If you were in one specific room in 1992 you’d have heard the only performance of “Malted Milk.”

Track: “Malted Milk”
Album: Unreleased

You would be forgiven for not knowing “Malted Milk.” As near as anyone outside of John Darnielle and company would have any way of knowing, it exists solely on this recording from 1992 at Munchie’s in Pomona, California. Darnielle responded to a tweet in 2013 to clarify that the backing singers are “the Dark Mountain Boys” and as far as I can find, history does not recall them. For a song like this it’s still a remarkable amount of info to have and my hat is off to the intrepid fan who asked the question.

The song itself can best be called “of the time” for 1992. Honestly, it’s a little more complete than a lot of the unreleased stuff from the era. It is, however, right on the money for the subject matter of the time. Our narrator drinks malted milk. They love malted milk. They are sick enough looking to potentially require medical attention and their love life is maybe falling apart, but, hey, malted milk. I’ve always loved the line “I guess you know what happens next.” No one could know what happens next.