Flag Of Democracy / The Dead Milkmen - Split 7"

One of the great tall tales in Philadelphia punk history, and a genuinely excellent record regardless of how it got here. The story goes that back in 1984, the upstart Datchord label asked their good friends Flag of Democracy and The Dead Milkmen to record tracks for a split 7-inch, that a young friend secretly financed the pressing on his parents' credit card, that his mother found out and sent the records back to the pressing plant in disgust, and that thirty years later the entire pressing of 1,000 copies was discovered in a basement. It is a perfect story. It is also completely made up.

What is real is that two of Philadelphia's most beloved and irreverent punk bands got together, recorded four tracks that sound exactly like 1985, and released them with a deadpan mythology so convincing that plenty of people took the bait. FOD, aka Flag of Democracy, contribute three tracks of righteous hardcore including "Valedictorian," "Defective Service," and "Quit Your Culture." The Dead Milkmen offer up "If The Kids Could Git Together," recorded during the same sessions that produced their debut Big Lizard in My Back Yard thanks to a carefully negotiated contract clause. The music is early 1980s punk and hardcore at its finest, sharp and fast and funny, from two bands who were there when it happened and still know exactly how it is supposed to sound.

Now remastered and repressed on colored vinyl by SRA Records, because a totally real, old 7-inch that was lost in some guy's parents' house and isn't fake deserves to sound its best.