DEAD KENNEDYS

"fresh fruit for rotting vegetables"
Year:  1980

Label:  Alternative Tentacles

Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  14
Time:  33 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk

Time to punk out a bit (punk in time and all). There are so many versions of this album, you can never get enough. Being the rotten vegetarian that I am, I need my constant supply of fresh fruit. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the debut album by Dead Kennedys, released initially on Cherry Red Records in the UK in 1980, eventually through IRS/Faulty Products in the US, & later by the DK's own Alternative Tentacles label. The photo on the front cover, showing several police cars on fire, was taken during the so-called ‘White Night Riots’ of May 21,1979 that resulted from the light sentence given to former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White for the murder of Mayor George Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk. The copy I own is an early IRS pressings with the cover tinted orange with black lettering. This cover variation was not authorized by the DKs. It also features the original back cover with a found photograph of an old lounge band called The Sounds Of Sunshine, with the DK's logo pasted onto the drum kit, with skulls & crossbones on their instruments. The original photograph, as found by Biafra at a garage sale, had no identifying remarks on it whatsoever. It was used because the band thought it was ‘hilarious’. Somehow Warner Wilder, the former vocalist of the defunct lounge band learned of the photo & threatened to sue the Dead Kennedys, so the back cover was reprinted with the heads of the band members cut off. This solution was also deemed unsatisfactory to the Sounds of Sunshine, forcing an entirely different photo of four old ladies in a living room with the Alternative Tentacles bat mascot pasted over a picture frame. On the original vinyl version Side 1 & Side 2 each contained seven songs. This post-IRS, pre-Alternative Tentacles pressing on IRS's Faulty Products subsidiary adds "Police Truck" to the middle of Side 1 between "Let's Lynch the Landlord" & "Drug Me" (*Review from HERE ).

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"plastic surgery disasters"
Year:  1982
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  30 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:         Punk

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"Franken Christ"
Year:  1985
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  10
Time:  38 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk

Frankenchrist is the third album released by the punk band Dead Kennedys in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles. The album is an example of the goth rock, prog rock and psychedelic rock side of Dead Kennedys' musical personality. The spaghetti western soundtrack influence is also noticeable in the horn parts and in East Bay Ray's atmospheric guitar work. "Frankenchrist" is noted for its relative lack of traditionally hardcore material. Most of the songs are slower and longer than the majority of other Dead Kennedys songs. "M.T.V. − Get off the Air" is notable for its pointed slam of the music establishment and "Stars and Stripes of Corruption" for its exegesis of Biafra's political philosophies. The cover, back and general artwork have also few goth / dark touches.

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"bedtime for democracy"
Year:  1986
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  28
Time:  41 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk

"Bedtime for Democracy" is the fourth and final studio album released by Dead Kennedys. Songs on this album cover such common punk subjects as conformity, Reaganomics, the military, and even criticizing aspects of their own punk movement. The title of the album is a reference to the 1951 comedy film, "Bedtime for Bonzo" starring Ronald Reagan, and perhaps also reflects the weary band's bitterness in the aftermath of the financially and emotionally draining trial they were being subjected to at the time over the controversial art included with their previous album. In fact, by the time recording began, they had already played what would be their last live concert with Jello Biafra and announced their breakup immediately after the record's release. There is a typing error on the Manifesto CDs so that the time length for Gone with My Wind is printed ":43" when it should read "1:43". On the original vinyl version, Side A was tracks 1-11 and Side B was tracks 12-21. It also came with a mock periodical in the form of a thin newspaper made up of collage art, called "Fuck Facts." The East Bay punk band Isocracy parodied the name in their 1988 EP, Bedtime for Isocracy. The cover art depicted the band together in a bed, accompanied by Jello Biafra.

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"give me convenience or
give me death"
Year:  1987
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  17
Time:  60 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk

"Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" is a compilation album by the hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys. It was released in June 1987 through frontman Jello Biafra's record label "Alternative Tentacles" on all fomats. It eventually went Gold in the US and it's an excellent collection of lost songs, different mixes and outakes recorded by the band from 1979 to 1987. "Kinky sex makes the world go round" is a very controversy song which is cold and intimidating, and the lyrics describe kidnappings and torture carried out by a secret police (presumably the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA). There follows a bridge, then the music becomes light and almost cheerful as the lyrics describe US foreign policy as utilizing murderous dictatorships to secure economic concessions that favor American corporations. "Bleed for Me" also plays in the background of the Dead Kennedys' song "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go 'Round)," in which an aide for the Reagan White House arranges World War III on the phone with Margaret Thatcher, who moans erotically at every new atrocity; this track may be a reference to the Thatchergate tape. The song was also performed for the film Urgh! A Music War, with a different bridge about Rosalynn Carter. During live performances with the Melvins in the 9/11-Afghanistan-Iraq War era, Jello substituted "Muslims" for "Russians" in the verse "So what's ten million dead, if it's keeping out the Russians?". The song has also been covered by many bands, most notably Pearl Jam who have brought out the song for their most recent tours, substituting the lyric "cowboy Ronnie" for the more time-appropriate "cowboy Georgie", in reference to the previous president of the United States.

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"Tribute DK"

Year:  2022

Label:  Cvlt Nation

Format:  digital

Tracks:  14

Time:  35 min.

Genre:  rock

Style:        Punk

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"tribute"

Year:  1992
Country:  several
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  LP, CD
Bands:  17
Tracks:  17
Time:  57 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk, Metal, Rap

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"tribute"

Year:  1998

Label:  Know Records

Format:  CD

Bands:  25

Tracks:  25

Time:  70 min.

Genre:  rock

Style:        Punk Hardcore

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"live at the Deaf Club"

Year:  1978

Country:  US

City:  San Francisco

Label:  Manifesto

Format:  CD , LP

Tracks:  15

Time:  34 min.

Genre:  rock

Style:         Punk

"The Deaf Club", as the San Francisco Club of the Deaf, Inc. was affectionately known, was an underground hall in San Francisco's Mission District where bands performed in late 1978 and throughout the year of 1979. While out getting a burrito, the manager of the Offs discovered a small club was available for rent to the general public, rented it, and produced the first show there in December 1978. The Bay Area punk/alternative community quickly adapted to the new club, where a TV with the sound turned off was always on and beer orders were made with written notes passed to the club members. During the life of the club, a wild assortment of locals hired the room not only to present music, but also to show films, hold birthday parties and host performance art. In 1980, a compilation of live recordings made at different shows at the Deaf Club was released called Can You Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club. The limited run vinyl LP featured a few songs each from the Mutants, K.G.B., the Offs, Pink Section, Tuxedo Moon and Dead Kennedys. This Dead Kennedys' recording is a document of their entire set from March 3, 1979 - an evening that also included the Germs from Los Angeles. "Gaslight" is a track that has never been released before and that night was also notable for being the last performance of 6025 playing guitar live with Dead Kennedys and the band as a 5-piece lineup".

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"Live in London"
Year:  1981
Country:  UK
City:  London
Label:  Alternative Tentacles
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  14
Time:  33  min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk        Hardcore

Live recording from the Central London Poly 1981 concert. The record also comes with a probably xeroxed Alternative Tentacles mailorder catalog with new records and shirts. Even though a UK address of Alternative Tentacles (incorrect) and a barcode (probably fake) are printed on the back, the release is unofficial. Later there were more unofficial releases with the same songs schedule but different cover, back and general artwork.

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"live in Germany"
Year:  1982
Country:  Germany
City:  Munich
Label:  No Sound Lost
Format:  CD , LP
Tracks:  17
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk         Hardcore





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