If you are one of the first 20 people to order a copy of Nothing Means Anything: Western New York Bands Pay Tribute To milf, your name will be entered into a drawing to win a super-fantastic prize package that includes brand new CD copies of both milf studio records, Ha Ha Bus! (Big Deal, 1994) and Antidope (Big Deal, 1997), a 7” record featuring original milf recordings, and a grab bag of CDs by some of the bands that contributed tracks to Nothing Means Anything. So, get your order in, and you could win.

WNY Pays Tribute To Milf
“Nothing Means Anything”
(Headless Actor)

It seems almost impossible to believe. After months of coordinating, creating and planning, and years of thinking about it before, the milf tribute CD is nearly completed. Thanks to the help of some dedicated and exceptionally talented friends we're in the home stretch, and soon I'll be sending the 12-song compilation, featuring Western New York artists covering Buffalo's greatest and most underrated rock band, out for duplication.

Three weeks ago I took a drive out to Lockport where I spent a few hours at Watchmen Studios bullshitting with proprietor Doug White – the first person who ever recorded milf – while he mastered the tracks that make up Nothing Means Anything: Western New York Bands Pay Tribute To milf. I listened to the newly mastered disc as I drove home, and certain sense of pride settled over me. There was a time when I'd pronounced this project dead. Despite immense regret and sadness, I just didn't see how it would ever get done. Initially the plan was to release a 7" vinyl ep featuring four Buffalo bands covering songs by defunct but dearly beloved power trio milf.

That was back in 2001. Then the band I was drumming in at the time broke up. Everything music related went on hold indefinitely. By that point, two of the groups – Star*Lab and the Tyrades – had already recorded their tracks, and I'm happy to say that they are included on Nothing Means Anything, though unfortunately both bands have gone the way of milf in the interim.

For those readers that don't know, milf was a band that formed in the Buffalo area in the early 1990s. When it came time for milf's members to go off to college, bassist Matt Roblee chose Oswego State, deep in the snow belt north of Syracuse while guitarist and vocalist Justin Chapman and drummer Brett Essler went to Ithaca College in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York. I.C. was where I met Justin and Brett, and coincidentally enough (I'm not making this up, I swear) Oswego State was my second choice of schools, so it seems I was destined to run into milf one way or another.

The band built a healthy following in Ithaca, playing shows, releasing cassettes and 7"s of their original songs, and eventually signing to Big Deal Records, a New York City based independent label run by a couple of Buffalo ex pats. Big Deal put out two full-length CDs by our boys, Ha Ha Bus! in 1994 and Antidope in 1995. milf did some touring in the Northeast, got some college radio airplay, a few nice reviews in national music rags, and even did a 7" for the prestigious Rough Trade Single Of The Month series in 1994 before calling it a day in 1997.

I could go on and on about milf, and what made their music unique. They remain one of my all time favorite bands, and I still listen to their records quite often, not as a nostalgic dalliance, but because I love the music they made, and still find it vital and exciting to this day. I would have never thought of teaching myself to play a drum kit if it wasn't for Brett Essler's influence and encouragement. I've expended a lot of energy and time trying to get others to listen to milf through the years.

I've written a lot about the band, and I could continue to do that, but in the end, there isn't that much to tell. Their story takes a back seat to the layered, atmospheric, heavy, and melodic music they created. And even if I was the most eloquent writer of my generation, no words could come close to expressing exactly what milf means to me. I'd rather people just listen for themselves. That's why I revived and expanded the milf tribute project last fall.

See, milf did have a small following around the world. I recall a college friend telling me about being in the Rough Trade record shop in London when she was studying abroad, and seeing a couple native lads in there quite excited because they'd found a copy of Ha Ha Bus! But milf made its biggest impact, its most intense connection, the most meaningful difference to kids at home, in Buffalo and Ithaca, which is the main reason I chose to limit the tribute disc to bands from Western New York. No offense to anyone outside the area, but milf was our own, and they always will be, an all too rare source of pride and inspiration. And this CD is our thank you to them.

I've learned the hard way over seven years of being in original local rock bands that it's easy to become disillusioned and bitter, playing to empty rooms, wringing your heart, soul, money and time into recordings that next to nobody buys, and few listen to…over time you can lose sight of what it all means. I sincerely hope that Nothing Means Anything brings new attention to milf's music and exposes new ears to some of the extremely talented bands that want to carry on milf's legacy. But if nothing else, I hope this CD we put together stands as proof that Matt, Justin and Brett's work was not in vain. And if anyone thinks that milf's existence meant nothing, then nothing means anything.

--Matt Barber
(Depew, NY- 5/22/08)


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