Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables IRS, 1980 amazon

Once upon a time i was a freshman at Cal, fresh from high school in Fremont and unloading my Cure and Slaughter cds into the drawer of desk in the Unit 3 dorms. I recall my roommates Brooks and Pat giving me looks regarding my musical tastes, but being perfectly happy to let me poke around their collections. They also invited me to tag along to a show at 924 Gilman on our first weekend. I felt completely out of place in my Cure t-shirt in the punk haven. While there, my roommates spotted a guy across the room with a black and white striped shirt on, and began debating whether it was Jello Biafra. Turned out it was, and he was kind enough to converse with us for a few minutes. I was silent in the back, as i had no idea who he was.

A little investigation back in our dorm taught me Biafra fronted the seminal bay area punk band Dead Kennedys. "What a great name!", i thought, and made a cassette copy of their 1980 debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. I instantly fell in love with its blend of hardcore punk and rockabilly, driven forward by Biafra's characteristic warble. The sarcasm and bile spewed by Biafra is unmistakable, from his extrapolation of Republican philosophy in "Kill the Poor" and "California Über Alles" to his tirade against the plentiful opiates of the masses in "Drug Me". I find East Bay Ray's guitar work to be particularly impressive, especially the noise symphony that opens the standard "Holiday in Cambodia" and the surf guitar of "Let's Lynch the Landlord". A powerhouse work clocking in at just over 30 minutes, and a lasting blueprint for DIY music and left wing politics.

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kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich, but your boss gets richer off you

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