Last year, England's RPM record label reissued a great album by a little-known American bubblegum glam band called Milk'n'Cookies. Upon reading a review that I'd written when the disc came out, a friend of mine told me that as a teenager he'd owned a cassette of the band playing live at CBGB. Recently, he found the tape and passed it along to me.
Milk'n'Cookies formed in Woodmere, Long Island, in 1973. They were discovered by Sparks producer John Hewlet, who recruited ex-Roxy Music bass player Sal Maida. The band went to England in 1974 to record an album for Island with Muff Winwood, who had produced Kimono My House for Sparks. After their first single "Little, Lost And Innocent" was released in February of 1975, Island shelved the full-length. The album remained unreleased for over a year, then Sire signed the band and finally put it out. They recorded demos of three more songs, but they never finished another album. Guitarist and songwriter Ian North went on to form a new wave band called Radio. Their video for "Only Love Is Left Alive" was played a few times in the early days of MTV. Sal Maida went on to play with Sparks and the Runaways, as well as other Kim Fowley projects.
The following is a full-length Milk'n'Cookies live performance, recorded at CBGB in either 1975 or 1976. The set runs about 40 minutes, and unfortunately the tape runs out abruptly before the end of the last song. Huge thanks go out to Steve K. for digging this cassette out of his personal collection. Click the links for MP3s:
"Chance To Play"
"Just A Kid"
"Little, Lost And Innocent"
"On The Outs"
"The Last Letter"
"Local Talent"
"Broken Melody"
"Typically Teenage"
"Buy This Record"
"Not Enough Girls (In The World)"
"We Go On Dancing"
"Tinkertoy Tomorrow"
"Rivets"
"Girls And Gangs"
The flip side of the tape contains the 1976 Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press Of The Air radio broadcast of the self-titled Milk'n'Cookies album, which at that point remained unreleased. The program begins with the WGTD-FM DJ's introduction to the program and Ira Robbins' brief interview with Ian North, which you can listen to here (MP3).
Very nice. I saw these guys perform at the Rainbow in L.A. back in '76 or '77. About all I can remember was that the keyboard player wore flannel pajamas with feet onstage.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 24, 2006 at 05:26 PM
Yay! Love that sweet punky bubblegum!
Posted by: Jesse | January 24, 2006 at 08:55 PM
Great song titles!
I remember (back in the day) reading about M 'n' C being part of that first wave of NY power punk bands, along with Talking Heads, Television, Blondie and Lance Loud's band The Mumps
I never knew M 'n' C had a legit album...will have to search it out. This live set whets the appetite.
Posted by: Alexa | January 24, 2006 at 08:56 PM
umm... the flyer pictured states "WED: Freestone." if that is the 'Bummer Bitch' Freestone, i'd much rather hear THAT concert, thenkyew. any one have it??
Posted by: craig | January 25, 2006 at 01:10 AM
I'm Ian's girlfriend. I'm really happy about the press M'n'C is getting. Did you know Ian released 3 albums after that. And recorded one unreleased album called 'Torch Songs & Arson'?
Posted by: Mooshi | January 25, 2006 at 09:14 PM
justin strauss is a god.
Posted by: luckie | January 25, 2006 at 09:34 PM
I just found out about this band and your post came at the perfect time. I just love their sound. Yay for the blog and Milk 'n' Cookies!
Posted by: Abby Denson | January 26, 2006 at 11:58 PM
Justin Strauss is also recognized as one of the worlds best Djs. He's played everywhere from Londons Ministry of sound to NYC Roxy and he has also remixed everyone from Depeche Mode to Blondie! You can catch Justin at ASPEN on west 22nd street btwn 5 and 6th Ave every say night with ME his Dj partner for the last 3 years! hope to see some of you there!
BC
Posted by: Billy Caldwell | February 13, 2006 at 03:17 PM
Glad to see such a rare set by this great glam/pre new wave band emerge, just for the record the 70s invasion was the first site to post reviews of this band back in 2000, sometime not long afterwards we were sent in a writeup by a very close friend of Ian North's which can be seen in our 2nd M and C section on our page 5 along with info on the band not found anywhere else, our first section on Milk and Cookies is on page 4 , some of you know that Rpm records released a retrospective cd in '04, enjoy -
http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/70sinvasion
Posted by: alan | February 14, 2006 at 06:30 PM
RAGS must have been the best kept secret in the N.y. underground from the early-mid 70s, they are the missing link between the N.y. DOLLS and MILK-n-COOKIES, many songs sound like Dolls demos, elsewhere they have the same exact vocal harmonies as Milk-n-Cookies, you will find reviews and info on Rags on our site + an interview with one member, and you can order these previously unreleased songs which just became available at the start of '06 -
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/desykes/Rags.html
Posted by: alan | February 28, 2006 at 10:36 PM
Great to hear this set and the original version of "Girls in Gangs". Later covered by The FAST on their second album w/Donna Destri & Cherry Vanilla on backing vocals!
Posted by: O | March 12, 2006 at 06:29 AM
everyone wanted to sound like the NEw York DOlls
they were the heros of the lower east side were everyone lived-hung out
M&C's were mildly popular mostly at MAXs were they had a drink named after them
the best thing that came out of them was Jimi Destri joining BLONDIE his keyboard surf sound was just what they needed
Posted by: Deborah | May 15, 2006 at 11:18 AM
Ahoy, Milk 'n' Cookies fans!! Check out Justin Strauss' positive comments on this very awesome blog in the latest - and 1st - issue of Rock Mania magazine. Justin dishes the goodies about the Cookies in our fun, fact filled interview. PLUS we've got never-before-seen photos of the band practicing in Justin's parents basement in Long Island, recording the LP with Muff in London, onstage at the Whiskey A Go Go, and MORE!! All in glossy, FULL color splendor throughout!! Fifty-six pages total...with ten exclusively Cookies-centric.
www.totalrockmania.com
Posted by: Rock Mania Magazine | September 10, 2006 at 02:08 PM
justin strauss is my uncle
Posted by: Brandon | September 27, 2006 at 09:25 PM
We went to CBGB's with Normie and Leona to hear M&C. We had a great time then. Justin jumped and sang and he was destined to be great
Posted by: Joyce | June 27, 2007 at 01:26 PM
I worked with Mike back in '76 (ADT) and he had a dream and I see it is finally coming true, I listen - I think too much to this site and they are GOOD! My kids listen now plus I have them into the Ramones
Posted by: Big Tom | May 07, 2008 at 10:20 PM