Feeding all your grain to cows, dead children rest in peace
The stench of humans rotting smells just like fish filet
Your sign neglects to mention 50,000 starved today!"
—"Corporate Deathburger"
MDC (Millions of Dead Cops...among others) is a Hardcore Punk band from Austin, Texas, and was one of the best known bands from the scene, alongside The Dicks and Big Boys, who frequently played with each other. Formed in the late 1970's as The Stains, the band released one single (a slower version of "John Wayne Was a Nazi" and "Born to Die") before changing their name to Millions of Dead Cops in 1981 and moving to San Francisco. The band joined forces with Jello Biafra, who helped distribute their debut album, Millions of Dead Cops on his Alternative Tentacles label. The band quickly became a classic in the underground punk scene, touring relentlessly throughout the 1980's. Later albums would depart from their breakneck paced hardcore, dabbling in classic rock, cowpunk, and progressive rock, however the band definitely retained a punk sound.
The band split up in 1995, however singer Dave Dictor reunited the band in 2000, relocated MDC to Portland, Oregon, where they still remain and tour from today.
Discography:
- 1982 - Millions of Dead Cops
- 1986 - Smoke Signals
- 1987 - This Blood's For You
- 1989 - Metal Devil Cokes: It's The Real Thing
- 1991 - Hey Cop, If I Had a Face Like Yours...
- 1993 - Shades of Brown
- 2004 - Magnus Dominus Corpus
- 2017 - Mein Trumpf
Hey Troper, If I Had a Face Like Yours...:
- Anti-Police Song: "Dead Cops", "I Remember", "Let's Kill All the Cops", "No More Cops"...
- Berserk Button: Dave's are pretty well known with a cursory examination of his lyrics. Among the things that piss him off are police brutality, capitalism, big business, homophobia (as H.R. found out the hard way)...
- The '80s: The band formed and peaked in this decade.
- Fun with Acronyms/I Have Many Names: The standard explanation behind the acronym MDC is "Millions of Dead Cops", however various other releases by the band call themselves "Mariah Death Cult", "Millions of Damn Christians", "MILFS Date Cougars", "Magnum Dominus Corpus", "Millions of Dead Contractors", "My Dead Child", "Multi Death Corporation", "Millions of Dead Children" "Metal Devil Cokes"...
- Gratuitous Latin: The title of their 2004 release, Magnus Dominus Corpus,note is in Latin.
- Miniscule Rocking: Not at all a surprise coming from an 80's punk band. For example, their first album (not counting the various reissues with bonus tracks), 1982's Millions of Dead Cops has fourteen tracks on it, and runs slightly over twenty minutes, with an average track length of around 1:30. The shortest song on the record is "Violent Rednecks" at 0:39; the longest track is "John Wayne Was a Nazi" at 2:01.
- Motor Mouth: Dave's vocals definitely match the pace of the music. Notable examples include "Violent Rednecks", "Born to Die", and "Dead Cops".
- N-Word Privileges: Averted in "Dead Cops":"Watcha gonna do? The Mafia in blue
Hunting for queers, niggers and you!" - Police Brutality: Discussed in "I Remember" and "Dead Cops", among other songs.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: "John Wayne Was a Nazi", a tirade of abuse at the dead actor for his real-life right-wing politics and the reactionary nature of many of the films he appeared in, and "Nazis Shouldn't Drive", an enthusiastic celebration of the death in a car crash of the neo-Nazi punk musician Ian Stuart Donaldson.
- Straight Gay: Dave Dictor. Sort of. In the 1980's, he claimed to be gay or otherwise answered ambiguously when asked about his sexuality, however he's since claimed to be a "transvestite of sorts".
- Take That!:
- The vast majority of their discography. Their targets have ranged from capitalism and fast food ("Corporate Deathburger"), police brutality ("I Remember"), homophobia ("America's So Straight"), American culture ("Violent Rednecks"), poseurs ("Poseur Punk")...hell, even other bands weren't spared their wrath ("Pay to Come Along"), this along with jabs towards Nazis when they released "Nazis Shouldn't Drive" after the lead singer of racist British punk band Skrewdriver was killed in a car crash.
- They also received one from rock critic Robert Christgau, who suggested their name should stand for "Millions of Dumb Complaints".
