special introductory paragraph!

Live in Portland, Ore. 1979

Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

1978 Demo

In God We Trust, Inc.

Interview Disc

Plastic Surgery Disasters

Spend the 4th of July With Dead Kennedys

Live At The Olympic 8/84

Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death

A Skateboard Party

Frankenchrist

Jello's Revenge

Never Been On MTV

Live & Alive

Bedtime For Democracy

Live In Germany

Mutiny On The Bay

In God We Trust, Inc.-The Lost Tapes DVD

Live At The Deaf Club

Live in Portland, Ore. 1979 - bootleg.

This was the first hardcore album I ever heard, and it stayed in my tapedeck for months - for good reason. These songs are funny, vicious, violent, loud, fast, and not at all impenetrable like some later hardcore (and some later DKs, too, actually). Although it seems kinda slow in comparison to pogo-speed Minor Threat, Seven Seconds, D.R.I., and even their own later material, it still pretty much kicks ass all the way through. No ballads, and even the slowest songs are fast enough to bang your head to. And (if I may begin a sentence with the word "and" for a moment) "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday In Cambodia" are the most famous DK songs of all-time, making this record an essential addition to any punk rock collection. It's also the least irritating record they ever made. A few of the songs are a bit too similar (putting "I Kill Children," "Stealing Peoples' Mail," and "Funland At The Beach" all together in a row wasn't a terribly good idea), but the lyrics always make 'em interesting anyway. It's not an absolutely perfect record (very few are), but, being one of the first American hardcore albums ever made earns it very high marks in the "history" department, and it's still an awfully entertaining listen, especially for those unfamiliar with the "hardcore" genre.

Reader Comments

gruaccp@mithlond.esoterica.pt (Vasco Rodrigues)
Hi! I really enjoyed your page. Although I'm a long time DK's fan, it was the first time I've seen someone going over their records with such a care for details. A curious thing about your comments is that, even though I share the same admiration for DK's as you do, I disagree with a lot of things you have wrote! :)

When you say that Fresh Fruit... is "the least irritating record they ever made," do you mean that DK's records are generally irritating? Also I disagree when you say "putting "I Kill Children," "Stealing Peoples' Mail," and "Funland At The Beach" all together in a row wasn't a terribly good idea"; It's one of the wildest parts of the album and Biafra hasn't wrote any other lyrics like those ones. They are reminiscent of 77 punk in the way they seem to be so nihilistic. I love those three songs, especially because they are together. I would probably rank it as the best all-time punk record. Not just because of the good music or lyrics, but because DK's had been together for such a short period of time before they have putted out this record. And also, Biafra was so young and already showed so much maturity and talent.

jnw@iglobal.net (Jim Hull)
Wow. Got the opportunity to listen to this recently, and one thing that's really impressive about it is the fact that the sound is so confident. This was described to me as being a little slow when compared to a lot of the California hardcore of the era, and well, I listened to a lot of it, and while the DK debut is a little slower, it's still plenty speedy, and just a unique sound with a pissed-off, sarcastic yowler, who has all the piss and personality of Johnny Rotten circa 1977 and as an added plus, his rants even sound genuine--that was not a mean feat...plus a surfy, twangy, reverby guitar and tight rhythm section...whew!

user@jhu.edu
In response to your comments about some songs on Fresh Fruit... being slower than the music of the Kennedys' contemporaries, I came across a copy of the album released in Europe a year later on the Italian label Cherry Red, and some of the songs are considerably faster, and the song order has been changed so that the similar sounding songs were staggered (let's hear it for alliteration). I like the European version slightly better, but both are amazing and can truthfully claim the place of greatest punk/hardcore album of all time.

rojanko@pacbellnet (Rob Krohn)
My favorite album of all time! This is the one that got me into DK in the first place. In 1982, I spent a lot of time in the record stores. I used to flip through the entire selection of records at any given store a least once a week looking for something new and interesting. Sometimes I would buy a new album just because it had a cool cover or the band had a cool name (ahh records! So much more fun than today! Am I the only one who really misses the excitement of buying a new record -- slitting open the shrink wrap, checking out what's inside...). Who didn't?!? Buried deep in back of a rack of records was FFRV, by the Dead Kennedys.

"Dead Kennedys" -- hmmm, that sounds kinda cool.

"Even better than Judas Priest" my twisted piss-off-the-parents teenaged brain thought.

After hearing the first couple of notes (EEEEEEEEE --- FFFFFFFFFFFFFICIENCY and progress are ours ONCE-A-MORE....), wasn't sure I liked it. I thought it sounded kind of wimpy - weak production with a singer whose voice warbled all over the place. But after a few more songs, it grew on me (that damn "Let's Lynch The Landlord" is pretty catchy) much like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" must have grown on my parents. Therein lies the strength of the album: great melodies. Also surprisingly tight for a band which had only been together a few months.

And the lyrics! None of that "D&D crap" all the metal bands were caterwauling about! Songs about killing children and suicide...well not really. At age 14 I was old enough to understand the band was being sarcastic, but not old enough to get all of the references. No matter! Still cool. Even more cool because I was the first kid in junior high with this album. (I was living in Nebraska at the time where trends were 3 years behind either coast.)

Listening to it today, I think it holds up against time beter than the other DK albums. It has many of their best tunes, and the production, while pitifully low budget, is great compared to PSD and BFD. Wonderful reviews Mark!

r7d35@pop.unb.ca (Greg Paradis)
This is the one music album I've listened to the most in my life so far... I just can't seem to get fed up. I disagree with the inappropriateness of putting "I Kill Children," "Stealing Peoples' Mail," and "Funland At The Beach" one after another; they are really short tracks, and I love that stretch of the album. It's like the songs are brothers (or sisters, or cousins, or whatever). Also, has anyone ever noticed that the lyrics to "I Kill Children," as published in the album liner, are missing a line: Ever wanna die? Of course you have. But I won't till I get my revenge. I've been buttfucked far too many ways. (the missing line) I don't wanna see people anymore. Things you never ever saw before. Gonna see them for the shit they are. Take as many many as I can away with me. Anybody can be king for a day! I could listen to this album on "repeat" for hours (have done so often, as a matter of fact).

Natron909@aol.com
DK RULE! I think is DK's best, wittiest, raunchy, punky, and intelligent album. I even bothered visiting a web page about Cambodia, at which the opening paragraph explains how "in the early 1980's, a no-taste, talentless American punk band called The Dead Kennedys thrashed out raucous numbers calculated to incense and offend....'Holiday in Cambodia' was a cynical swipe at regular notions of a holiday destination." I was laughing my ass off! Good for DK! Cambodia (the country) just can't accept that everything Jello said IS THE TRUTH. Fresh Fruit... tells of the secrets and hidden fuck-ups of our 'great' country, that closely reminds me of IN GOD WE TRUST, INC.. In short, no beating around the bush, DK rule!

salvo@cetlink.net (Greg Ellis)
well we're in agreement here...fresh fruit was definitely their high-mark. i think their last two were kind of stale, and poor jello has sucked with every band he's worked with (pretty bad when nomeansno can't even carry a record for ya) since. anyway...reportedly 6025, their original guitarist, is now a right-wing christian who supposedly called the cops in to raid gilman street about three years ago when a spoken-word performer took her shirt off. that's what i read in mrr anyway, but they aren't the biggest dk/alternative tentacles fans these days. neat that east bay ray caught your site...

LORI67@prodigy.net
fucking punk on. Elvis music done DK style!!! What a great band. Where are the great bands today?

bish24@erols.com
Simply, the album that changed my life. Honestly, my friends and me bought it almost as a joke, since the name was sooo offensive we thought it would be cool. But I consistently had this tape in my tape deck (home and car) for about two years!

Biafra is the master at pulling other people's chain - and they usually don't even know it! "Police Truck", "Let's Lynch The Landlord", and "Kill The Poor" rank as my faves. It's great to see someone devote a lot of space to honor this band, since most of what you would read about them during the early 80's was automatically negative due to the name of the band (again, Biafra's irony in action).

Anarchist@goplay.com
Fresh Fruit was the first album I ever bought. A few friends at that time were into DK, and they told me it was brilliant. I thought i'd give it a listen, and man, did it blow my mind. The lyrics are truly inspired, and might I mention, funny. The music rips.

This album has found a permanent home in my 5 disk cd player.

reech@dorsai.org
When this one came out, I was blown away. It became my favorite record for about 3 years. Every song is great, the Elvis cover is hilarious and these guys (at least to my impressionable mind) were gonna be the American Sex Pistols! Didn't quite work out that way, but shit happens! My wife and I have 4 different copies of this album!

cochecito@geocities.com
Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables is the law, it is a masterpiece, just listen to "Holiday in Cambodia"... WOW. The lyrics are great, the singing is great, everything is great! This surely did some change in the punk scene. This one is the law.

DK9711@aol.com
Even if this isn't what people consider a great albumn musically or lyrically, it is still a great albumn when you put them together. It's only rival in terms of great punk albumns would live albumns of other bands or possibly Give me Convienience or Give me Death. This is one of the few albumns that sounds like it's live, and it adds to the feel of it. I dont know what you mean by "surf", but i don't hear any. This gets my vote for best albumn all-time (any genre). Jello at his best, before the public tainted him, and the DK's without any excess noise.

chris@intown.net (Chris Schwarz)
Before I owned any Dead Kennedys albums, I read all of your reviews (many, many times over!) to help determine which one I would eventually purchase. I wasn't too knowledgeable about the Dead Kennedys and their music, but decided to start from the beginning with Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables and work my way up. The first time the song "Kill The Poor" graced my ears, I covered them with my hands and said, "What the fuck is this shit?" (and I LIKE punk!) Mid-way through the song, I cracked a wry smile and knew I was into something good. I didn't really notice the bad/weak production on FFFRV until I listened to the other Dead Kennedys albums, but that still doesn't change my opinion of it. It's a fuckin' classic regardless of the fact that it doesn't sound absolutely pristine because the music, if you'll excuse the pallid, horribly overused buzzword, rocks! I enjoy each of the Dead Kennedys albums in their own unique way because they all have something different to add or put forth. Notwithstanding, FFFRV will always hold a special place in my heart (mainly because it was the first Dead Kennedys album I ever owned), and was my initial rite of passage into DK-dom.

jim.morrison@montego.com (Michael Rohm)
What can I say? The only regret I have in getting into the DKs is that I didn't get into them a WHOLE lot earlier. Biafra has some of the most 'sarcastic' vocals I have ever heard. As a matter of fact, this really shouldn't be for FFRV, since I think all of the DK albums deserve a 10, even though that's against the rules. ;P In a lot of ways, this band has changed my outlook on life - not necessarily that they've changed my opinions so much as they've expressed things that I personally feel. When people think of "punk rock," they typically think of undereducated kids with silly mohawk hair who hate the world. Who would imagine a "punk" band saying, "Our REAL test of strength is *caring*"? One of my all-time favourite DK songs is "Stars and Strips of Corruption," wherein Biafra tells people that caring for your fellow man, not lying and scheming to get what *you* want at the expense of others, and teaching kids communication and theatre is the way to go. Instead of "I wanna destroy!" by the Sex Pistols, Biafra says we must rise above the need for cops and laws - we must, ourselves, "change ourselves first - from the inside out." It is a true shame that the message of the DKs has been ignored because they're not "punk enough," or because they're not on eMpTyVee. And even 10 years later we can read the lyrics to "Riot" in the wake of the Rodney King riots and see that nothing's really changed...

jakob.beks@guest.arnes.si
In my opinion, this is the best DK album of all. I like the way it's kinda surfy and all, and I disagree with the people who say the production sux. I like it the way it is and I like the spooky riffs on "Drug Me" or "When ya get drafted" and I especially like the really "evil" sound of "Holiday in Cambodia". I also think the best Biafra vocals can be found here (I especially like the "stimulaaaaaation" part on "Drug Me") and the lyrics aren't as hardcore political as In god we trust, inc.. This one is a classic, and the Sex Pistols' Never mind the bollocks sounds a lot "nicer" than this.

Timothy_Cunningham@washcoll.edu
I was introduced to the Dead Kennedys by my friend a year and a half ago. This was the album he had. I borrowed it and taped it. Upon first listening to it, I was surprised by Jello's interesting voice. Quite a distinctive voice. When I first put it on, I was hooked. I loved it. Although not my favorite album, it still ranks up there. The only problem that I have is that there's no sense of unity between all the songs. But they are great tunes in and of themselves. My favourites: "Ill in the Head", "Kill the Poor", "When Ya Get Drafted", "Drug me" (one of my absolute favorites), "Holiday in Cambodia", and of course the comical "Viva Las Vegas"... This is a great album, worth purchasing for those who haven't listened to it.

imes.judy@mcleodusa.net (Elliot Imes)
When I heard about the Dead Kennedys and their song titles, I thought they would be this super-fast punk band with a dark, gruff-voiced singer with super-dark lyrics. Boy, was I wrong. This album is hilarious, offensive, catchy, and so sarcastic and ironic that it blows almost every punk band out of the water. Jello Biafra is one of my idols now, and his lyrics are so perfect and parallel to my beliefs. It sucks that they broke up, but I guess every band has to. Long live DK!!!!!

mannie@youpy.com
Yes this is album is worth a ten.

A great start for a great band. This album is diffrent from the others, this was their original sound. Ain't really hardcore, i call this "Old School punk with a Surf Guitar". Listen to "Let's lynch the landlord" its a good punk song, and suddenly you hear a kickass surf solo. That doesn't fit in... then again it DOES. And everyone knows California Uber Alles. (If DK was called Nirvana, California Uber alles would be Smells like Teen Spirit) I Kill children is great. "God told me to skin you alive" YEAH!!! Too bad they got a lot of Nazi Punks at their gigs who didn't know Biafra's lyrics were all ironically meant.

msaroff@pobox.com (Matthew Saroff)
A couple of comments:

* The Dead Kennedys are actually decent musicians, with stuff like chord progression. There are plenty of technically talented people in Punk, but generally they try to cover it up.

* Mix up a tape with "Holiday in Cambodia" followed by the Monkees "Daydream Believer". It's a trip.

savage1561@juno.com (Evan Streb)
If you ask me, this album is best appreciated when you only listen to it like three or four songs at a time. Because some of the songs sound a lot like each other and it gets monotonous (I agree with the similarities between "Stealing People's Mail", "I Kill Children" and "Funland At The Beach"). Great album though.

Am I the only person in the entire world that thinks that the melody to "Let's Lynch The Landlord" is a complete ripoff of that old Nuggets song "We Ain't Got Nothing Yet"? Probably...

I don't think anybody's mentioned this yet, but did you know the Dead Kennedys actually achieved huge success in England? Both the "Too Drunk To Fuck" single and Fresh Fruit (which also went gold) reached the Top fifty in the UK charts. In fact, had "Too Drunk To Fuck" reached number 35 instead of 36, Jello and co. would have gotten a spot on Top Of The Pops! With a song called "Too Drunk to Fuck"! That would have been AWESOME!

aturbit@bocnet.com.au (Adam Turbit)
tis was my first ever punk record..........this album kicked ass all the way down here in australia....i never get sick of hearing it 20 years later......i kept buying their records after this one.....what sex pistols??????

jbhippie@hotmail.com (James Hippie)
So, uh, yeah, I'm not going to argue that the Dead Kennedys are undeserving of their place in punk's Great Hall of Iconoclasts. Hell, the DK's were my entree into punk rock in the first place. A chance hearing of Fresh Fruits. . . . in the summer of 1980 when I was 13 (also known as Boner Summer) probably saved me from a life monster truck rallies and Judas Priest jerseys, but it could have easily been any band from that era and had the same effect (I just thank Christ it wasn't Fear!) There's absolutely nothing wrong with Fresh Fruits. . . . (although I preferred In God We Trust, and not just because it was faster), but after I had a chance to look around and hear some of the other bands that were out there, well, the Dead Kennedys just seemed rather cartoonish by comparison. If you own Fresh Fruits. . . . and In God We Trust I'd say you pretty much have all you need by them. I don't know many people that bothered with anything after Plastic Surgery Disasters, although that is a great title and cover. You people on here are quite obviously deranged and without taste.

And you know, judging a band primarily on how fast they play is exactly why punk became so regimented and boring in the first place. I think the Dead Kennedys are as boring as fuck, the height of punk rock tedium, but at least they had a distinctive sound that was all their own. All you hardcore clones deserve bands like DRI. You really do.

aostevenson@earthlink.net (Alex Stevenson)
An interesting band with a great surf/punk sound. Unfortunately, they are a little too mean spirited. Admit it, if you've got enough money to live in San Francisco and make records, life ain't so bad.

jjrnelson@charter.net
i think that DK is the shit i dont care what any one says.

Iam a long ti me punk and I got started into punk by my older brother and DK is one of the very first punk record i herd( i kill children) is a good song and stealing peoples mail and fund land at the beach. I think it was a good idea to put all the songs together was a good idea

javier.blanco@asemas.es (Javier Blanco Perez)
Hi, mr. Mark Prindle. I agree that the first DK album is a masterpiece of punk, but some critics label it as Hardcore, so the question now is that if with Punk Rock, the beginnigs are kinda clear (maybe Ramones first album, and in a more meaner and menacing way, the Sex Pistols only record), and you know that it came after what is called the "proto-punk" era (with the Stooges, New York Dolls, MC5 or Dictators early records), i don't really know when and where Hardcore Punk begins. I supose circa 1980, with this DK debut, or The Circle Jerks first one, maybe Black Flag's Damaged or Minor Threat's self titled Ep in 1981. You know that you can find more punk influence on Dead Kennedy's debut or in the Misfits' walk Among us, or Fear's record than Hardcore influence, and in opposite way you can hear pure Hardcore influence and almost no punk rock on Negative Approach's, SS decontrol, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles or Suicidal Tendencies. So which is the beginning point? Which is the point when new bands left away the more rock influences that spread (in a fuckin' lovely way) the records of bands like Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, Heartbreakers, Radio Birdman, Stiff Little Fingers, etc., and become hardcore punk. Please somebody answer me. Thanx.

ddickson@rice.edu
This is one of the most energetic early '80's albums I've ever heard. That's nearly all it has going for it.

Has anybody noticed that a full quartet of the songs on here are straight rip-offs of The Clash's "Protex Blue"? And that at least half of the others have the same rhythm as "Blitzkrieg Bop"? And that everybody seems to have a problem when Nirvana plays something on ONE SONG that sounds remotely like Boston? Whatever.

Still, this ain't ALL boredom and unoriginality. It has at least three inarguable classics (California Uber Alles, Lynch the Landlord, and Chemical Warfare), and the instrumental prowess of the bass player is pretty impressive. Plus Jello sounds like a Yank version of Johnny Rotten. And the rest of the songs, though mostly forgettable from a writing standpoint, are at least fast and hilarious. Maybe not the towering rock and roll classic it's made out to be by those who were 13 in 1980 (as well as those 13 now--coicidence? Hell no.), but at least a pleasant diversion from living in fuckin' Kansas in fuckin' January 2005.

Bush? More like TUSH. 'Nuff said.

8/10.

Add your thoughts?

---

1978 Demo - Bootleg.

Reader Comments

savage1561@juno.com (Evan Streb)
That's disgusting.

Although not exactly highly-respected by music critics, it's still a pretty dang funny record if you aren't a-feared of fast noisy blasphemy. And the cover drawing of a golden Christ figure being crucified on a cross of dollar bills is wonderful (and, of course, got them banned from several chain record stores).

Reader Comments

olivia@mail.camtech.net.au (Gerwyn Evans)
In God We Trust is one of the DK's best albums - it is so fast and sounds heaps good. The new drummer was heaps better. "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" is the best song and I agree with the lyrics strongly.

kriz@www.TCCC.com (Krizman)
I really like In God We Trust, the best out of the five DK albums I've heard. "Religious Vomit" and "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" are the greatest.

nicho@dcscomp.com.au (Peter Nicholson)
You would have to say that his album is the epitomy of punk thinking. "Nazi Punks..", "Moral Majority" and "Religious Vomit" are the three best songs of the DK's first couple of records, as they are more confronting than any others, I believe. This is the quintessential punk rock record.

fmxcss@ccinet.ab.ca (Jim Johnson)
This is the all time best fucken record. It starts out good and ends with a bash. The only bad sone is "DOG BITE." But is there one album that does not have a bad song? DK Fucken Rock and there ain't no more.

Phlegm8907@aol.com
Peligro was dreadlocked but I don't think he was a Rasta. Listening to the EP today, I'm still overwhelmed by the sense of urgency about---snotty and angry and genuinely concerned about the power of the schmucks condemned in the songs. These are perhaps the most straightforward (lyrically) songs Jello has ever penned (with the exception of the surreal/hardcore "Dog Bite"), probably due to the fact that songs like "KIll The Poor" were often misunderstood by the jock types that were beginning to flood the hardcore scene.

Lifesntnce@aol.com
Let's please not forget the cassette version of this record, which featured a blank side so you could bootleg your favorite corporate rock band. One of the absolute coolest things I had ever seen. ..and "Dog Bite" doesn't suck, yet it captures the "studio live-ness" of the album with the "hold it, too slow" beginning.

blackbear@mix-net.net (Rice)
Although the first two songs on this record are THE SAME SONG this album is still great. "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" is just great. The way Jello just replaced lyrics of "California Uber Alles" is so awesome. And its not like he said ok we need another song to fill up space in this album, it's like he saw that bastard Ronald Reagan for what he was and stuck it to him! That one song alone gets my adrenalin pumping faster just by listening to it! BANDS THAT ENTERTAIN AS WELL AS MAKE YOU THINK RULE!!

Anarchist@goplay.com
In God We Trust, Inc. The name, first of all, is a statement of what religion has devolved into in America. (Everywhere else, for that matter) Bible-bashing TV evangelists caring for nothing more than the dollar. It has become a business.

"Nazi Punks" is a brilliant song.

"We've got a bigger problem now" is the best song on the album. It pumps out dissatisfaction of Ronny's policies and points out where it's all heading for. This song really gets the blood pumping unlike any other.

Yet another great album.

reech@dorsai.org
A real letdown. The songs thrashed so much that they became indisguinshable and the jokes are lost. Jello during this period was stating how this was a "response" record to the early Hardcore but it was not their finest hour.

chris@intown.net (Chris Schwarz)
Very, very fast! In God We Trust, Inc. is, without a doubt, the VERY EMBODIMENT of hardcore punk and what hardcore punk means. This fuckin' shreds. No bullshit. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is more esoteric, more read-between-the-lines type political humor and content, whereas In God We Trust, Inc. is Jello saying the same thing - only in a much more frank and angrier way. The songs are short, fast, funny, and to-the-point. This album contains so much energy, too, and I bet it pissed off an armada of religious fundies upon its release. (The collage picture of the old religious fart with glasses ripping the In God We Trust, Inc. record sleeve in half says it all!) The cover art can't be beaten! I want to get it tattooed on my back!

jakob.beks@guest.arnes.si
Yeah, this one is pretty cool too, the most hardcore of all their albums. I love "Religious Vomit" and "Nazi punks fuck off" is so damn cool, because it deals with problems within the punk scene (As does some stuff on Bedtime for democracy like "Anarchy for sale" and "Chicken shit conformist"), and it also deals with stuff that is real, happening and not made up. The lyrics, however, are a bit too... Biafra type (whatever that means) for somebody, who isn't into politics.. I mean this isn't the album for your average NOFX-rule-I-m-a-punk punks. They will go :"Uh huh..." and look real scared after Jello finishes "Moral Majority", which is real cool. I just hate "Dog bite", because it's too long! I mean, why does he sing the whole lyrics twice, when they are this dumb? Or maybe I'm dumb...

S.student@rcondw.rug.nl
This record sounds like punk should sound: fast and aggressive. It's my all-time favourite. I had one big orgasm listening to it. Wow, it's great.

harshba3@marshall.edu (Luke)
inc. was the first dk i bought

imes.judy@mcleodusa.net (Elliot Imes)
So what if "Religious Vomit" and "Moral Majority" are basically the same song? They both kick ass, and they both have lyrics that make me give an "amen" to Jello. And "Nazi Punks" is just plain great, although it's probably one of the reasons that Jello got the crap kicked out of him that one time. Anyway, this is a great add-on to Plastic Surgery Disasters (which is just barely not as good as IGWTI).

InMyEyes82@aol.com
hey i just got this album a few days ago and it totally rules. in my opinion, its better than fresh fruit. "religious vomit" and "moral majority" and "hyperactive child" totally rip my flesh off and "we've got a bigger problem" is hilarious and it is also a great song. my only complaint about this one is that the songs are so fast that east bay ray doesn't really get a chance to do his "surf" thing on the guitar which is one of the big reasons that i love this band. and this is in response to the guy who said "nazi punks fuck off" is the reason jello got the crap kicked out of him-no, thats not the reason. the stupid asses who beat him up thought that he was some rich rock star.

Battams@hotkey.net.au
this is the best cd ever created fuck off nazi punk all religions make me ill

afi2@hotmail.com
In God We Trust, Inc. is by far the best album, along with Fresh Fruit. Today I was downtown and two other people and I got into a conversation about the radio station playing in the store we were in. One guy was complaining about the station not playing Bare naked ladies. I complained that it had never played Dead Kennedys. The first guy didn't know who DK were. I explained to him that they were the best band ever. The third guy, who I thought listened to oldies, spoke up at my mention of DK, and added "They are also the most talented, most intelligent, most literate band ever to show it's face on Earth." I couldn't agree more. The Dead Kennedys broke up well over a decade ago, yet they are still the best band to ever put out an album.

mannie@youpy.com
Allright they're trying anything to piss Republicans off, lyrically of course they already did like with the release of the "Too drunk to fuck" 7". And now musically. Let's make some NOISE!!!! And thats what this is, noise. Sure it's hardcore punk but i dont find the songs catchy. They're just trying to play as loud as possible. What makes this one worth buying is California Uber Alles part two: We've got a bigger problem now, and the kickass Rawhide cover. DK is a great band but if you want Superfast hardcore punk that kicks ass try the first SUICIDAL TENDENCIES album

LJW@Mail.amsa.gov.au (Lachlan Watt)
Dead Kennedys was the first punk band I really got into and they certaintly mean a lot to me. While Plastic Surgery Disasters remains my favourite Dead Kennedys album, the In God We Trust Inc. EP is great because it shows that the band never took themselves too seriously. I guess they left the hardcore evangelism to MDC.

BTW, the "old religious fart with glasses" in the collage art is actually Winston Smith, the artist who designed the album cover, the DK and AT logos, and came up with a bunch of the material for Jello's collages.

billsangry@aol.com
Great music! Great Album artwork! Great Package! I honestly think this is when "Punk Rock" reached it's peak......

jawsgman@aol.com
okay the authors of the songs were never printed in the booklet of this record they were on the 12" but not the CD comp with plastic surgery: so heres who wrote the songs for this album
Religious Vomit-6025
Moral Majority, Hyperactive Child, Depone Factory, Nazi Punks Fuck Off-Biafra Dog Bite-Klaus Flouride
Weve Got A Bigger Problem Now-all the DK's plus John Greenway who helped Jello write the original California Uber Alles
Rawhide-i forget these guys's names they wrote the Rawhide TV theme song

Jcjh20@aol.com
A great album. The songs are fast and furious and the lyrics are thoughtful and funny. I especially like "Religious Vomit", which is so fast that you cant even understand what Jello is saying unless you read the lyrics, and even then its kinda hard to follow. Hilarious song though. "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" is a great song as well, really makes fun of those wanna-be dumb-fuck "punks" who think punk is all about violence and shit like that. Very short, but awesome album. 9/10.

dueff@lycos.com (Ben M.)
For the most part, this is generic hardcore. What makes it different is Jello's unique voice. So with that in mind, I'd say this gets a 7.

The first song and last 2 songs are good. "Religious Vomit" is pretty catchy, and the first minute of "Moral Majority" makes me chuckle. The other songs passable but nowhere near the best the DK's have to offer, it's not even the best hardcore. "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" and "Rawhide" are happy fun tracks, but not their best.

This record has energy, but it's a let down for me. "In God We Trust Inc" would be more enjoyable if the DK's used their vicious/hilarious satire off their other albums. This is too straight forward. The only reason it was made was to piss off Christians with the cover, it's why the album was made, the cover. Great picture though (even if I am a practicing catholic).

In conclusion, this is a rather bland release for the idiots who don't understand the humor of their previous album. Christians, politicians, and punks alike. The DK's were a great band and were talented musicians, but this record was too rushed to make decent music it seems. If you want speedy hardcore/thrash played by great musicians, check out Bad Brains' debut.

snouters@earthlink.net (Sandra Terry)
Just reading about this album makes me nostalgic for my "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" armband that came with the record. 'Course, I had to add inch long cleat spikes from Foot Locker to the outsides of my boots when I wore the thing in public. "Trash a bank if you got real balls", shit yeah! Dissing Republicans and Christians really wasn't as dangerous as us reactionary poser punque roquers made it out to be, but when the Nazi punks were hit with the reality of what Jello thought of them, they were madder than an art fag at a Thomas "Painter of Light" Kinkade gallery. Saying that Nazis are bad seems like a whole lot o' nuthin' in these topsy-turvy days when hippies and punks are practically interchangeable, but it was dangerous back then! Good thing for Jello he lived in Frisco; lots of us speculated that he might get snuffed when they played in places like Washington state. But one thing people tend to overlook when talking about the DK's was how much fun they generated...in my not at all humble opinion, too much attention is paid to the political aspects of their (admittedly strongly political) music. "Rawhide" and "Viva Las Vegas" are pure giddy glee and "Too Drunk To Fuck"...well, just saying the title out loud puts a grin on the ol' piehole every time! Also, Jello is a great singer; his wobbly noise blows Marilyn Manson's wobbly noise to smithereens.

I mean...uhh...if you're one of them.

I've always complained about the production on this album, but I recently ran across an old Jello interview in which he states that they purposely made it sound annoying - you see, he felt that this particular lo-fi reverbed high-pitched muddy pain in the neck sound was just the thing to adequately complement his paranoid political musings. Well, I'll give him this: it certainly doesn't sound like any other hardcore album ever made (thank God!). Luckily for us, most of the melodies and arrangements are stunning enough to overcome the slackass manner in which they are presented to us.

Reader Comments

gruaccp@mithlond.esoterica.pt (Vasco Rodrigues)
I've never paid attention to that really. I thought it was due to my tape recording since I've never had the chance to listen to it on a record player.

Quiddity9@aol.com
I LOVED the production on this! It sounds so great, (tinny is a great description) and scratchy. Beautiful. Some classic songs on this one too, "Govt. Flu," "Moon Over Marin."

olivia@mail.camtech.net.au (Gerwyn Evans)
This is the best Dead Kennedys album ever, full stop. Name me a bad song.

nicho@dcscomp.com.au (Peter Nicholson)
I would like to echo Gerwyn Evans's comment: this album rules. You don't listen to punk rock for the musical quality!

jzinger@hookup.net (John Zinger)
Regarding your beef with the production of the Plastic Surgery Disasters album: I don't understand the legitimacy of your complaints on the production and sound of it. The album sounds excellent (very clean, crisp, energetic, etc.) to my ears! =) Upon listening to it I found nothing wrong with the sound quality or the production -- and I still don't. In fact, I like the production/sound on it -- it makes the album sound much more powerful and in-your-face than Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. The second you hear the first few bars of the first song, "Government Flu", you can tell how much more power and energy there is on the album than on Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. You used the description "tinny", etc. for the guitars too, but I really don't notice that at all. In any case, a few people who have also posted their comments for others to see (DougS, Gerwyn, Peter, etc.) have said that they think Plastic Surgery Disasters is the best Dead Kennedys album ever. I would have to agree with them. For me it's a tie between Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, Plastic Surgery Disasters, and In God We Trust, Inc. -- but I would have to say that Plastic Surgery Disasters definitely shows the Dead Kennedys at their very best.

mgilmart@anyriver.com (Michael Gilmartin)
Plastic Surgery Disasters is my favorite album of all time. When I was a teenager, the intro to this album scared the crap out of me... I LOVE IT!!!

tim@advancereality.com (Tim Moore))
Plastic Surgery Disasters is THE best DK album by far.

amber@chelsea - mi.net (Paul Heidtman)
plastic surgery disasters is the one album solely responsible for making me into a punk. when i was in the 7th grade, i broke my leg and the doctor said i'd be in bed for at least 3 weeks. i literally had no music collection at the time, and my mom who was all broken up about my injury asked me if there was anything i wanted to keep me occupied. i knew all i wanted was music (i hate t.v.) but i wasn't sure what i wanted. then i remembered that a few weeks earlier a friend of mine played me a song by the dead kennedys and i liked it so i said i wanted a dead kennedys tape. the next day she brings home plastic surgery disasters and i loved the fuck out of that tape! I listened to it every day, all day until i fell asleep for 3 weeks straight. when i went back to school, i "borrowed" my dad's headphones to listen to it at school whenever i could. when i got caught in school listening to it, i was sent to the principal's office where i was told it would be confiscated. i thought to myself "fuck that" and i hobbled out the door with my cast and crutches and skipped school for the very first time. i just waited 2 hours until the bus came, listening to dead kennedys the whole time. my love for this album is unprecedented. not only is it a kick ass album by the best punk band ever, but from there it became a gateway for me to experience new, exciting music. from that day on, i was a punk, i knew my role in life. i now am a proud owner of every dead kennedys cd (even a few bootlegs [shame on me]), all of jello biafra's solo projects, spoken word cd's, coalitions with d.o.a., nomeansno, and recently mojo nixon. the dead kennedys kick ass and anyone who badmouths this album is a fuck! thank you.

chris@intown.net
Plastic Surgery Disasters is the Dead Kennedys album that all others try to measure up to! This album's got it all: thumpin' drums, crazy bass, wailin' guitar and JELLO'S SARCASTIC, NASAL LYRICS AT THEIR VERY BEST!!! In my opinion, this record leads the pack because a) the mix of songs are good (not one bad one, I'd say), b) the lyrics are the best ever with so much political wit and humor to them (see "Government Flu", "Trust Your Mechanic", "Well Paid Scientist", "Halloween", "Bleed For Me", "I Am The Owl" and "Moon Over Marin"), and c) to release a first album like Fresh Fruit... is amazing, but to follow it up with something even better (the best ever!) in such a short amount of time afterward (1-2 yrs.) is FUCKIN' UNBELIEVABLE!!! I didn't think they could match (or even top!) Fresh Fruit..., but they did -- Plastic Surgery Disasters IS IT, baby! BEWARE - THIS IS THE RECORD YOUR MOTHER/CHURCH/SCHOOL WARNED YOU ABOUT!!!

nicho@bert.dcscomp.com.au (Not Peter Nicholson)
I just noticed in the Plastic Surgery review that you wrote "thank God". Now, why did you put an upper case 'g' on god? Not like the almighty, all powerful piece of shit even exists, so why give the all non-existent one the privilege of upper case? Anyway, the album rules, and does not come out of my 3-disc carousel for more than a day at a time.

medium65@aol.com
personally, I think this is the best I>I< album. The best tracks are "Terminal Preppie," "Forest Fire," and "Moon Over Marin." The songs have so much meaning. Remember - there will always be a moon over Marin!!!!

Jay68@aol.com
IF YOU WANTED TO RAG ON A BAND FOR SOUND QUALITY THEN YOU WOULD HAVE TO RAG ON THE GERMS AUTOMATICALLY, BUT GERMS ARE A GREAT BAND. YOU SHOULD LISTEN FOR WHAT THEY'RE SAYING, NOT HOW IT SOUNDS!!!!!!! DEAD KENNEDYS KICK ASSSSSS!

FruityAs@aol.com
This is definitely the best. I agree with most of the other people who have left comments. This was the first album by DK that i ever heard and even though it does sound "tinny" it's still the best one ever.

Phlegm8907@aol.com
Quite possibly the best American Punk/Hardcore album of the eighties...it's musically explosive, combining fast as hell psychedelic-hardcore (?--if there is such a thing, this is it) with odd little touches like the intro to "RIOT," the tango horns on "TERMINAL PREPPIE," the slow parts in "TRUST YOUR MECHANIC," and the great spoken word/noise intro & outro. Jello's lyric's are as snotty, sincere, and humorous as ever, the LP's unique sound (which hooked me instantly) is impossible to ignore, and the packaging is great--specifically the booklet of collages by Jello & Winston Smith (a chaotic collage for each song). On CD it's packaged with IN GOD WE TRUST, INC, making it one of the most powerful politico-punk statements to erupt from the USA.

rojanko@pacbellnet (Rob Krohn)
God I hate the production too! Great album that sounds terrible (if that makes any sense). It's Klaus' finest hour and we can't hardly hear him, except at the beginning of songs. He's covered up with East Bay's guitars which sound like they were recorded in a lavatory with sandwich wrap covering the amps. Every word Jello sings with an "S" sound in it sounds like "ssssssssth"

I don't understand it. John Cuniberti (one of the producers) should have been sacked - he's at least partially responsible for Bedtime for Democracy sounding bad too.

Songs are great though. But I like side 1 better. I liked DK in their "short song" mode better overall. 4/5 songs on side 2 are great; I didn't like "I Am The Owl." All songs on side 1 are wonderful; "Well-Paid Scientist" and "Buzzbomb" are a couple of the best DK songs.

thorm@tdo.infi.net (Thorbjoern Mann)
I think you fucking complain too damn much! "This is too slow" or "that's not MIXED well enough!" Maybe you should shut your fucking mouth and remember that the lyrics are what counts, even if the song isnt fast enough for your "punk" taste.

burk4351@tao.sosc.osshe.edu
I've just gotta say that I agree that it doesn't matter if the music is sloppy; a wise man once said "punk is about playing as sloppy as you want as long as its got spirit." I have to agree with him. Oh, by the way, that wise man was Kurt Cobain.

DKDKDKDK@aol.com
This album is definitely the best DK album ever made. I love the crazy basslines and the high pitched guitar. It also has a lot of songs which makes it even better. This is the only album that I have found without any bad songs.

Anarchist@goplay.com
Tinny? Maybe, maybe not. WHO CARES? This album has ATMOSPHERE. I defy you to find one bad track on it. There are so many classics. "Well Paid Scientist", "Trust Your Mechanic", "Forest Fire", "Buzzbomb", "Riot", "Moon Over Marin."

Get the picture? And to follow up two *Great* albums Fresh Fruit and In God is simply an indication of the brilliance of Dead Kennedys.

This is by far my favourite album of all time.

reech@dorsai.org
A great recovery- This album slows down the thrash a little but adds more punch then Fresh Fruit. A terrific combination of both sounds. "Moon Over Marin" is an epic! I never noticed the tinny production- always figured that was part of their sound.

jfurlong/@televar.com
Hate to sound repetitive here, but PLASTIC SURGERY DISASTERS is not only the best DK album, but possibly the best album I have ever heard. Song after song of gritty lo-fi punk rock heaven (or hell??). The band is at their strongest and tightest, and Jello's lyrics on the album are the most finely tuned, pointed, barbed spears that ever tattered the flesh of the Great White American Underbelly. A+ to PLASTIC SURGERY DISASTERS.

avgjoe@iamerica.net
I love the sight!! I must say that "moon over marin" is one of my favorite songs of all time, by ANY BAND. This is the perfect activist song against pollution. There aren't many songs that I can say I enjoy today as much as I did 7 years ago!! This is one of them.. Long live JELLO!!!!

BV@steady.demon.co.uk
I think that this is the best album by the DK`s......"moon over marin" is their best song EVER!!!!

Timothy_Cunningham@washcoll.edu
I'm listening to that cd right now, and honestly, I've never considered the sound quality of it at all. It is a superb album and is more than worthy of the praise that has been given to it in the messages. I like the guitar a lot more. It is very unique, and they are very good at setting mood or atmosphere in their music. It's unbelievable. Although not one of my favorites, it has some stellar songs.... My favorites: "Government Flu", "Trust Your Mechanic" (one of the best on the album), "Buzzbomb", "Halloween", "Moon over Marin".

q9822266@mail.connect.usq.edu.au
Plastic Surgery Disasters is the most kick ass record ever. Production sounds fine, except for maybe the bass. "Riot" is quite possibly the best DK song ever.

imes.judy@mcleodusa.net (Elliot Imes)
Not as good as Fresh Fruit, but still fantastic. I love the message in "Well Paid Scientist", and "Trust Your Mechanic" is just fuckin hilarious. I've also come to the conclusion that it's impossible to hate "Terminal Preppie" (unless you're a prep or a jock, of course). The only drawback is the long intro before "Government Flu." But even that intro is hilarious, so it doesn't really matter. My favorite DK line ever: "Pull up to your sterile home/ You're drained/ Bite the heads off your kids/ Chew them well, they taste like you/ Just slam the door." Pure insanity. Jello is a twisted man. But a smart one.

mannie@youpy.com
This one kicks ass just as Fresh Fruit does. The production is A LOT diffrent though, all the instruments sound a lot heavier. especially the drums. And the songs are a lot more complicated. Don't expect simple songs like California uber alles anymore! The intro kicks ass with the creepy chick, and then it bursts into Goverment Flu starting with the kickass surf notes. Also Trust Your Mechanic and Well paid scientist kick ass, and so does Forest Fire. And Moon over Marin is a kickass Ballad in DK style. A few songs that suck though. like Terminal Preppie. The trumpets just don't fit in here. Id give this album a 7.

urbanstruggle@excite.com (Ahnsu Adennorsn)
Well let me say that it's about fucking time that I've found someone who appreciates "Dead End" and "Riot". The whole album is a balls to the wall version of everything Crass could have been (but failed) and some of the best progressive punk songs ever waxed, but as far as I'm concerned "Riot" and "Dead End" were always major standouts for me. Riot as far as I'm concern does one of the best jobs I've ever heard of capturing the emotion of a moment musically and letting the lyrics paint a chaotic scene in your imagination. Just about the time Jello sings "Throwing a brick never felt so damn good" combined with the "quicky-getting-even-more-insane" guitaring of East Bay Ray sends chills up my spine every single time I hear it... Dead End is just a song that is never mentioned by anyone and could very well be one of their best musical moments. The dreary, slow, sonicy surf-punk hum of this song should send any average listener into ecstasy, but most people I've heard from don't even listen to the second side of the LP to begin with. Doesn't it sound like one of those songs you just know will end up in a Tarintino film one of these days (assuming Jello lets em use it)? Anyway, I go back and forth between this record and Fresh Fruit in which one is the best, but this record is certainly one of the top 5 punk rock records ever released.

mrgonzox@hotmail.com
The lyrics and vocals for "Forest Fire" are the craziest, wackiest, and funniest I've ever heard!!! This song simply smokes! Does Biafra always talk like that, too?

Jawsgman@aol.com
this album beats the fuck out of Fresh Fruit.when i first got it i only liked 4 or 5 songs and then the more i heard it the more i like it.the best song is moon over marin.am i the only person who thinks Frankenchrist is as good as this album?anyway i didnt like In god we trust,inc as much as plastic surgery but thats still a good album

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com
"Plastic Surgery Disasters" was the Dead Kennedys' biggest attempt to break out of the confines of hardcore while still remaining punk. It contained a lot of great music, but there were problems with it. I wouldn't hesitate to say that "Plastic Surgery Disasters" is one of the least powerful Dead Kennedys releases. It's still amazingly good, but out of the DK's stellar catalog, it comes off as more than a little forced at times. For one, we've got the astoundingly bad "Winnebago Warrior," which gives new meaning to the term "incompetent drivel" - what the hell is Jello trying to say here, that people who drive Winnebagos and litter everywhere are really bad guys, people who think of themselves as "Yankee pioneers" and such? Thanks, Jello, I deduced that one for myself. Aside from the fact that the song is just pitifully dated, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album thematically or musically - Klaus Flouride's bassline sounds like Joy Division-era Peter Hook with two fingers and a Saturday morning cartoon fetish. It's that annoying. And that semi-operatic wailing in the background is also terrible.

But really, Jello is the problem with this album - the music, aside from that one song, is unrelenting, sharpened like razor wire, and terrifyingly atmospheric. Yes, the production is a little irritating, but even that sometimes has the effect of heightening the song's atmosphere. What's wrong with the album is the lyrics. Simply, Jello's at his worst here. He really didn't put thought into some of these. "Halloween" has fantastic music - a brilliant hardcore smasher with a great rhythmic bounce - but those lyrics are lame: "So it's Halloween / And you feel like dancin' / And you feel like shinin' / And you feel like letting loose / Whatcha gonna be / Babe, you better know / And you better plan / Better plan all day / Better plan all week / Better plan all month / Better plan all year" - oh wow, like, deep, Jello. That so to-tal-ly slaughters uptight people, you know, just gets me wet with envy...those lyrics suck worse than Paris Hilton with her two front teeth knocked out. Concluding a song with "Why don't you take your social regulations and shove 'em up your ass" was better left to a song by a standard hardcore band, which the Dead Kennedys never, ever were. They were better than this lyrically on almost all of their other albums. "Buzzbomb" suffers from the same problem as "Halloween," and "Trust Your Mechanic" doesn't even make sense - blame your *mechanic* for the problems besetting you? This is just idiotic. Also, they're not even funny anymore, which they always were in the past - the biggest attempt at humor on the entire album is "Winnebago Warrior," which I've already trashed enough.

Fortunately, the music is so unceasingly terrific as to make most of these problems significantly less bothersome. Jello's delivery is at it's most venomous, Ray's guitar playing is inspirational, evil, and totally distinctive, Klaus's bass is almost always extremely and brilliantly melodic, and Peligro's drumming is heavy as hell while still allowing the music to shine through (as opposed to parts of "In God We Trust, Inc."). The riffs are almost always fantastically memorable, and when Biafra's lyrics are really on form, the songs are crushingly powerful. "Riot," "I Am The Owl," "Dead End," "Moon Over Marin," "Well Paid Scientist," "Government Flu," "Terminal Preppie" (which is hilarious) - all just brilliant, and "Forest Fire" is notably bilious and gonzoid even within this band's discography. But overall, the paranoia and the lyrical blunders don't always make this the best Dead Kennedys album for me.

andrew.moncrieff@virgin.net
*In response to:

olivia@mail.camtech.net.au (Gerwyn Evans)*
This is the best Dead Kennedys album ever, full stop. Name me a bad song

"Winnebago Warrior" sucks shit. Everything else is great though, and this is the best DK's album because the guitar playing is more interesting than on Fresh Fruit, and Jello makes a clearer (and more vivid) album lyrically as well. Frankenchrist I used to think was best, but this one never stops being creative, each song different from the last, unlike Fresh Fruit, and the song writing is more sucessful than on later albums.

Who the hell does Martin Teller think he is, calling me "contrived"?

Awwww I laughed so hard at that, I nearly bit Sandra Day O'Connor's clitoris clear off!

Say, while we're discussing clitorises -- now I don't mean to be arguing with the writers of Seinfeld here, but isn't the word pronounced "CLIT-eris"? I always thought "cli-TOR-is" was wrong. What's your opinion on this important matter? Let me know so I can tell my boss before she goes on maternity leave.

Reader Comments

princess_vachtangov@yahoo.com
Clitoris is pronounced with the stress on the first sylable. It also doesn't end with "es".

Yours truly,
Helen Hunt.

smokeydiablo@gmail.com
I collect a lot of live bootleg shows, and there are two venues that seem to have been fucking impossible to get a good sounding tape from: the Hong Kong Café, and the Olympic Auditorium. Why the hell did all the bands choose to play their cool unreleased songs at these two venues so I have to listen to them fade in and out for the whole recording? It's a big conspiracy, I tell you.

Seventeen songs await your punk rock ear on this baby, most of them extremely entertaining. Plus, this one avoids the annoying DK practice of releasing albums wherein, due to thoughtless production, certain songs have the tendency to disappear into the wallpaper of that which surrounds them; featuring production by SIX different people, Give Me Convenience ensures that you'll be able to tell each song apart, even if the melodies don't vary all that much. So if it's diversity you're lookin' for, pick this one up. It'll give you a decent overview of all of the different sorts of music that this talented combo was capable of creating. Funny cover, too. And it comes with a wonderful little book! Actually, I think they all do! Buy DK LPs and you'll get special treats!

Reader Comments

paperdoll@beast.iquest.com (Bad Mutha Fucka)
The Dead Kennedys were the first punk band I ever heard. And they are still my favourite today. I love everything by DK. My sister just made me a tape one day and said "listen to this" cos she wanted to get me into interesting sutff. So I did, and it had some Dead Kennedys songs on it. I loved it! It was all I listened to for a few months. Now I have all their records, and I`d hafta say my favourite would be Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death...gotta love that surf guitar. The musik kicks ass and the political views are rad. I am still looking for A Skateboard Party...if you know if any mail order carries it, please tell me. Anyway, I`d like to say this site rules. Thanks. Oh! My friend was telling me about how when his dad was in the Navy, and when the seamen (hehe) got a break, they went to a DK show cos they saw a flyer. This guy`s dad went right up near the PAs and it blew his eardrum out so he got out of the Navy. They weren`t sposta be at the show, and he said it was the loud guns on the ship. Cheers.

lmmore@powerup.com.au (Lucas Moore)
Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death is certainly the best album but the versions of "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday In Cambodia" are crap. "Pull my Strings" is a hilarious attack on all that new wave eighties shit. I totally agree with the Lyrics of "Kinky Sex Makes The World Go Round." If you are looking for a relatively recent band, try Aus Rotten.

james@sjcpo2.ne.ge.com (James M. Poli)
I saw a fifteen year old kid on the street wearing a DK jacket thumbing his nose at the law. I thought: What an Idiot.

Give Me Convenience..... is the best album of the Punk genre. Working in silicon valley, I'm constantly reminding people who bitch about their jobs and bosses that they'd work harder with guns in their backs for bowls of rice if they were in Cambodia.

jdmi@ix.netcom.com (David Marote)
"Short Songs" is great & even shorter than most songs by the Minutemen. (see your punk history textbooks.) Too bad Give Me Convenience... has the cheap mix of "Holiday in Cambodia" & not the ballsy, guitar-heavy version (towards the end of which Jello frantically chants "Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot" at extremely high speed) that set my musical gonads aflame when I first heard it on KROQ (Los Angeles) in the fall of 1980.

u9219722@sys.uea.ac.uk (Ant)
I'm not really a punk or anything; I listen to all sorts of shit. But I couldn't help liking the DKs. A goth/indie nightclub I used to go to was always playing "California..." and sometimes "Cambodia". I made a mental note back then that one day I'd buy a dead kens album, and this Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death is the one I've eventually got 3 years on. Love it to bits. The first ten songs are better than the last seven, but they're all good.

jhughes@cablesoft.co.uk (Jason Hughes)
I am a 23 year old surfer from Durban (S.A.) and have been listening to the DK's for 9 years now. They had a big influence on a lot of my friends' surfing careers (breaking legs pogo-ing at parties), and I must just say that Give me..... is definitely the best album they ever made.

Anarchist@goplay.com
Give Me Convenience isn't too bad. It has quite a few songs that I never heard before. I like the production of this album. "Police Truck" is the best song on the album. I absolutely love the lyrics, and the intro sounds really cool.

What more is there to say? Yet another well thought out Dead Kennedys release.

sick_boy@tig.com.au
I feel this album is for more of a fan who only has a low majority of their other albums. I think it's just a best of album. favourites on the album are- "California Uber Alles" (even though their version on fresh fruit.. was much faster better and pumped more raw punk energy) "Holiday in Cambodia" (again better in the first album) "Pull My strings" (a song which plain mocks all of their past stuff- quite a cool song) "Life sentence" (an excellent song- it was ahead of its time when it was released because it now resembles any Pennywise or Offspring riff- very,very cool song) and......"The Night of the Living Rednecks" (what can i say?) Long live jello, ray, ted, klaus and darren!

newspub@molalla.net
You ought to get this just for "Night of the Living Rednecks" if you live in Oregon. It's one of the funniest stories I ever heard. DK and Winston Smith are the greatest.

esetness@softcom.net
I AM ONLY 17 YEARS OLD AND I NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO SEE THE DEAD KENNEDYS LIVE AND I THINK IT IS BECAUSE OF THIS ALBUM THAT I FEEL THAT THIS IS SUCH A GREAT LOSS. I FIRST BOUGHT FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES BECAUSE THIS BOY AT MY SCHOOL HAD THEIR SHIRT AND IT LOOKED COOL. I LIKED THE ALBUM, BUT IT WAS'NT ANYTHING SPECIAL. I THEN WAS THE RECORD STORE ONE DAY AND COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING TO BUY AND THAT IS WHEN I CAME ACROSS GIVE ME CONVENIENCE OR GIVE ME DEATH, SO I BOUGHT IT. I TOOK IT HOME AND DID'NT LISTEN TO IT UNTIL ONE DAY WHEN I STAYED HOME SICK. LET'S JUST SAY THAT IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE AND MY LOOKOUT ON LIFE FOREVER AND IT HAS'NT COME OUT OF MY CD PLAYER SINCE. I HAVE SINCE COLLECTED ALL THE DK ALBUMS AND OTHER STUFF AND I STILL LISTEN TO GIVE ME CONVENIENCE... EVERY DAY. THE SONGS ARE SO WELL WRITTEN LYRICALLY. MY FAVORITE SONGS ARE "PULL MY STRINGS" BECAUSE OF IT'S GENERAL SARCASM AND "STRAIGHT A'S" JUST BECAUSE IT IS SUCH A PROFOUND SONG. I AM A DEAD KENNEDYS FAN FOR LIFE AND I KNOW MY ONLY REGRET IN LIFE WILL BE THAT I WAS'NT BORN 10 YEARS EARLIER

Timothy_Cunningham@washcoll.edu
Unfortunately, only being 19 years old, I was unable to see the Dead Kennedys live. But I respect and admire them.... Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death is a remarkable album of their b-sides. Versions of "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Calfornia Uber Alles" are sub par..... Although not characteristic of DK, i like the song "Too Drunk To Fuck"... Not because of the lyrics, but because of the great riff by East Bay Ray....

My favorites: "Too Drunk to Fuck", "I Fought the Law", "Pull My Strings", "Night of the Living Rednecks", "Saturday Night Holocaust".

imes.judy@mcleodusa.net (Elliot Imes)
Another classic DK record. One of my favorites has to be "Pull My Strings", if not just for the "Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough" part. Every song is great, and after listening to "Night of the Living Rednecks" you will have a greater respect for Jello, if you didn't already. Hoo hah. A 9.

mannie@youpy.com
Yes!!!! more Fresh Fruit songs! Too Drunk to fuck!!!! Police Truck!!!! well lets say side A totally kicks ass, it has got a lot of unreleased old songs that u should OWN if u like DK, side B isn't that good. It has got live songs with crappy production and strange versions of previously RELEASED songs. Still Id give it an 8.

ruffryderb@home.com (Ben Guevara)
Hell yeah man DK kicks so much ass . My favorite song on that CD is either Too Drunk To Fuck or I Fought The Law And I Won. You kick ass

emthompson@email.msn.com
"Saturday Night Holocaust"--One of the creepiest Goddamned songs ever.

anthony@abozdogan.freeserve.co.uk (Anthony Bozdogan)
Give me convenience..... not their best album but thats only cos they were so fuckin good. POLICE TRUCK and STRAIGHT A's are easily the best songs and still relevant today. But FRANKENCHRIST is better!

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com
A fascinating little comp, definitely a 9. One of the band's best releases, and for a band so consistently high-quality, that's saying something...

Police Truck, Too Drunk To Fuck, and Life Sentence are all fantastic - is Life Sentence one with D.H. on it? The drumming style sounds different. Saturday Night Holocaust and The Prey are terrifying, drawn out slices of gross chordage, dire basslines, and Biafra gurgling like a lump of bile got stuck in his throat. Night of the Living Rednecks is absolutely hilarious, showing off Biafra's speaking skills (even though he may be arrogant, the guy can tell a HELL of a story), with a great tossed off Flipper reference at the fade out: "That story's true, just ask Bruce Lose..." I don't like Buzzbomb from Pasadena all that much, although the title should make the surf music influence on the DK's even more obvious than it already is (anyone else remember Jan and Dean/Beach Boys' versions of "Little Old Lady From Pasadena?"), the old woman's voice gets on my nerves, like the version of "I Fought The Law." The version of "California Uber Alles" isn't good, but it's okay. It is, though, way too slow.

One thing I really think kicks ass, however, is the version of "Holiday In Cambodia." The old version felt like an uneasy joke. This version is flat-out scary. Biafra's vocals are far superior (he sounded like a clown on the old version; this time out, he sounds like he knows in just how little time you'd splinter under pressure, and worse, he'd take pleasure in it - it's eerily calm), and the production is also far better - even though I miss the echo-noise intro, Klaus Flouride's bass intro here is just cruel, East Bay Ray plays a better guitar solo, and Ted's drumming is much more precise and intense. I just love this version. A lot of people don't, but I do. Great compilation!

Reader Comments

gruaccp@mithlond.esoterica.pt (Vasco Rodrigues)
I do not know why you have put Interview Disc and A Skateboard Party in the DK's discography since they're bootlegs. And shitty ones.

drobot@sk.sympatico.ca (Dennis Drobot)
The BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DougS@aol.com
For a bootleg this is a pretty good sounding album. The production is pretty good, meaning this was taped professionally by either the band itself, or, more likely, taped for a radio show in Britain. You can tell from the accents in the crowd that this show took place in England, which doesn't surprise me since DK first made their bones playing in England. Having said that I have to say that this is one of the sloppiest piece of shit performances ever committed to vinyl. The band itself is all over the place. D.H. Peligro blows at least one song, East Bay Ray blows at least three. You're absolutely right Mark about Biafra and crew playing Fresh Fruit stuff at In God We Trust speed. It DOESN'T work. Ditto for some of the Plastic Surgery Disasters songs. "Trust Your Mechanic" is a hopeless mess, with Peligro being all over the place and only Biafra's vocals prevent the listener from mistaking this song as some crude version of Grindcore. "Chemical Warfare" is a disaster with the band playing straight through the "slow part" at light speed, leaving the listener to think they've started a new song. "Let's Lynch The Landlord" also comes off too fast. I've heard slower and better performances of this song. The cruelest performance of all is "Too Drunk To Fuck". They absolutely MURDERED the fuck out of that song. Gone is catchy melody and grooving beat. The song gets stripped down and sped up and sounds more like speed metal than anything else. I haven't heard a worse performance by a great band since I saw Nuclear Assault destroy their songs four years ago. But it's not ALL bad though. DK puts out a faithful rendition of "Bleed For Me" that is quite good. And there is some innovation to be found on tracks like "Police Truck" and "Holiday In Cambodia", the latter having a very nice extended solo by Ray that seems to feel right at home in the song. Unfortunately the ending is mess. Overall this album is really nothing better than a novelty. I guess there's a reason why they call it a bootleg. It's not good enough to be released legit.

tomcat7343@aol.com (Jeff Eglinger)
Does anybody know where I can get a copy of this? I love DK.

rojanko@pacbell.net (Rob Krohn)
Admittedly, the sound is really good for a bootleg, but man-o-man was the band fucked up when they recorded this. As others mentioned, everything is played at light-speed resulting in a complete butchering of all but a handful of songs. The good: "Police Truck" - great extended guitar solo by Ray; "Bleed for Me" - more great guitar solos "Winnebago warrior" - simply a great song when played live.

The bad: "Trust your Mechanic" - Peligro takes off drumming at a million miles an hour and Ray is asked to do the impossible.

The horrible: "Kill the Poor" - simply one of the worst displays of musicianship ever. Despite this album's obvious shortcomings, it's still a lot of fun! You'll chuckle at every bum note and missed beat - all 350 of 'em!!

NLANDRY@regis-nyc.org
Regarding A Skateboard Party--

1) It was recorded somewhere in Germany, I think in Stuttgart.

2) I think that them playing the Fresh Fruit Stuff at In God We Trust speed kicked ass! "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Kill the Poor" are much more effective at breakneck speed. Peligro obviously had a huge influence on the band. Days away from seeing Jello live at NYU!

BITEHIS@aol.com
I personally have never heard the album, so I can't comment on the actual sound quality of the recording, but I'd be counting my lucky stars to find an even half decent DK bootleg. But, when you say the songs were too fast, that pisses me off. I have the Dead Kennedy's Live video and every song they play is fast. "Police Truck" is the speed of "Religious Vomit", and even "Moral Majority" is faster. IF the DK's played the songs at the exact same speeds at every show, people would get bored and just listen to the original recording. The DK's are full of surprizes.

WEBERSS@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us (Matt Weber)
I'm the biggest DK fan, trust me, and if anyone can sell Skateboard Party or the Interview disk, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!

Side two, unfortunately, is more light-hearted and goofy. It's still good, though. I mean, I wouldn't sit around and listen to the six-minute "Stars And Stripes Of Corruption" every day for the rest of my life, but Ray's synthesizer-driven "At My Job" is a hilarious and striking departure, "The Goons Of Hazzard" has a totally groovin' bass line that makes me shake my poop-filled butt all around (see- that's the thing about guys who ogle girls' butts - I always wanna say, "You know, poop comes out of that thing!"), and "MTV Get Off The Air," though kinda poorly-arranged, is still pretty damn funny. So there you go. Side two doesn't lack much, and what it does lack is more than made up for by the supersnazzy (here comes that word again!) psychorock on side A. Psychorock, psychorock, my kingdom for a psychorock!

Reader Comments

gruaccp@mithlond.esoterica.pt (Vasco Rodrigues)
My favorite song on Frankenchrist is "This Could be Anywhere". Outstanding vocals, lyrics and "atmosphere".

rojanko@pacbellnet (Rob Krohn)
I hated this album when it first came out. HATED IT! After playing it once, it languished in the back of the closet for almost 3 years before I gave it another chance (but I taped the poster to a Dairy Queen drive-thru menu). Then, for some reason, I liked it. Can't explain why. Maybe it sounded better in 1988 because music was at its shittiest that year...remember Poison and Mr. Big?

This album sounds good production-wise; probably the only DK album that isn't spoiled somehow by poor production. And in retrospect, you have to give the band credit for changing their approach so much. But not really fast or appealing enough to win over anyone who wasn't already a fan. But since I am a huge fan, I'd give it a 9/10.

wills@jazz.cybermedia.net
Frankenchrist is an extraordinary record -- a sound I've never found anywhere else and the kind of lyrics that make you want to vote for the guy...I mean, pissing on the capitol building while claiming a greater patriotism than Archie-Bunker-types? Beautiful! Where do I sign?

I really, really wish that the Kennedys were still around to do a 'bigger problem now' sequel to "MTV Get Off The Air." The original was done during the Martha Quinn phase of MTV. What do you think they could do with 'Beach House MTV' or Jenny McCarthy? Oh, the possibilities!

If you buy only one Kennedys record, make it this one in my opinion, and then start a political party so I can join it. If only Ralph Nader had these balls. While you're at it, buy some Velvets and Stereolab records, too...

Anarchist@goplay.com
Frankenchrist is a great album because it sounds so different to anything Dead Kennedys released previously. That's not to say that is the only reason it's a great album. Yet again, they bring an album with potent social commentary mixed in with some great music.

"This could be anywhere" sounds absolutely great. This song has 'Atmosphere', and then some.

"At my job" is the weirdest track on the album. It has a really spooky 'Nineteen Eighty Four' feel about it.

Another great Dead Kennedys album (was there one that wasn't?)

mikael.johansson@mbox325.swipnet.se
I think that Frankenchrist is a weird album. The songs are a bit psycho. But i don't say that it's bad only that this album is the most different of the other albums.

chris@intown.net (Chris Schwarz)
Interestingly enough, Frankenchrist was the Dead Kennedys album I was LEAST enthusiastic about acquiring. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because I'm a hardcore afficianado and the songs on Frankenchrist are mid-tempo, or because this album was the least commented on by the readers of this particular page. Or maybe it was a combination of both. Whatever the reason, I finally obtained Frankenchrist and am happy to report that it's not as "mid-tempo" as I had originally feared. Yes, some songs are mid-tempo and slowed down ("Soup Is Good Food," "This Could Be Anywhere," "Goons of Hazzard"), but there are definitely some speedy numbers here! ("Hellnation," "MTV Get Off The Air," "Jock-O-Rama," "Stars and Stripes of Corruption") So, in the end, it all works out as the slow songs are complemented by the few fast ones sprinkled in between! The one thing I noticed about Frankenchrist is that the level of experimentation went up from Plastic Surgery Disasters (Ray's clarinet on "Terminal Preppie," etc.) -- with a trumpet (!) in "MTV Get Off The Air" and a synthesizer in "At My Job"! Even though this album has slower songs than the other Dead Kennedys albums, I don't think it's fair to brand it as "slow" (and therefore boring) as there are a couple of speedy songs on here and the musical growth of the Dead Kennedys is quite evident. Overall, I like this album a lot. The worst thing you could do is shy away from this album, LIKE ME, because of the terms "mid-tempo" or "slow" ... it's really very good!

mattro@cyberspace.com
If 'Dead Kennedys' is the best band name ever (and it is) then Frankenchrist is the best name to ever adorn an album (not to mention it would've been the perfect name for Marilyn Manson). PSD was my favorite DK album for a long time, but if I had to choose one or the other to bring with me to the gulag, Frankenchrist would be the one. The mix and sound quality are much better than previous DK allowing the listener more ways to explore the music and talent these guys had. It's too bad this is the album that, eventually, brought them down as a band. I'm just thankful Alternative Tentacles managed to survive. Oh, and 'A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch' is a great sing along song.

Timothy_Cunningham@washcoll.edu
Frankenchrist is my favorite album. Although not as punk as other recordings, it's awesome. The musical ability is shown here, that they are not punks who can only do one thing. They can do hardcore, and more musical punk...... I play guitar, and it's my favorite album, especially for that. It's the only album that contains a song I absolutely hate: "Chicken Farm".... I can't stand that song.... Favorites: "Soup Is Good Food", "HellNation", "This Could Be Anywhere", "Jock-O-Rama", "Goons of Hazzard", "MTV - Get off the Air", "At My Job", "Stars and Stripes of Corruption". Hold on, I like most of the album....

imes.judy@mcleodusa.net (Elliot Imes)
Crazy stuff. "Jock-O-Rama" would be great to play at a jock party and just watch what they do. They probably wouldn't be able to hear the lyrics, and they'd be like: "No! Let's listen to this new Garth Brooks CD that I got! It's so good! Boy I love country music!!!" Stupid ignorant fucks.

Anyway, back to the album at hand. My other favorites would be "Hellnation" (i can barely make out a guitar melody in that song, though), "Soup Is Good Food" (perfect lyrics), "MTV Get Off The Air" (wonderful intro), and "At My Job" (which is more creepier than hilarious).

One last thing: I've seen the famous Frankenchrist picture that they got thrown into court over. Unless you want to be seriously traumatized, I'd advise you to not look at it. Ewwwwww.

jaylen@execulink.com (Ann Rant)
What's "poorly arranged" about "MTV Get Off The Air"? Jeez, that trumpet is brilliant, it changes style about three times during the course of the song, and it's soooo satirical. If only the rest of us could do that...

mannie@youpy.com
Even more slowed down, and even more complicated songs. Except for some kickass fast songs like MTV Get off the air and Hell Nation. Again it starts with a kickass song, Soup is Good food, it rules. This album is great to listen to when ur drunk. Id give it an 8.

anthony@abozdogan.freeserve.co.uk (Anthony Bozdogan)
The best DK album. SOUP IS GOOD FOOD genius, total genius. so its not fast and furious, so what? it's still got Biafras lyrical genius all over it

billsangry@aol.com
I agree with Anthony. I think "Soup is Good" may be their most underrated song. Also, this isn't just an "album," it's an "education."

rottingcarrot@hotmail.com (Brion Briggsh)
This album may be a bit slower, but in my opinion punk shouldn't be rated by its speed. this album is pure punk the whole way through and what it lacks in blistering speed is made up with a hell of a lot of content. songs like soup is good food and (my favorite) this could be anywhere, are definately a step up in musicianship for the band. The surf inspired echo guitars are fabulous and the basslines are really good and complex (as a bass player i can say that the bass on soup is good food is a lot more complex than it sounds at first-I still don't know what he's doing exactly!) When I listen to this album It reminds me of cheap B horror movies, (even though it sound nothing like the misfits) the guitar just sounds sinister for some reason! I personnaly like this more than fresh fruit.

steve.robey@mindspring.com
Frankenchrist, oh Frankenchrist, thank you for the poster. It adorns my wall, adhering to its face with the help of some well-placed booger pasties. You have also provided me with some of my favorite DK songs. "This Could Be Anywhere" - holy moly. I could listen to that song 5 times in a row if I but had the time. Dammit, I'll make the time. Hang on a sec....

...And evidently Eric's going for a bit of a food theme here. "Soup is Good Food", "A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch" and "Chicken Farm" are all one side one! (not to mention that Eric goes by the hilarious pseudonym "Jello" on this album - who saw that coming?). I always liked "Jock-o-Rama" as a young lad, but it seems a wee bit corny to me today, now that I'm a grown man with Frankenchrist posters pasted on my wall with booger pasties. "Goons of Hazzard" - my second favorite tune on the album - uses those chromatic Pink-Panther-like spy music changes that go so well with Ray's guitar sound, and marries them to a great Klaus bass line. One of the few DK songs where the lyrics don't even really matter that much - the music carries the day.

"Stars and Stripes of Corruption" works better as a spoken word piece (on "No More Cocoons") than as the rushed mess it is here, though. Sounds kind of like an edited, friendlier version of Crass's "Yes Sir I Will" - too many lyrics trying frantically to keep up with the music, but failing. Failure! Bad! I AM YOUR CLOCK!

As for the '85 stuff, it's good too! The rest of the band has caught up to D.H., so only "The Man With The Dogs" is the speedy cluttered mess that we heard on that Skateboard Party record. I like those Dead Kennedys!

Reader Comments

rojanko@pacbell.net (Rob Krohn)
This bootleg provides a good sampling of DK near the beginning and the end of their existence. The sound is typical bootleg (tinny), but both of the performances were tight. In fact, the band played *much* better during each of these shows than they did the night Skateboard Party was recorded. The '1979' side, recorded in San Francisco some time before the release of Fresh Fruit, features a very young Jello, Ray, and Klaus. (6025 apparently left the band sometime before this was recorded.) Different lyrics for many of the songs too! I didn't think "Holiday in Cambodia" was too bad, but "Ill in the Head" sure sounds like shit, mostly due to inept guitar playing. But we should cut Ray a break. The band was young and suffered the loss one of their guitarists. I also have no idea what is being said instead of "When you get Drafted" (Maybe "Rock in Rhodesia...?" Rhodesia was still a country in 1979?...) I love "Dreadlocks of the Suburbs" -- a nice little reggae ditty poking fun at stoner wannabes. It should've been recorded in a studio.

The '1985' side, while offering less of historical interest, serves up a good chunk of mostly Frankenchrist and Bedtime for Democracy tuneage. The echoey, surf guitar of EB Ray sounds really wonderful in this particular version of "Soup is Good Food". Only "Man with the Dogs" played at warp 9 will remind listeners of Skateboard Party. Jello's chastising the crowd to let go of the mike board, etc. is pretty funny too. This might be a bit tough to find (and expensive too!). But serious DK fans will find that it's worth the effort.

Here's a song I made up this morning while escorting Henry The Dog around a deserted basketball court in uptown Manhattan. It's not good at all, but I think it's a prime example of how my creative mind works, in case you ever want to map it on one of those brain picture thingies that scientists use.

This Dead Kennedys botleeg is an audio copy of the popular DK live video "Live," filmed in 1985 at Dirk Dirksen's "I'm Closing My Club" show. I've watched the video about 5 billion times since age 16 and boy oh boy does Jello talk. Talk, talk, talk. "How many of you people think this country is a democracy?" Nobody answers, but he keeps going. Talkity talk talk. Between songs, during songs, after songs - talk talk talk. "I am your hope dope pusher! Shoot up with God!" "Is my leash tight enough? Now can I work at your office?" "What did I ever do to you!?" "This is a new one. Ahh, it's kind of along the lines of 'Too Drunk To Fuck.' It's about the people who think it's about everybody but themselves -- except when they're on parade!" "Say what you want about Dirk, but who else has been willing to put up with you and us for 7 or 8 years? No one else has lasted this long - anywhere." "The apartments are on fire! Nobody's doin' nothin' and the cops are just laughin'!" "So if you get a chance, throw a diarrhea-filled pie at Mondale." "This one goes out to Diane Fineswine, the dragon lady with no fuckin' heart." SHADDUPAYOUFACE!!! SHADDAFUKKUPAYOUFACE!!! SHADDAMUTHAFUKKINUPAYOUFACE!!! SHADDAMUTHAFUKKINKOKSUKKINUPAYOUFACE!!! SHADDAMUTHAFUKKINKOKSUKKINDOUCHELIKKINDROPKIKKINASSBITINDOGFIGHTINBUTTSCRATCHINEGGHATCHINUPAYOUFACE!!!

The disc features four In God We Trust, Inc.ers, three Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Deathers and Frankenchristers, two Plastic Surgery Disastersers and Bedtime For Democracyers, and not even a single Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetableser!!! Not even ONE!!!! Can your ass believe that shit? Christ, it's only like their BEST album!! Why not invite the Sex Pistols to play and then have them play nothing off of Never Mind The Bollocks?!? Why not invite The Clash to play and then have them not play anything off of Cut The Crap? What is this, a bowling alley???

Yeah, a bowling SHIT alley, maybe!!! Where people throw big balls of SHIT down a lane filled with SHIT, trying to knock over ten SHIT pins!!! That's my opinion! Don't wear it out!!!

If you're into the Dead Kennedys for Jello, this is definitely the bootleg you want (unless you own the video, which you SHOULD). He was feeling about as talkative as any human being could possibly feel, plus you can hear all the instruments really clearly -- at least until the (insufferably long and preachy) middle of set-closer "Bleed For Me," when the entire bottom end completely disappears for some reason. It's back in time for the first encore ("Nazi Punks Fuck Off," which Jello dedicates to "the baby blue boys in black" !?), but by then Klaus Flouride has dropped his bass on the ground and gotten it so out of tune it might as well be Alanis Morrisette. ZINGER!!! (if this were 1995)

But remember -- to buy or sell an unauthorized bootleg recording is illegal. AND WHO NEEDS A SICK BIRD?!?!??! (ill eagle) HAH??? WHO NEEDS A SICK BIRD!??!?! HA!HA!HA!HO!HEE!HA!HEEEEHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

It's also immoral. AND WHO NEEDS A BLOW JOB BY THE GUY WHO SANG "POP MUZIK"!?!??! (M oral) HAH!??!?! WHO NEEDS A BIRD JOB BY A POPSICLE!??!? HA!HA!HA! HO! HORTCH HORTCH !!!! HEEEEEEEEEEE HITLER!!!

This is a special game! In the preceding paragraph, try to find the names of every Dead Kennedys member that you can. Don't continue on to the answers until you've looked nice, hard and juicy!

ANSWERS BELOW

ANSWERS:
"...like a rotten horse's hoof..." - That's JOHNNY Rotten to you!
"...off a vicious gang of..." - SID Vicious anyone???
"...got my head on straight..." - Well if it isn't Dead Kennedys bassist Topper Headon! Hello Topper!
"I was jonesin' for a..." - And there they are, Steve Jones and Mick Jones, bringing a double heaping helping of hardcore action to the Dead Kennedys rock and roll machine!

Wasn't it a fun game we've all shared together? Hunting and searching? Sharing a warm beer and cold discovery? Now let's move on to a record review.

This bootleg is some lazy asshole's excuse for a ripoff. Rather than presenting a rare Dead Kennedys live performance or sharing a few rare studio demos, it simply collects recordings from PRE-EXISTING bootlegs (including A Skateboard Party, Never Been On MTV and others), removes Jello's banter, and strings 'em all together on one disc. Worse yet, half of the songs come in late or cut out early -- what is this, an African-American employee?!

NO! No it's NOT! Because African-American employees come in early and work as late as necessary to ensure that the work is done. God bless America.

Incidentally, I write 5/7ths of my reviews while on the clock at work. In fact, I'm "monitoring a press interview" right now! God bless America.

If you just really really want a Dead Kennedys live bootleg and this is the only one you can find, I guess you'd might as well grab it. At least with Jello's between-song banter gone, the fast songs sound really, REALLY great all strung together in a row. It's not until the second half that the songs suddenly start falling prey to weird, lazy edits (no intro to "MTV Get Off The Air"? Only the long boring INTRO to "Riot"? "Religious Vomit" starting during the third line?).

Features five tracks each from We Trust In God, Inky and I'd Like A Convenient Death, four each from Get Your Fresh Vegetables Here and Disastrous Surgical Plasticity, three from Christ! Frank'n'Beans Again? and one from Democracytime For Bed. Please note that these are not the names of bootlegs -- I have simply made hilarious jokes out of the names of every Dead Kennedys record. However, I do genuinely feel that any or all of my suggestions would make terrific album titles for any promising young emerging artist. For example, We Trust In God, Inky would be a fantastic name for a Christian rock opera based on the Pac-Man videogame. Likewise, Get Your Fresh Vegetables Here would be a near-perfect title for a recording of a guy shouting "Get your fresh vegetables here!" for 40 minutes. Either that or The Repetitive Grocer, but that's hardly a parody of a Dead Kennedys album title at all. Had they recorded an album entitled Gross Representations, that would be one thing. But they didn't. In fact, I'm pretty sure that nobody has. So that's ANOTHER great name for an album! Then you could record The Repetitive Grocer and people would get the reference. Until that time, however, I'd go with my original suggestion.

If I had to sum up this bootleg disc in one word, it would be "difficult". Luckily I don't have to, so I won't worry about it.

Reader Comments

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com
"I'd Like A Convenient Death" is probably the Great Lost Punk Album Title. Thank you for supplying it to the world.

The mix is strong, the high-pitched surf guitar is blasting out chords as fast as Ray can play them, and the whole experience is an awful lot of fun, if'n you enjoy speedy rhythms. Plus, as an added bonus, the ones near the end ("Where Do You Draw The Line," "Potshot Heard 'Round The World," "D.M.S.O.," and "Lie Detector") are incredibly catchy, and "Cesspools In Eden" is spooky enough to have been on side one of Frankenchrist. So that's something to hop up and down on one leg about.

Personally, I love this album - it took a while, but I love it. The lyrics are smart, and it really doesn't matter what melody you're playing if you're playing this fast - it's gonna kick ass either way. But, alas, you'll find they are catchy. Even inconsequential ditties like "Fleshdunce" and "Triumph Of The Swill" still sound great bouncing around in your head after you've heard them enough times to realize that they're actually two different songs. The only lousy one, as far as I'm concerned, is, ironically enough, the longest. "Chickenshit Conformist" has pleasant enough lyrics, but the dippy, snail-paced melody just blows it all to hell. And it goes on for six damn minutes!!!! If there weren't twenty other great songs to choose from, I'd be really bitter about the existence of that particular pile of asinine swallow.

Then they broke up. Jello's put out rock albums with D.O.A., Nomeansno, Steel Pole Bath Tub, Ministry, and Mojo Nixon, as well as four spoken word albums of varying qualities (The first one, No More Cocoons, is the best. They just go downhill from there.). Bassist Klaus Flouride has released an EP and two albums full of interesting avant-garde-ish pop and electronic music, guitarist East Bay Ray put out a boring funk metal EP with a band called Skrapyard, and Rastafarian drummer D.H. Peligro was in the Jungle Studs before creating a really lousy heavy metal band bearing his surname. If they've done anything else, I haven't heard about it.

I miss the Dead Kennedys. Even though I didn't get into them until about three years after they broke up, they meant a lot to me during those rough high school years. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they made my sixteenth year on earth a simply divine one.

Reader Comments

destroy@freenet.hamilton.on.ca (Jett Janczak)
If you like DK you should try Propaghandi (if you already haven't). so what if they're on fat wreck, they still belt out lyrics in vein of dk's

they're a great band, although i only have their new release, less talk, more rock. the cd came with a foldout booklet which is mainly them speaking about animal liberation and feminism type stuff.

i agree with your reviews...except, i kind of like "Chickenshit Conformist." punk.

gruaccp@mithlond.esoterica.pt (Vasco Rodrigues)
With the exception of "Lie Detector" (one my record's favorite) the last four songs on here are the worst songs DK's have ever recorded. They're no way "catchy". Overall side A is better, even though I don't like "Fleshdunce" because of the irritating back vocals. About "Chickenshit Conformist": Hey, I like that song! The melody actually matches very well with the words: there are parts of "disappointment" where the music is melodic and parts of "anger" and "protest" where the music is fast paced.

You wrote "I miss the Dead Kennedys. Even though I didn't get into them until about three years after they broke up, they meant a lot to me during those rough high school years. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they made my sixteenth year on earth a simply divine one." Except for the "three years after" (it was "one year after" for me), every single word applies to me! How I miss those days when I was 16 and sat down entire afternoons listening over and over again to a tape with In God We Trust, Inc. and Bedtime For Democracy recorded on it! When I read that passage it brought tears to my eyes. I suddenly realized that it has been 9 years since I first listened to DK's, and now I hardly get any new punk-rock that I like. Dead Kennedys changed my life and I wouldn't be the person I am today and wouldn't have done the things I've done if I hadn't come across their records.

East Bay Ray
A friend of mine who is on the net, Red, showed me your site. I just wanted to send a note to thank you for the in-depth reviews of our records. Here's some updated biographical information on myself. I have a new exciting "heavy, sinister cabaret" band called Candyass (Skrapyard is no more). I play guitar on a CD entitled Sidi Mansour by Cheika Rimitti (known as the godmother of Rai music, an Algerian form of protest music) that also features guitarist Robert Fripp and bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I produced a CD for the Screaming Bloody Marys called Get In, Get Off, Get Out on Doctor Dream Records. There is also a rare 7-inch single around that I did entitled "Trouble in Town" that's kind of a spaghetti Western tribute. Thanks for your interest in the Dead Kennedys.

Belgae@aol.com
The Dead Kennedys were the first punk rock show I ever went to in my life: September 5, 1981, at the Florentine Gardens on Hollywood Blvd., next to a giant porno theater. The opening bands were 45 Grave & T.S.O.L. It was a week before I started my high school senior year, and for three days after the show, I couldn't hear a thing. The whole experience affected me profoundly, and helped shape the person I am now in many positive ways. The Dead Kennedys' focused, intelligent anger has been a guide for me to this day. Since then, I saw many more punk rock shows & 15 more Dead Kennedys shows until their break up. They were definitely ahead of their time & could teach wannabe's like Rage Against the Machine a whole lot of things. If there is any group from punk's past who deserves a day in the sun, it is them. They were a light of hope during a very dark time in America & deserve recognition.

tmp5@atlgr.com (Alex)
I found your page and must say. great job. I thought people had forgotten what a great band they were. I'm just adding a comment on how sad hardcore music is today. In the early days, there was a message, it had personality, integrity and style. Today's music is all about being a whiny teenager full of agnst. Punk was about saying fuck you to problems not whining about them. I wonder if the spirit can ever be regained.

Quiddity9@aol.com
Re: "Chickenshit Conformist" - GREAT SONG. I saw nothing wrong with it.

DougS@aol.com
I'm a 30 year old late comer to punk. In high school back in the early 80's punk bored me. I was into the early 80's metal scene and AC/DC was GOD as far as I was concerned. I didn't care for the "raw" style punk had versus the more polished metal sound. That slowly changed as metal went glam (Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, and a zillion more idiotic bands come to mind here). I was forced to go more underground with speed metal and bands like Anthrax, Testament, Metallica, early Megadeth, the metal version of Suicidal Tendancies, and, later Sepultura. That's when I started coming full circle and took another look at punk. For the past year DK has been in my obsession. One by one I've been buying DK albums and they (plus LARD) have been hogging my 5 disk CD player. These new so called punk bands, Nirvana, et al., can't hold a candle to Dead Kennedys.

Any hard core DK fan should scrounge for the DK videos. I've found three so far. The one "legit" one I've found was done back in 1984 at the last night of Dirk Dirksen's (local underground promoter in San Francisco) famous On Broadway nightclub. This is the one most easily available to the masses. The production values are good. My only gripe with it is that it has been edited in spots and certain DK faves like "Holiday In Cambodia" and "Too Drunk to Fuck" are missing (they may have been edited out or DK didn't play them, there's no way to tell).

There are two others that I've found. One is a two band (DOA being the other band) video called The Best of Flipside Video #3 This also was done in 1984 but at the Olympic in Los Angeles. The video itself is heavily edited and the DKs are only on for half an hour. There's a lot of redundancy between this one and the On Broadway show, the major differences being the performances of "Chemical Warfare" and "I Fought The Law". Major gripe: if they're going to edit the show this much they could have cut Jello Biafra's six minute speech prelude to "Moral Majority" while wearing a Ronald Reagan mask. I would have preffered another song or two to that. This video may be hard to find. You certainly won't find it in any of the major outlets. Check your local underground/ indie outlet.

The third is the real prize. It's called Dead Kennedys Part One (I haven't found Part 2 yet, if there is one). It's a local (San Francisco) production done by someone who must have had close access to the band over the years. It's a series of performances taken over the early years of the band and mostly taped at local S.F. clubs. Most of the performances were done before Fresh Fruit was released. Most of the songs on this video wound up on the Convenience compiliation album. The highlights include actual video of the second DK guitarist, 6025, a copy of a news report on Biafra's run for mayor, and the opportunity for the viewer to watch Biafra evolve his performance from traditional mike stand hugging (most visible on the video of "Kill The Poor" though he does dive into the crowd and try to mosh around to a generally surprised audience and boos can be faintly heard after he gets back on stage) to the now familiar Biafra freak show. The video quality is oustanding considering it was mostly done in 1979, the exception being a very early appearance of the band on the UC Berkeley campus doing "Viva Las Vegas". Be warned that 1/5 of the video was staged inside a record studio (I guess for the band's own enjoyment and persumably during the recording sessions for In God We Trust in 1981) and the performance seems a little fake to the viewer knowing that there's no audience, though the sound is excellent and very crisp for a live band. This is will be the hardest video to find if you don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But it's worth the search.

nicho@dcscomp.com.au (Peter Nicholson)
I am still sixteen, and have listened to DK since I was eleven. Kind of weird, but I had a punk cousin who was really cool, and listened too all that kind of stuff. Yes, sixteen is the best age. I started to actually take notice of the records' lyrics this year, and I love every single song they produced. If it weren't for Jello Biafra, I would be as boring as every other fuckhead at my school (it is an elitist private school) and wanting to pursue a business degree at university. I just want to say thank you to every like minded punk rocker in the world. One day we will finally beat the bastards. Thank you.

DougS@aol.com
This album could easily be renamed Bedtime For Dead Kennedys. It was the band's last album (excluding the compilation release Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death). It also marked a very distinct downturn in creativity for the band. This album was released during the dark period of the Giger penis landscape poster trial and it's obvious that it made an impact on the lack of quality of this album.

The chief complaint I have with this record is the production. It sounds like Frankenchrist 2</