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I’ve been slogging through the book Brick Through the Window: An Oral History of Punk Rock, New Wave and Noise in Milwaukee, 1964-1984 and am just now hitting the early 80′s portion when Die Kreuzen came onto the scene. Growing up in Wisconsin and attending a gazillion punk shows in the mid-80′s, it was easy to see Die Kreuzen frequently (which I did) and perhaps overlook their standing in the punk rock genre (which I also did – at the time – but now know many consider them iconic: Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore wrote “Man, there was a point there when Die Kreuzen were the best band in the USA”): they opened for a litany of legendary punk bands – Husker Du, the Damned, Flipper, the Zero Boys, the Minutemen. In fact, “the Minutemen wrote a song about them and, from what Danny Kubinski [Die Kreuzen vocalist] told me, that song was faster and shorter than most of the Minutemen’s light-speed repertoire.” (Eric Beaumont in Brick Through the Window).

Bassist Keith Brammer states that Cows and Beer, originally released on Version Sound, was the outgrowth of Die Kreuzen’s inclusion on a comp tape called Charred Remains put out by Bob Moore, who decided to pay for half of the 7″ release. Brammer says, “Some girl had recorded us already on a tape for a project she was doing in sound school, so we didn’t need to pay for recording….and Moore knew about pressing plants so he took care of that for us. We pressed 500 and we sold the for a dollar.” Now those originals go for around $300.

The six songs on Cows and Beer include two that appeared on the above mentioned Charred Remains cassette comp: “Pain” and “Hate Me” Two other songs, “Think For Me” and “Enemies” would also appear on the 1983 Last Rite’s comp America’s Dairyland (along with other Milwaukee bands, including The Crusties and Sacred Order). The other two tracks are “In School” and “Don’t Say Please.” All six songs hover around the one minute mark, the longest, “Think For Me” clocks in at around a minute and a half. All are tense, venomous and lightning-fast hardcore punk

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MDC, originally from Texas, relocated to San Francisco in the early 80′s and helped define the California hardcore punk sound and San Fran punk political messages of equal rights, equality and anti-corruption (along with Dead Kennedys of course – Jello Biafra’s label Alternative Tentacles would collaborate with MDC on subsequent releases). Millions of Dead Cops is crammed with manic energy and classic lightning-speed punk tracks including their first single from ‘81 “John Wayne Was a Nazi,” as well as “Corporate Deathburger,” “Dick for Brains,” “Greedy & Pathetic,” “Business on Parade” and “Church & State,” the titles of which give a good idea of the lyrical content.

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Irreverent punk, blazingly fast and tense bombardments of sounds (and, occasionally, trumpet), the UK’s online zine Mass Movement reviewer described them as a“mid-eighties Milwaukee band [who] straddled the middle ground between Toxic Reasons and D.I. and blasted out melodic skate-core that was infused with a mild dose of cowpunk.” My favorite track on this 6 song EP is “Final Regret” which is a great example of hardcore 80′s punk, the era when The Crusties would play shows with bands like Circle Jerks and Die Kreuzen. Here’s a video of “Final Regret” live in Madison in ‘87 – totally insanity –  and another performance from 2012 in Milwaukee.

The cover is by artist Eric Munzinger who now goes by Eric Von Munz. Von Munz is responsible for about a zillion show flyers, posters and recording art around Milwaukee (and beyond – most famously for The White Stripes) from the mid-90s to the present.

Here is a copy of a flyer posted on The Crusties Facebook page, with the caption “This show ended with the Madison police department asking us to go back to Milwaukee as soon as possible. We did.”

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I was unable to find clips of the songs featured on this 45 release but here is a link to their performance of “Final Regret” from 1987 and it is hardcore fast insanity, seriously worth 1:46 of your time. And here is another live cut of “Collaboration” from the Odd Rock in Milwaukee (site of the infamous GG Allin show where he defecated onstage and threw it at the audience), this one showcasing how trumpet goes punk. Pretty sure I’ve been to at least one Crusties show at some point during the 90′s, likely at Shank Hall, Cactus Club or maybe the Rave but it’s all a bit murky.

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Growling, So-Cal skate punk and according to the band’s Facebook page, it is rumored that Joey Ramone had this record on his turntable at the time of his death. We saw U.S. Bombs perform at the Rave Bar sometime in the late 90’s, probably around the time of this record’s release. I had no idea Wade Waltson was the bass player and looking at some band photos, I’m not surprised I didn’t recognize him. My memory of the show is a bit hazy, but it was in ‘97 that U.S. Bombs developed a relationship with Milwaukee’s Beer City Records and the band may have been headlining a 10-band Beer City showcase. (Besides memory, I probably also lost a fair bit of hearing that night – The Rave is notorious for loud and bad acoustics). Also I think Slipknot was playing in the room next door and a couple of those guys in their weird masks were in the Bar checking out the U.S. Bombs show. They were kinda scary, but also kinda short.

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