The awesome debut 7″ single by the Dead Kennedys on the US based Optional Music label.
This was a record that was so good that I also had to have a copy of the UK released 7″ single on the Fast Product label which hit the UK stores sometime in 1980 – It had a different sleeve (these things were important to me in those days you see). Sadly though I do not own the record on the US Alternative Tentacles label. I would have liked to have collected the full set, but y’know…
The Dead Kennedys released some great records throughout the first half of the 1980’s. The records were always eagerly awaited (by me at least) and once purchased they were played to death straight from when the stylus hit the spinning vinyl for the first time.
Classic stuff.
Text below ripped from allmusic.com.
The Dead Kennedys merged revolutionary politics with hardcore punk music and, in the process, became one of the defining hardcore bands. Often, they were more notable for their politics than their music, but that was part of their impact. The Kennedys were more inspired by British punk and the fiery, revolutionary-implied politics of the Sex Pistols than the artier tendencies of New York punk rockers. Under the direction of lead vocalist Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys became the most political and — to the eyes of many observers, including Christians and right-wing politicians — the most dangerous band in hardcore. By the mid-’80s, the band had become notorious enough to open themselves up to a prosecution for obscenity (concerning a poster inserted into their 1985 Frankenchrist album), and the ensuing court battle sped the band toward a breakup, but they left behind a legacy that influenced countless punk bands that followed.
The Dead Kennedys formed in 1978 in San Francisco when Biafra (vocals; born Eric Boucher) and bassist Klaus Flouride responded to a magazine ad placed by guitarist East Bay Ray. Drummer Ted (born Bruce Slesinger) joined soon after and the band played locally for the first two years of their career, occasionally venturing outside the Bay Area. Within a year, the band released their first independent single on the San Francisco based Optional Music label, “California Über Alles,” an attack on the then-current governor, Jerry Brown. It was followed shortly afterward by their second single released on IRS Records, “Holiday in Cambodia.” In 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco; he finished fourth. By this time, the band had become quite popular in both the American and British underground. Finally, in 1980, the band released their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, on IRS Records. After its release, Ted left the band; he was replaced by drummer Darren H. Peligro.
Following the release of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the Dead Kennedys formed their own independent record label, Alternative Tentacles, in 1981. The first release on the label was the Kennedys’ EP, In God We Trust. That same year, the single “Too Drunk to Fuck” scraped the bottom of Britain’s pop Top 40, despite being banned from airplay. In 1982, the Kennedys released the “Bleed For Me” single and their second full-length album, Plastic Surgery Disasters. After its release, the band took a hiatus, during which bandmembers — most notably Klaus Flouride — performed with various side projects. During that time, Alternative Tentacles began to establish itself as a major force in the American underground.
The Dead Kennedys returned in 1985 with Frankenchrist, which was the record that earned the band its greatest notoriety. Included with the album was a poster of the Swiss artist H.R. Giger’s Landscape #XX, a garish illustration of penises and anuses. A year after the release of the album, the Kennedys and Alternative Tentacles were prosecuted under revised Californian anti-obscenity laws for distributing pornography to minors because of the poster. For the next two years, the band was embroiled in a bitter legal battle, during which Biafra emerged as one of the most articulate advocates for free speech and vocal opponents of the PMRC. In the summer of 1987, the case ended with a hung jury and was dismissed.
Although the Dead Kennedys emerged victorious from the court battle, they didn’t remain a band for much longer. Just before the prosecution began in 1986, the band released Bedtime for Democracy, which turned out to be their last official album. After the case was settled, the Kennedys split, releasing the posthumous compilation Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death in 1987.
pedro
April 30, 2009 at 11:40 pmMy favourite band.
First time I heard them was listening to the Holiday in Cambodia single in my mates house in 1979. It was and still is the most amazingly awesome song I’ve ever heard.
Hard to believe it was 30 years ago.
dan i
May 1, 2009 at 5:36 pmDKs were soo on target, they rocked hard. I was one of the lucky ones to get to see them, the first at the Lyceum in October 1981, bizarrely supported by Anti Nowhere League and DOA; then again in November 1982 at the Central London Polytechnic, even more bizarrely supported by Peter & The Test Tube Babies plus MDC. None of the supports were that good (except the Test Tubes), but the Dead Kennedys were just amazing. I still have a mental image of people leaving the Lyceum with only one shoe, but smiling.
The DKs really built the US hardcore scene too, especially with Alternative Tentacles, linking scenes from around the US together. SST and others were massively important too, but many of their bands were really just hard and fast rock (Black Flag for one), not the potent mix of powerchords and politics that made up the DKs. I loved their creepier, spookier jazzy styles too. The songs like Man With The Dogs, which let you know they only played fast and loud because they liked it that way, not because they couldnt play.
alistairliv
May 1, 2009 at 6:24 pmIn 1978 Malcolm Caldwell went on a Holiday to Cambodia …and never came back.
Malcolm Caldwell (1931-1978) was a British academic and a prolific Marxist writer. He was a consistent critic of imperialism, a writer on Asian liberation and socialist movements, and a strong supporter of Pol Pot.
Caldwell was sympathetic to the Khmer Rouge. Along with Elizabeth Becker and Richard Dudman, he was part of the first group of Westerners invited to visit Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge closed the country. They were given 10-day structured tours of the country and a private audience with Pol Pot, experiences that apparently only intensified Caldwell’s support for the regime. He was murdered by Khmer Rouge soldiers in Cambodia on 23 December 1978
For more see this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/81048.stm
written in 1998 by Elizabeth Becker
Stockholm monster
May 8, 2009 at 5:42 pmMan, this tune bring back memories. I remember the very late 70s, tuning in Radio Luxembourg late at night on my little transistor radio, at low volume so as to not wake up my parents who were sleeping on the other side of the wall. At one point I heard “California über alles” and it blew me away. Only problem was I never caught the name of the band or the song, so for a long time I didn’t know who performed it. Once I found out I ran out and bought the “Fresh Fruits…” LP right away.
And here I am, 30 years later, listening to it on my laptop in the kitchen while making pancakes for the kids, still being blown away. How I regret I was out of town the only time they ever played here.
Cheers,
Marten
chas
May 10, 2009 at 10:44 amI know it’s childish but one of my most enduring memories is going to the shops one day when I must have been about 15 to check the new top 40 in the Daily Mirror to see if Too Drunk to Fuck had made it in. There it was at number 36, I rushed home to hear Paul Burnett read out the new top 40 and stutter over the words ‘at number 36 a record by a group calling themselves the Dead Kennedys’ – apparently the phrase was used by the BBC used to avoid upsetting any live Kennedys – he was audibly shocked and it was clear that the forces of shite had been rocked to their core! I have never been prouder of owning a record. All their early stuff was great and they were blinding live, what a shame they ended up suing each other over whether to use Holiday in Cambodia in a jeans ad.
alistairliv
May 10, 2009 at 5:48 pmWhen my kids were 15ish, Too Drunk to Fuck was one of their faves out of my record collection…. along with Michael Booth’s Talking Bum by Splodgenessabounds
dan i
May 10, 2009 at 7:39 pmWhatever we may think with our high ideals and crazy dreams, filth endures Al!
Andus
May 10, 2009 at 9:29 pmHoliday in Cambodia is the greatest punk track of all time, makes my pubes stand on end, and sends electric currents from my little bitty toe up through my spine and to the top of my head, then it comes back down the other side, AWESOME. A work of genius. Bleed For Me, Life Sentence, California Uber Alles, all masterpieces.
Paul
August 22, 2009 at 7:56 amIt’s great to see that the DKs are remembered so appreciatively in the UK. I am from San Francisco and used to see these guys almost every weekend in the early 1980s. It’s so sad the way these guys ended up – in case you didn’t know Biafra and the rest of the band got into a huge court battle over royalties and commercial usage of their songs. I certainly prefer to remember them in their happier times.
I was in an bowling alley recently and saw a Guitar Hero machine. I was pleasantly surprised to see “Holiday in Cambodia” as one of the selections. It was great to play it with my son and show him what his dad used to listen to as a kid. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7L-MZLxxdI ) Personally I have no problem with this song being here. It helps expose a whole new generation to this great music and specifically the genius of East Bay Ray (punk guitarist #1 in my book). Plus if these guys make a little bit of money, that’s all the better. Why should Green Day make all the money from punk?
Ronnie Raygun
July 9, 2010 at 4:08 pmI first heard California Uber Alles on John Peel, I think. Also saw them at the Lyceum. Great review in the NME – Barney Hoskyns turned up and some scamp has already given his name and got in. His ‘review’ was a moan from the outside. DOA were pretty good as I recall. So professional.
Nick Hydra
May 24, 2023 at 1:30 pm“Die on organic poison gas/ Serpent’s eggs already hatched”
What a fantastic record. Funny, bitter, angry and vicious. It’s hard to believe, but they got better.