Five tracks from Beelzebubba ("I Walk the Thinnest Line", "Stuart", "Punk Rock Girl", "Smokin' Banana Peels", and "Life Is Shit") are included on the band's 1997 compilation album Death Rides a Pale Cow: The Ultimate Collection.
Overview
Beelzebubba was recorded in Austin, Texas, and was produced by Mike Stewart and Brian "Orchid Breath" Beattie.[5][6] The cover photo is of Rodney Linderman's father, also named Rodney.
The album includes the song "Punk Rock Girl", which was released as a single. The song debuted on Billboard'sModern Rock Tracks chart on January 7, 1989, at position 27;[7] it spent ten weeks on the chart,[8] peaking at number eleven on February 4, 1989.[9] The video was filmed in part at Eastern State Penitentiary.[10]
The track "Stuart" features Dead Milkmen vocalist Rodney Linderman speaking rather than singing; the song is presented in the form of Linderman rambling to an apparent man named Stuart in a trailer park about what "the queers are doing to the soil", which he claims is related to building "landing strips for gay Martians".[11][12]
In 1989, the Dead Milkmen released the Smokin' Banana Peels EP, which contains remixes of the song "Smokin' Banana Peels". It also contains several previously unreleased songs.[13]
The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins wrote that "it's 'Punk Rock Girl', the only song that shows some vulnerability amidst all the attitude, that redeems the record."[1]Trouser Press thought that "the Milkmen's skimpy charms run very thin on Beelzebubba, an album with precisely three assets: a great title, amusing artwork and the catchy but dumb 'Punk Rock Girl'."[13] The staff of People wrote: "You won't find the Dead Milkmen beating any dead horses. They just tickle one and move on to their next victim."[19]
James Muretich of the Calgary Herald wrote that the album "rides a sound of manic, minimalist rock that leaves behind such hit-and-run victims as homophobic trailer park residents, bleach boys (people with strange drinking habits) and PBS."[20] Tom Barrett of the Vancouver Sun called Beelzebubba the band's best album and "a flying drop kick of a disc that pokes savage fun at hippies, frat boys, Bob Hope and homophobes."[21]
In a retrospective article, Nicholas Pell of LA Weekly called the album "a bona fide rock & roll masterpiece" and "nothing short of the White Album of its day."[22]
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