DEAD KENNEDYS

WHEN + WHERE?

The Dead Kennedys formed in 1978 in San Francisco, California with the original line-up:

Jello Biafra on vocals

East Bay Ray on guitar

Klaus Flouride on bass

6025 on rhythm guitar

Ted on drums

The reason why Dead Kennedys is one of the best punk bands in existence is that they carry all the raw profanity of the Sex Pistols, the vivid intracity of the Damned, the lightening speed of Minor Threat, the political art-punk imagery of Crass… and an extreme amount of talent to pull them all off at once. It’s easy to see how they made an international impact: Jello Biafra was inspired by the UK punk scene and we loved him right back, so much so that their single Too Drunk To Fuck in 1981 almost made it into the UK Top 30 (imagine presenter Tony Blackburn, shitting his pants knowing he might have to say the ‘f word’ on BBC’s Top of the Pops).

Their rise to fame/infamy was also helped out by a couple of appearances in the American news: the first in 1979 when Jello Biafa ran for the Mayor of San Francisco, promoting intentions such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits in the city, legalising squatting in abandoned buildings and requiring police officers to run for election every four years, and he actually came forth in the election. Later in 1986, the Dead Kennedys were in the news for something a bit less positive and a bit more lawsuit-y… In their 1985 album Frankenchrist, the artwork by H.R Giger known as Penis Landscape (you can Google it if you want but I’m gonna tell you that it’s quite self-explanatory) was included as an insert, fuelling a criminal charge against the band for “distribution of harmful matter”. Although they were acquitted in court in ’86, record shops across California refused to stock the album in wake of the case, driving their record label Alternative Tentacles to bankruptcy. And yeah this all does sound pretty bad, but apparently Jello was set on using Penis Landscape for the album’s cover (until the rest of the band convinced him otherwise), so you could say that, in comparison, everyone got off lightly.

Since their split in 1986 and partial reform in 2001, Dead Kennedys has become an iconic name in punk around the world; you won’t see many punk-patched jackets without a classic DK logo patch, you can even sometimes hear Holiday in Cambodia and Kill The Poor being played in bars (though if you hear it in Birmingham UK it’s probably my request, I’m still working on getting the DJ of my favourite bar to play Nazi Punks Fuck Off but he keeps saying it doesn’t fit the vibe) and I saw recently that Dead Kennedys has one and a half million likes on Facebook (what the fuck!). Unfortunately though, a lot of talk surrounding DK is more about whether you’re on the side of the reformed band, consisting of East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and drummer D.H. Peligro who play without Jello Biafra, or Jello Biafra’s side, who refuses to work with the band. Although I touch on this later in the Verdict, I think we should all talk about how fucking great their music is instead, please.

MUSIC

After a doubtful first couple years, as a band whose name stirred up more controversy in the media than their vicious, barbed lyrics and cutting edge sound, as a band who suffered the early departure of guitarist 6025 and then a poorly attended tour around the East Coast, Dead Kennedys released in September 1980 their debut, best-selling album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, containing the previously released singles Holiday in Cambodia and California Uber Alles. As someone who prides themselves in doing everything stupidly and backwards (having only bought the Fresh Fruit debut a couple weeks ago after listening to all of their later albums first), I can at least tell you with educated (maybe that’s a stretch) insight Fresh Fruit is Dead Kennedys’ most diverse, original and defectless album, with some of the best production of all their releases. Everything about its sound is stark, vivid and brittle, and my favourite tracks I Kill Children and their cover of Viva Las Vegas are thick with colour at a bouncing speed – East Bay Ray’s surf riffs swinging, Klaus Flouride’s bass burbling along and Ted’s manic drumming coursing throughout, all showing off what I think is the best of DK’s sound. Even their bluer tracks Ill in the Head and Drug Me carry this exhilarative freakiness you really don’t hear much of again until their 1985 album Frankenchrist, and their lively anthems Kill The Poor and Let’s Lynch the Landlord show off Jello Biafra’s skill as a frontman, as well as the original recordings of California Uber Alles and Holiday in Cambodia; all the deep, warbling vibrato and solid, top of the range yells and the biting, bile-riddled satirical lyrics really just seal the fucking deal – Dead Kennedys is one of a kind, fresh, new, untouchable.

Later in 1981, after drummer Ted had left the band to become an architect and the scurrilous Too Drunk to Fuck had reached the UK Top 40, Dead Kennedys – alongside their new drummer D.H. Peligro – released the even more quick, profane, hardcore, outrageous and probably my favourite EP In God We Trust, Inc. (full review), which gives the big, loud and clear fuck you to profit-driven religious organisations, exploitative chemical plant employers and most unambiguously, Nazis. Nazi Punks Fuck Off as well as Dog Bite are two of my all-time favourite DK tracks because of their wild, fast flinging riffs and along with D.H’s light-speed drumming, the pace is up so high that everything seems like it should be a 13-minute blur, but the band’s bang-on musicianship induces flawless chaos instead. The rest of the EP follows suit, and I really think In God We Trust, Inc is hardcore punk done right: even in its riled vicious pace, none of Dead Kennedys’ full-flavoured, intricate vitality, on display in Fresh Fruit as well as their second studio album, Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982), is lost.

There are claims that Plastic Surgery Disasters is Dead Kennedys’ best album, and I’ll go even further to say that this album is as powerful, iconic and as saturated in creativity as The Damned’s distinguished Black Album. Everything from its ferocious intricacy, its muscular shifts in pacing, fully limbered bass hooks, guitar riffs and its variance in tone between tracks justifies the comparison: the red-hot speed and solid bass riff in Buzzbomb ranks in the likes of their previous hardcore release In God We Trust, Inc., and the masterful tracks Bleed For Me and Riot splurt out as much audial information as their classic Holiday in Cambodia. One of my favourites of the album is the final track Moon Over Marin (surprisingly for me, who deems the description “melodic” of any kind of song an insult). But it really is a nice, melodic, slower song with an addictive riff and a cheery, bright vocal, in spite of Jello’s frankly sad anti-pollution lyrics. I think that during this release in 1982, Dead Kennedys reached their pinnacle.

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)

And as if Dead Kennedys’ sound wasn’t outlandish enough, they push the boat out and over the edge of the cliff with their ‘experimental’ 1985 album Frankenchrist, whose sinister-sounding title reflects the band’s move to a darker, slower, and more eerie way of playing. I like the kind of droning, enveloping tones and the dead choir chorus in A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch, which is only really heard again in the live tracks Short Songs and Straight A’s (appearing in the post break-up compilation Give Me Convenience and Give Me Death (1987)), and the enormous stomping noise of At My Job and its jarring synths really sets you on edge: this really is new territory for the Dead Kennedys. Frankenchrist‘s downfall for me is how most tracks feel unnecessarily drawn out like Stars and Stripes of Corruption, sitting at 6 and a half minutes long (Frankenchrist features 10 tracks totalling 45 minutes while Fresh Fruit contains 14 totalling 33). I don’t have a brainless vendetta against songs longer than 45 seconds, but Dead Kennedys already proved how much substance they can pack into short songs, so slowing them down doesn’t really add anything.

Saying that, their final album, Bedtime For Democracy, released a year later in 1986, sports 21 tracks averaging at a minute and a half each. Although the album signals a return to the hardcore sound present in In God We Trust, Inc., the album lacks substance for me in comparison. The first six tracks all feel like fillers and although I like the idea of the greyscale and stony Macho Insecurity and Gone With My Wind, the production of the album is what lets it down: there’s a shit ton of reverb on Jello’s vocals, the vitality of East Bay Ray’s guitar is muffled and the only surviving element of D.H’s drumming is a dull and constant snare. A few tracks escape the burden and those are I Spy, Anarchy For Sale and Lie Detector (my favourite of the album), but other than that, Bedtime For Democracy is a poorly produced album with too many songs. With that being said, however, if this was Dead Kennedys’ only album it would’ve reviewed much higher: comparison is killer, and their later releases had a massive amount to live up to.

Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist (1985)
Dead Kennedys - Bedtime for Democracy (1986)

VERDICT

In December 1986 the band announced their split, after the release of Bedtime For Democracy and the Frankenchrist obscenity trial. From 2001, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and D.H. Peligro have reformed Dead Kennedys and toured around the world with a few different singers, and Jello Biafra’s reaction to this can be summarised by his insinuation in a 2013 interview that they were just “a really bad cover band”. The question remains: is there the Dead Kennedys without Jello Biafra? Most support for Jello is pledged in over-enthusiastic, badly spelt YouTube comments which often completely disregard the rest of the band’s talent, which I think is unfair. Most of the commenters argue the pretty baseless rumour (though I’ve believed it too) that the rest of the band wanted to allow Holiday in Cambodia to be used in a Levi’s jeans advert, something Jello’s preached at his spoken word shows, although there isn’t much to prove it and the band deny it: the main reason for a rift between the band is that in the 1990s, a jury found Jello guilty of fraud for not properly distributing the royalties received from his label Alternative Tentacles to the rest of the members. Although I’ve got a lot of admiration for Jello Biafra and I think his lyrics, showmanship and skill for songwriting is one of the best in punk, the other band members are such exceptionally talented musicians that each of them carry a massive amount of value in the band’s music. Three of them together playing in the reformed, ¾ full Dead Kennedys (who I saw live last year and they were brilliant) is always gonna beat, for me, a mere quarter, even if that quarter is the legendary Jello Biafra – and from what I’ve heard of Jello’s project ‘Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine’, it just sounds like a bit like a bad Dead Kennedys cover band.

(MY) TOP TRACKS

  1. NAZI PUNKS FUCK OFF / DOG BITE (In God We Trust, Inc. 1981)

  2. I KILL CHILDREN / VIVA LAS VEGAS (Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980)

  3. SHORT SONGS / STRAIGHT A’S (Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death 1987)

  4. MAN WITH THE DOGS (Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death 1987)

  5. BLEED FOR ME (Plastic Surgery Disasters 1982)

Come on, do you really think I could only choose five?

SOUNDS LIKE…

Why do I have this stupid section? It’s my fucking blog and I’m making it impossible for myself: listen to Dead Kennedys once and you’ll know that nothing else can sound like them, though a lot of bands cite them as an influence. Closest to a DK track I can think of is If I Had A Face by MDC.

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THE DAMNED

WHEN + WHERE?

The Damned formed in London in 1976 with the original members: 

Dave Vanian on vocals

Brian James on guitar

Captain Sensible on bass

Rat Scabies on drums

Now, it’s been tricky to word this correctly. Did The Damned emerge out of a newly blossoming ’76 punk scene, or did they begin punk? Whatever your opinion, the facts are that they brought out the first punk single in the UK in 1976 (New Rose), the first punk album in the UK in ’77 (Damned Damned Damned) and were the first UK punk band to tour the US. Whether they just “helped spearhead the punk movement … along with the Sex Pistols and The Clash” or not, what’s undeniable is that time and time again, over the years, they released some wild shit – albums that to this day make you think “woah… what?”- and if their music can leave “the-generation-that-can’t-be-shocked” bewildered, then imagine what people thought 40 years ago. With a galactic discography and enough line-up changes to write its own soap opera, ladies and gentleman… how do? Here’s The Damned.

MUSIC

The man(?), the myth, the legend… Damned Damned Damned (1977) was The Damned’s frenetic, invigorating, quick, fresh and iconic debut album, and when listening to it, it’s easy to see how it changed the face of music forever. Opening with Neat Neat Neat, the album slaps with luminous intensity from start to finish: James’ electric guitar (described affectionately by the Captain as “disgusting noise”) hits deep, hard and dirty in tracks like Fan Club and their riotous cover of The Stooges’ I Feel Alright, Rat’s cymbals in See Her Tonite crashing around in superb chaos while Dave Vanian exudes youthful vitality throughout. Written by Brian James (along with a lot of the album), New Rose is formed so well and so tight: every aspect is perfect – yet it maintains their “reckless juvenile insanity” (Mick Middles), striking the golden combination of great song-writing with an electric vigour… when would it burn out?

Music For Pleasure was released later in ’77, falling quite flat with most music critics at the time and well, they were right to think so. Imagine Damned Damned Damned as a nice double shot of decent dark rum. Music For Pleasure is that lovely rum, diluted down with a gallon and a half of flat off-brand cola and go on then, drink up. But, what that shit analogy demonstrates is that most of Music For Pleasure‘s criticism derives from a comparison to The Damned’s debut: if Music For Pleasure had been their first, I think it would have fared a lot better. The album does hold some stronger tracks like Politics, Stretcher Case Baby and Alone, but even at its best, Music For Pleasure feels flatter, blunter, more thinly spaced out, and maybe it was rushed, maybe Brian James had run out of ideas and his dictation over the band had greyed their energy… or maybe punk was dead? The album’s heavy criticism secures one thing though – The Damned was intrinsic to punk. Their music signalled the direction of the movement: Music For Pleasure’s staleness made people afraid that punk could only last long enough to fill a 31 minute record.

The Damned - Damned, Damned, Damned (1977)
The Damned - Music for Pleasure (1977)

The failure of Music For Pleasure led to Brian James’ decision to “break the band up”, leaving 1978 and ‘9 to a series of band dissolutions and reformations, including the loss (and gain) of Rat Scabies, and the addition of Lemmy on bass for a few live shows. As all things in life happen for a reason, James’ departure gave way to the intricate kaleidoscope of punk rock that is The Damned’s third album: Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). With the Captain now on guitar, a new bassist (Algy Ward) as well as a new sense of creative freedom, Machine Gun Etiquette feels experimental but assured, and dynamic yet focused, featuring the Captain on keyboard in tracks like I Just Can’t Be Happy Today and the utter, deep silky masterpiece that is Plan 9 Channel 7. The album retains its punky bite with both the title track Machine Gun Etiquette and Anti-Pope, revitalising the ’77 mood with classic riffs and break-neck drumming, while the colourful instrumentals crush all chance of being tarred as “two-dimensional”: a critique of their debut. The quick, powerful, but erratic potency of Damned Damned Damned – blended with a comfortable amount of (good quality) mixer, and maybe even a slice of lime to finish. Perfect.

As it turns out, Machine Gun Etiquette was just a warm-up: The Damned are now stretched out and fully limbered up for their 1980 release, The Black Album. Each member completely indulges in their playing; the opening track Wait For The Blackout sails along with languid grace, Dave Vanian crooning smoothly, while the synth-infused Lively Arts feels like a revolution in itself. The most admirable thing about the album is probably the lack of pretension it carries for something so (urgh) “avant-garde” – it honestly just sounds like The Damned are playing what they want to play; Pinch (current drummer in The Damned and founding member of English Dogs) describing The Black Album as “not even psychedelia, it was just weird shit”, and, pretty good weird shit it is. Although tracks like Hit Or Miss and Sick Of This And That give us a little blast from the past to their earlier albums, does The Black Album sound like a punk record? Not really. Did Damned Damned Damned sound like a punk record? Nobody really knew what the fuck punk sounded like. What The Damned do is sound like The Damned, release after release, pushing the boundaries every time. And on they push.

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)
The Damned - The Black Album (1980)

 By the time the Captain had left in the mid ’80s, The Damned had drifted fully into goth-rock waters. Their single The Shadow of Love from the Phantasmagoria (1985) album glows with melancholic ambience, and their cover of Eloise in 1986 reached number 3 in the UK charts, blessing us with a Top of the Pops clip of Dave Vanian as a fully fledged goth vampire (in white?). Alone Again Or – described by someone on Wikipedia as “epic” – was also released in ’86 on the Anything album, then in ’87 as a single, because it’s pretty much the best thing on there. The most truthful review I can possibly give on the latter two singles is that I really really like them – but have absolutely no idea why. I won’t use the taboo ‘p’ word, but these songs are more sugary and ornate than anything I would choose to listen to, yet I’m hooked. It doesn’t even feel like a guilty pleasure, it’s just bloody confusing. What the hell’s going on?

VERDICT

So, that’s just 11 out of the 42 years of The Damned. In that time, their music has expanded far beyond the realms of their debut Damned Damned Damned, which was radical in itself at the time, metamorphosing into their later albums like Strawberries (1982) and Anything (1986) which are, alright, almost unrecognisable compared to their earlier punk hits. Saying that, I think dismissals of these later albums as a move towards “pop” is unintelligent. Pop is watery, banal and predictable, and everything The Damned brought out is the opposite: nothing ever fit in with what was happening at the time, and everything was surprising, and isn’t that what punk’s about?

(MY) TOP TRACKS

  1. PLAN 9 CHANNEL 7 (Machine Gun Etiquette 1979)

  2. NEW ROSE (Damned Damned Damned 1976)

  3. MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE (Machine Gun Etiquette 1979)

  4. SEE HER TONITE (Damned Damned Damned 1976)

  5. STAB YOR BACK (Damned Damned Damned 1976)

(Note: when seeing The Damned at their 40th Anniversary Tour in 2016 where they would play the entirety of Damned Damned Damned, I noticed that they didn’t play Stab Yor Back. After watching their documentary this week I found that the Captain talked about the song being too “violent” for his taste and that he didn’t want to play it. It’s also the only song Rat Scabies wrote on the album, of whom the band aren’t too fond at the moment. It’s a shame that a feud interfered that far – I really would’ve liked to have heard that one live.)

SOUNDS LIKE…

This section is impossible. Countless bands have cited The Damned as their influence and covered their tracks, and the blunt fact is that no one really sounds like them.

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CHAOS UK

WHEN + WHERE?

The English hardcore-punk band Chaos UK formed in 1979 in Portishead, near Bristol. Over the years (and there’s a lot of them – Chaos UK are still active to this day) there has been fluctuation in their line-up, but the original (1979-83) stood as: 

Simon Greenham on vocals

Andy Farrier on guitar

Chaos on bass

Potts on drums

As one of my favourite punk bands of all time, it only felt right to begin this ‘series’ with Chaos UK. During their multitude of singles and albums, their sound has developed and changed, and it’s really up to your taste to decide whether it’s for better or for worse. Personally, although I recognise the improvement in studio production and am still a fan of their more recent hardcore sound, there is nothing in this world I can liken to the rushing, almost sickly adrenaline I felt hearing Chaos UK’s early singles compilation for the first time. It’s an experience that’s impacted me for life… but more of that at another date! (Review coming – I wanted to wait until I was practised enough at writing them so that I can do their (spoiler) fucking ace album any kind of justice). For now, in weak imitation of Ian Glasper in his book Burning Britain – The History of UK Punk 1980-84, I’m going to take you through a brief history of Chaos UK’s releases and what I would recommend, I suppose, depending on the kind of sound you’re after. Buckle up kids!

MUSIC

Yes, I know I’ve already been going on about it, but Chaos UK’s first EPs Burning Britain and Loud, Political and Uncompromising (both born in 1982) showcase not only their finest punk, but the finest punk I’ve heard! Four Minute Warning, Army and What About A Future are fierce with roaring vocals and crackling distortion, and a chundering bassline so heavy it feels like a punch to the stomach. Kill Your Baby shows the complete lack of shits they give (sharing no correlation whatsoever with their ability to make brilliant tracks) while Victimised combats much more serious issues – “[vocalist] Simon wrote Victimised after being arrested for something or other”. No Security is a must-hear – simple as.

Chaos UK’s first, eponymously titled LP arrived in 1983, with bassist Chaos now on vocals. Although the album begins strongly with Selfish Few and showed promise with tracks like Parental Love in their relentless, stomping pace, the album (restrospectively at least) received some negativity that I have to agree with – to an extent. Looking past the self-proclaimed “fillers” and pointless cover of Victimised, the LP still showcases Chaos UK’s brutal, droning sound, Chaos’ more deep and grating vocals signalling a move to a more hardcore tone.

 

1984 saw changes in line-up, perhaps reflected in a newer, thrashing feel to Chaos UK’s album Short Sharp Shock – the entire record positively rips, redefining the concept of speed. Tracks like Living in Fear and Control share thick, muddy distortion, driven deeper into the dirt by the ever-present, powerfully groaning bass, No One Seems To Really Care giving a distinct nod to early Disorder. More evidence of Chaos UK’s progression in their sound is The Chipping Sodbury Bonfire Tapes, released in 1989. This album presents a metallic, hardcore mood, both in sound and structure. Despite its cut-throat pace and rawness, for me its energy seems a bit too stern and greyed in comparison to their earlier triumphs.

Chaos U.K. - Burning Britain EP (1982)
Chaos U.K. - Short Sharp Shock

Almost as if they’d read my mind twenty-seven years in advance, Chaos UK’s Cider I Up Landlord (1991) and The Alcoholic (1993) are high-spirited delights, maintaining their hard sound through piss-take lyrics. Cider I Up Landlord was actually the first Chaos UK song I’d ever heard at the ripe old age of nine – I don’t even think I knew what cider was but I just thought it was funny that they sounded like farmers. Apparently I would sing it in the school playground at home time and concern the parents. So of course, getting me on board at age nine is Chaos UK’s greatest achievement. It’s nice to think that things have come full circle – they started in ’79 as just “a laugh”, and have managed to end up in ’93 with lyrical beauties like “got sick on my trousers, got sick on the floor”. Seriously, The Alcoholic has actually racked up 439K views on YouTube, so they must be doing something right.

VERDICT

Although they began as a bunch of kids making noise and writing songs “on the back of a dirty serviette”, Chaos UK produced such a huge, formidable sound in their first releases that there can be no denying of their skill. Yes – you can either laboriously learn how – and why – music sounds good through schooling and lessons, or you can just know that something sounds good by ear and keep it up. As ex-guitarist Andy Farrier explains to Ian Glasper in Burning Britain: “punk was just about getting up and having a go”; snobbery over ‘musicianship’ in punk is stupid and pointless. Every single track just on Chaos UK’s first two EPs delivers some of the most storming, angry and exhilarating punk to hit the UK, and I have no qualm in stating that, wait for it… No Security is the best punk song ever written. And that’s pretty fucking impressive.

SOUNDS LIKE…

DISORDER, DISCHARGE

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