The Mighty Deer Lick “Stag Nation” 1990. Sub-Atomic Records. Four song EP from Milwaukee OG pop-punks. Though I’ve seen MDL play gobs of times over the years, I wasn’t at their most recent show at X-Ray Arcade (opening for Chicago’s OG punks The Effigies) this past Friday night but Joe was. It’s been a rough week and a rough couple of months generally as in December and then on Friday we lost our beloved boys, Mr. Pocket and Mr. Pants. Litter mates born around August 2009, we got them from the cat shelter (that I now volunteer at these past 9 years) when they were just 5 months old. The house feels really really empty. Anyway, after their set, Deerlick Dave came out with with a PANTS shirt on – you can read the story Joe wrote for me (I had to work early in the morning so the note was there for me when I got up) but if you can’t read his writing, this is what it says:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Pants. Deerlick Dave was wearing this shirt after finishing their set. I asked him where he got it – probably online he replied – and told him our story. Having recently lost his dog, Jim, Dave said “Wait right there” and disappeared through the staff and artists’ door, reemerging moments later with a fresh shirt on, he hands me his PANTS t-shirt with the apology “it’s a little damp,” and hugged in condolence for our lost pets. RIP Jim, Pants, Pocket

Stag Nation is a mix of snotty pop punk: “She’s My Chemist,”  the extremely short and extremely silly “Skate,” the excellent rocker “Hey!” and some twanging Americana “On a Cloudy Day” that has both mandolin and harp, mixed into the late 80’s/early 90’s sound which just a year or so later would be called grunge, or at least grunge-adjacent. The liner notes are fun as my sister-in-law (Joe’s sister) and her ex-husband (who were are still friends with) are the third and fourth people thanked, plus a bunch of bands I saw in the 90’s after I moved to Milwaukee in ’93 and clubs that mostly gone (The Unicorn and The Odd Rock) and other assorted acquaintances in the Milwaukee music scene. That The Mighty Deerlick are still around and playing is pretty amazing, though the lineup has changed a bit over the years, the most tragic one being the loss of Dan Franke who died a year or two ago after battling some serious health issues for a long long time.