release date: Sep. 2, 1980
format: vinyl (1981 reissue, blue vinyl - B RED 10) / cd (1993 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Norm, East Bay Ray (co-producer)
label: Cherry Red Records - nationality: USA
Tracklist: A) 1. "Kill the Poor" (5 / 5) - 2. "Forward to Death" - 3. "When Ya Get Drafted" - 4. "Let's Lynch the Landlord" (4 / 5) - 5. "Drug Me" (4 / 5) - 6. "Your Emotions" (5 / 5) - 7. "Chemical Warfare" - - B) 1. "California Über Alles" (5 / 5) - 2. "I Kill Children" (5 / 5) - 3. "Stealing People's Mail" (5 / 5) - 4. "Funland at the Beach" - 5. "Ill in the Head" - 6. "Holiday in Cambodia" (5 / 5) - 7. "Viva Las Vegas"
[ full album 1 ]
Studio debut album by Dead Kennedys originally released on Cherry Red Records in a '81-reissue on blue vinyl - the '93 cd-issue by Alternative Tentacles.
The album may have had its release when punk rock had been proclaimed 'dead' but it's one of the best and most remarkable (and political) punk rock albums, in my mind. The American punk era came in at least two noteworthy periods. A lot of the original proto-punk bands like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, MC5, Patti Smith, and New York Dolls came from USA, and when punk rock exploded in Britain with The Damned, The Clash, and Sex Pistols, focus was soon directed back to their major source in proto-punk bands and the (maybe?) first 'real' punk rock band: The Ramones, who had been around a couple of years, and then after this first punk explosion in Europe, the second punk wave hit back on the US, and Americans now experienced hardcore punk rock with Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Circle Jerks, and D.O.A. (Canadian band) etc. The typical 'tide and flood' tendency involving the two continents when it comes to inspiration and new styles. But I had only just realised that punk existed, so for me, Dead Kennedys were new (which they were...) and punk had only just begun (which it actually hadn't...). Anyway, the debut is not a reproduction or copy of British punk rock but a highly original hardcore punk rock version that I simply loved. The energy, the anger, and the rejection of conformity and double moral was primary themes and it was so delightful to listen to an American band with so strong criticism on American life-style and materialism in general. Looking back, my parents actually were pretty tolerant to my music taste 'cause I played it *#.!.. loud. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ collectors' item 'blue vinyl' - from ~ €60,- ]
