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.
