Dave Blood

I have been trying to post something about Dave Blood's untimely demise all week. Instead, I yoinked this from Phillyburbs.com.

"Dave Blood of the Dead Milkmen dead

Dave Blood, bassist of Philadelphia's punk legends The Dead Milkmen, has died. According to a post from Blood’s sister Kathy on the band's official message board, Blood took his own life earlier this week.


"Since the breakup of the band David has never really found his niche in life," Blood's sister writes. "My brother was a smart, clever and talented person. Inner peace has seemed to elude him for the last many years. Please pray for … my bother's soul; that he now has the peace that seemed to elude him most of his life."


The Dead Milkmen formed in Philadelphia in 1982 and released their debut album, "Big Lizard in My Backyard," in 1985. The band's humorous lyrics and punk attitude spawned many underground hits including "Bitchin' Camaro," "The Thing That Only Eats Hippies" and a parody of dance music and the music industry at large, "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything.)"


The Dead Milkmen experienced mainstream exposure on MTV with their video "Punk Rock Girl" and after the band's mocking performance on "Club MTV," the band handcuffed themselves to the host Downtown Julie Brown. Lead singer, Rodney Anonymous, not leaving well enough alone, further freaked out Brown by dumping a can of worms on her head. (Turns out the worms were fake, but Brown's reaction was genuine.)


The Dead Milkmen released 10 albums, including a live album, "Chaos Rules," recorded at the Trocadero, in Philadelphia. When the band broke up in 1994, Blood stopped playing music.


2003 saw the release of two new Dead Milkmen products, a DVD titled, "Philadelphia in Love" which compiles all of the band's videos plus loads of extras, and an odds and sods compilation CD, "Now We Are 20."


In 1998, Blood found spiritual and intellectual refuge in Serbia, where he lived and studied the country's history, literature and culture. Blood was forced to leave country in 1999 during the NATO bombing attacks. In a recent interview with music writer Mark Prindle,, Blood enjoyed his brief stay immensely. "The time I spent in Serbia, to use a shopworn phrase, were the best days of my life. I felt a great joy and excitement in my life for the first time in years."


Blood also revealed to Prindle why he stopped performing after the Dead Milkmen broke up. "During the last few years I was playing with the band I developed a nasty case of tendonitis in both hands. It was quite painful and required me to get cortisone shots in my hands when the pain got to be too much to bear," said Blood.


"My pain and hand problems went away when I stopped playing bass on a regular basis. So, every time I even start to consider picking up the four-stringed love axe again, I hear this voice in the back of my head asking me, 'Do you really want to have to take Darvocets in order to be able to tie your shoe laces or twist the lids off of juice bottles?'"

You can read remembrances of Dave Blood by Philadelphia musicians, fans and friends here."