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[(Brian) - Rescuing one of Scott's posts from way back. "Demo" and "Skateboard" are dead, so don't ask.....]The Dead Kennedys were a hardcore crew from San Francisco in the early 1980's, leader Jello Biafra has long been a vocal advocate of free speech, and an avowed critic of censorship, much as I myself attempt to be, so more power to him......Ticketmaster would not even print the band's name on its tickets when they toured, referring to them as the "DK's", much like the current Washington Redskins fiasco. The early lineup, by the way, was Biafra on vocals, guitarists East Bay Ray and 6025, drummer Ted, and bassist Klaus Floride, they cranked out a Pistols-like din, although
unlike the Pistols who seemingly were motivated by anger, the Kennedy's, fronted by Biafra's helium induced yelp, seemed inspired by fear of the world in which they lived. So, album #1, 1980's "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables" is thier best, an important album in the context of its release, and quite enjoyable to listen to today.....a fine album, stacked with the likes of "Kill the Poor", "Let's Lynch the Landlord", "California Uber Alles", "Holiday In Cambodia" and LOTS more....you want this, if you've not heard
it, a couple of more notes: even the Ramones would not be able to keep up with the speedy "Drug Me", and, for some reason (much to my surprise), my favorite track on the original album has been removed from the CD reissues ("Police Truck"), which is no prob as we'll just use my convenient VINYL RIP for this one!
Next up was the great EP "In God We Trust Inc", which is also stacked with some fine shit, notably the graphic "Religious Vomit" and perhaps their best known track, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" which helped to shed some light on skinhead attrocities in the Bay Area at the time. A note: the original cassette release (I don't have one) had all 8 tracks on one side, the B-side being blank, with the following note: "Home Taping Is Killing record industry profits. We left this side blank so you can help".......gotta admire that, and Bow Wow Wow used the same tactic on "Your Cassette Pet".
So, next release for the lads was 1982's "Plastic Surgery Disasters", a pretty good effort which features such material as "Winnebago Warrior" and "Terminal Preppie", among others, although IMO not up to the standards of the earlier releases.
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1985's "Frankenchrist" is also a fairly so-so effort, with occasional winners like "Soup Is Good Food", and "MTV-Get Off the Air"... the final "official" release was 1986's "Bedtime For Democracy", and the joke was about over... like similar bands, this could only go on for so long... it's here, should you want the complete set....
....and this entire collection is dedicated to the memory of Marshall Phillips. He would have liked this post, I think, so Marshall, my friend, this one is for YOU. Rest In Peace Brother!
FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES-01 Kill the Poor/ 02 Forward to Death/ 03 When Ya Get
Drafted/ 04 Let's Lynch the Landlord/ 05 Police Truck/ 06 Drug Me/ 07 Your Emotions/ 08 Chemical Warfare/ 09 California Uber Alles/ 10 I Kill Children/ 11 Stealing People's Mail/ 12 Funland at the Beach/ 13 Ill in the Head/ 14 Holiday In Cambodia/ 15 Viva Los Vegas
IN GOD WE TRUST (EP)- 01 Religious Vomit/ 02 Moral Majority/ 03 Hyperactive Child/ 04 Kepone Factory/ 05 Dog Bite/ 06 Nazi Punks Fuck Off/ 07 We've Got a Bigger Problem Now/ 08 Rawhide
PLASTIC SURGERY DISASTERS- 01 Government Flu/ 02 Terminal Preppie/ 03 Trust Your Mechanic/ 04 Well Paid Scientist/ 05 Buzzbomb/ 06 Forest Fire/ 07 Halloween/ 08 Winnebago Warrior/ 09 Riot/ 10 Bleed For Me/ 11 I Am the Owl/ 12 Dead End/ 13 Moon Over Marin
FRANKENCHRIST- 01 Soup Is Good Food/ 02 Hellnation/ 03 This Could Be Anywhere (This Could Be
Everywhere)/ 04 A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch/ 05 Chicken Farm/ 06 Jock-O-Rama (Invasion of the Beef Patrol)/ 07 Goons of Hazzard/ 08 MTV-Get Off the Air/ 09 At My Job/ 10 Stars and Stripes of Corruption
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BEDTIME FOR DEMOCRACY- 01 Take This Job and Shove it/ 02 Hop With the Jet Set/ 03 Dear
Abby/ 04 Rembozo the Clown/ 05 Fleshdunce/ 06 The Great Wall/ 07 Shrink/ 08 Triumph of the
Swill / 09 Macho Insecurity/ 10 I Spy/ 11 Cesspools In Eden/ 12 One Way Ticket To Pluto/ 13 Do the Slag/ 14 A Commercial/ 15 Gone With My Wind/ 16 Anarchy For Sale/ 17 Chickenshit Conformist/ 18 Where Do Ya Draw the Line/ 19 Potshot Heard 'Round the World/ 19 DMSO/ 20 Lie Detector
Please share and comment, in memory of my great friend who passed away this past weekend... Marshall Phillips had more influence on my musical tastes than did ANYONE, this blog likely would not exist were it not for him introducing me to so much great music... please leave a comment, just in memory of Marshall, 1956-2014, a great guy, a great friend, and a tremendous influence on my musical tastes.... sorry to keep talking about this, but this just SUCKS, I love you Marshall and THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DID FOR ME.
