Band/artist - Dead Kennedys
Genre(s) - Punk
Origin - United States of America
Album - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Year of release - 1980
I don't know much about punk but I do know that this album kills. It is about the only pure, old-school punk album that I fully enjoy. Why? Maybe it's the shitload of much-too-awesome-for-punk riffs, maybe it's the hilarious but merciless social commentary (yes, I do like social commentary) that constuitute the lyrics, maybe it's Jello's demented air-raid alarm of a voice. But what really sets the Kennedys' debut apart from its peers is that Fresh Fruit consists of relatively well-crafted songs with a large amount of melody. This is what makes tracks like Kill the Poor, Chemical Warfare, California über Alles, and Holiday in Cambodia so rememberable. I can imagine this hit the punk scene with the impact and accuracy of a cruise missile back in 1980, and they weren't even wearing footlong mohawks.
- Kill the poor
- Forward to death
- When ya get drafted
- Let's lynch the landlord
- Drug me
- Your emotions
- Chemical Warfare
- California über alles
- I kill children
- Stealing people's mail
- Funland at the beach
- Ill in the head
- Holiday in Cambodia
- Viva Las Vegas
The DK's second album, Plastic Surgery Disasters is also excellent! Some of the later stuff (like Bedtime for Democracy) is less exciting. But you've gotta love Jello's voice.
ReplyDeleteAlso, cruise missile's can be tragically inaccurate. =(
Cursed be misinformation's deadly venom! I thought cruise missiles are horrible anyhow, and then they were not even inaccurate yet! In the early '80s, I believe, the US wanted to station cruise missiles in the Netherlands and there were MASSIVE protests.
ReplyDeleteI also have both the albums you mentioned on my PC here. I don't know those very well, something always draws me to this one!