Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables - 1980

Okay, they started off as a pretty normal punk band. This stuff is mostly your basic distorted guitar barre chord stuff, but hits like "Drug Me," "Let's Lynch The Landlord," and "Stealing People's Mail" present the DKs as a much more spiteful and controversial band than most other punkers of the day, including those overrated superheroes "The Sex Pistols." Plus, a few of the songs, especially the eerie echo-ridden "Holiday In Cambodia" and the totally screwed-up "Ill In The Head," make it clear that this band has much loftier ideas in mind than just imitating The Ramones for the rest of their career.

This was the first hardcore album I ever heard, and it stayed in my tapedeck for months - for good reason. These songs are funny, vicious, violent, loud, fast, and not at all impenetrable like some later hardcore (and some later DKs, too, actually). Although it seems kinda slow in comparison to pogo-speed Minor Threat, Seven Seconds, D.R.I., and even their own later material, it still pretty much kicks ass all the way through. No ballads, and even the slowest songs are fast enough to bang your head to. And (if I may begin a sentence with the word "and" for a moment) "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday In Cambodia" are the most famous DK songs of all-time, making this record an essential addition to any punk rock collection. It's also the least irritating record they ever made. A few of the songs are a bit too similar (putting "I Kill Children," "Stealing Peoples' Mail," and "Funland At The Beach" all together in a row wasn't a terribly good idea), but the lyrics always make 'em interesting anyway. It's not an absolutely perfect record (very few are), but, being one of the first American hardcore albums ever made earns it very high marks in the "history" department, and it's still an awfully entertaining listen, especially for those unfamiliar with the "hardcore" genre.