Between 19, he self-released eight cassette tapes composed of home recorded songs. Genaro has consistently recorded solo material since the early 1980s. The band originally disbanded in 1995, regrouping in 2008. Genaro acted as the group's guitarist, co-lead vocalist and co-songwriter, and occasionally played keyboards and piano. The band's debut LP, Big Lizard in My Backyard, was released in 1985, and their initial twelve-year career saw some college radio and MTV success, notably surrounding singles 'Bitchin' Camaro' (1986) and 'Punk Rock Girl' (1988). The members of the group regularly employed pseudonyms, and Genaro most frequently called himself 'Joe Jack Talcum' (stemming from the character of Jack Talcum that Genaro had imagined as the leader of the band in their mythology) in the context of the group, although he also used the pseudonyms 'Butterfly Fairweather' and 'Jasper Thread' on certain records. The Dead Milkmen properly formed 1983, evolving out of a home-recording project with a mythological back story that Genaro had begun in 1979.
