WAPL for not even being able to pony up a paltry 3rd place in their blatantly rigged 1987 Battle of the Bands in which we ascended two levels beyond our predestined fate!” Also amusing, the EP was “Engineered by some guy at Breezeway [Studios in Waukesha, WI] who never heard of the song ‘Sister Ray,’” and “if you’re interested in the honest breakdown, Jamie [Shimon, guitar, vocals] wrote the music and some of the words, and Norb [Rev. Norb Rozek, vocals, also known for Boris the Sprinkler, Suburban Mutilation and generally being a character in the Valley scene] wrote the rest of the words. While drunk.” It’s also fun reading the long list of people thanked, which include a few people I know/knew (of) from both Milwaukee and the Fox Valley.

Anyway, the four songs are short, funny and impertinent. Side A has “Liquid Personality” which is about doing shots and getting drunk, and “Class Reunion” extolls the benefits of reconnecting with old friends (kidding! lyrics include “those four years were nothing but a waste…friendships die when years come in between”) with a “wild neo-Townsend geetar break.” Side B’s “(I’m Not a Date I’m An) Alcoholic” is boisterously rude: “so I drink myself sick, I don’t give a shit and in the morning I take two Tylenol. Yeah I drink myself sick, I gag on my vomit.” The last track, “You Need Me,” is a surprisingly faithful cover of The Honey Bees, better known as Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell from Gilligan’s Island, which appeared in the 12th episode of Season 2, “Don’t Bug the Mosquitoes” first aired December 9th, 1965.