Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980) [Original + SHM-CD Remaster + Bonus disc] RESTORED

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Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980) [Original + SHM-CD Remaster + Bonus disc] RESTORED

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Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band, formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. Pioneers of hardcore during the 1980s, the band gained a large underground following in the international punk music scene.
Their music mixed the more experimental elements of British 1970s punk with the raw energy of the 1980s American hardcore punk scene. Dead Kennedys' songs mixed deliberately shocking lyrics with satirical and sarcastic criticism of social and political issues of the Reagan era.

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Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980) [Original + SHM-CD Remaster + Bonus disc] RESTORED

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Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the debut album by the hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys, released initially on Cherry Red Records in the UK in 1980 and eventually through Faulty Products in the US (later by the DK's own Alternative Tentacles label).
The best selling and generally the most critically acclaimed album by the Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables has become a major staple of American punk.

Dead Kennedys' debut LP is the classic album of American Hardcore/Punk, and one of the albums that helped to define the whole genre. First released in 1980, and one of the first hardcore albums ever, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables has been called the "Dead Kennedys signature statement". According to Kerrang, it is the "#3 Punk Rock Album of All Time", and Mojo has it as "#9 on the Top 50 Punk Albums of All Time".

To followers of the early-'80s West Coast punk scene, few acts have greater import than the Dead Kennedys, and FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES is their definitive work. Fueled by the hyperactive, paranoid rants of frontman Jello Biafra,the band lays out a blueprint for societal upheaval, preaching distrust of everything, and the eventual breakdown of the totalitarian police state in which we live. His disturbingworld view is propelled by the guitar stylings of East Bay Ray, who replaced punk's stereotypical volume assault with carefully chosen and flawlessly executed bursts of musical sarcasm and frightening sonic inventiveness. The album's opener, "Kill the Poor," is a jubilant excoriation of society's treatment of poverty. Songs like "Let's Lynch The Landlord" and "Stealing Peoples' Mail" provide detailed (and hysterically funny) plans for undermining society's oppression, as does "Chemical Warfare," which even goes so far as to act out the violent rebellion. This was rage of unprecedented intellect, vitriol whose eloquence only served to make it more effective. The politics of the classics "Holiday In Cambodia" and "California Uber Alles" are extreme and violent, but also expertly stated and brilliantly executed.

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Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980) [Original + SHM-CD Remaster + Bonus disc] RESTORED

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A hyper-speed blast of ultra-polemical, left-wing hardcore punk, and bitingly funny sarcasm, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables stands as the Dead Kennedys' signature statement. As one of the first hardcore albums, it was a galvanizing influence on the musical and attitudinal development of the genre, also helping to kickstart the fertile California scene. The record's tactics are not subtle in the least; Jello Biafra's odd warble and spat-out lyrics leave no doubt as to what he thinks, baiting his targets of conservatism, violence, overbearing authority, and capitalist greed with a viciously satirical sarcasm that keeps his unflinchingly political outlook from becoming too didactic. The thin production dilutes some of the music's power, but the ragged speed-blur still packs a wallop, and the hooks cribbed from surf and rockabilly give it a gonzo edge. The songwriting isn't consistent all the way through the album, but classics like "Kill the Poor," "Let's Lynch the Landlord," "Chemical Warfare," "California Über Alles," and "Holiday In Cambodia" helped define the hardcore genre and, thus, must be heard.

~ Steve Huey, all media guide

Album Tracklisting

01. Kill The Poor
02. Forward To Death
03. When Ya Get Drafted
04. Let's Lynch The Landlord
05. Drug Me
06. Your Emotions
07. Chemical Warfare
08. California Über Alles
09. I Kill Children
10. Stealing People's Mail
11. Funland At The Beach
12. Ill In The Head
13. Holiday In Cambodia
14. Viva Las Vegas




Bonus CD from 2001 Remastered Reissue

01. Holiday In Cambodia
02. Police Truck
03. Kill The Poor
04. In-Sight
05. Too Drunk To Fuck
06. The Prey


Original Album Produced by Norm. Engineered by Oliver Dicicco.
All additional information about the staff & additional musicians read here.

• Jello Biafra - vocals
• East Bay Ray - guitar
• Klaus Flouride - bass
• Ted - drums

Original Release Date: September 1980
These versions Re-Released: Jan 1993/Sept 2001/Aug 2008
Format: Original Recording Reissued / 2x Remastered
Label: Alternative Tentacles/Cherry Red/Imperial Records (Japan)
Catalog No.: VIRUS 1CD / CDSBRED 155 / TECI-26493