Band: Dead Kennedys
Album: Plastic Surgery Disasters / In God We Trust Inc.
Rating: 4/5
If you only buy one Dead Kennedys album, it’s gotta be ‘Plastic Surgery Disasters‘, which captured this legendary San Francisco punk band at the top of their game. It now includes ‘In God We Trust, Inc.’, a short collection of DK gems, making it nearly impossible to pack more energy onto a single CD. Right out of the gate, this album is raw, explosive, and relentlessly confrontational. The band’s unmistakable sound is as “in your face” as Jello Biafra’s scathing lyrics, which damn American society in hilarious fashion. No one is spared, as each song takes aim and fires away at one type of fraud or another. The government, religion, materialism, violence, cops, doctors, the rich, elitists, racists, homophobes, posers, jocks, science, and politicians- all face the firing squad of Biafra’s scorn.
Somewhere in the fray, there’s a bullet or two aimed at every one of us, and when we’re hit, it’s just as easy to laugh at ourselves. The lyrics are cynical and often sarcastic, but extremely smart and at times, even prophetic. They’re as relevant today as they were then- if not more so. Musically, Plastic Surgery Disasters is, in my opinion, DK’s most adventurous and technically brilliant work. It’s also their most “refined” album, production-wise, but it stops well short of commercial glossiness. It’s a true punk classic…
