Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rot­ting Veg­eta­bles, The Early Years
Author: Alex Ogg • Illus­tra­tions by Win­ston Smith • Pho­tographs by Ruby Ray
Pub­lisher: PM Press
Pub­lished: June 2014
For­mat: Paper­back
Size: 9 x 6
Page Count: 224
Sub­jects: Music-Punk/Politics-Activism

Dead Kennedys rou­tinely top both critic and fan polls as the great­est punk band of their gen­er­a­tion. Their debut full-length, Fresh Fruit for Rot­ting Veg­eta­bles, in par­tic­u­lar, is reg­u­larly voted among the top albums in the genre. Fresh Fruit offered a per­fect hybrid of humor and polemic strapped to a musi­cal chas­sis that was as tetchy and inven­tive as Jello Biafra’s with­er­ing broad­sides. Those lyrics, cruel in their pre­ci­sion, were rev­e­la­tory. But it wouldn’t have worked if the under­ly­ing son­ics were not such an uproar­i­ous rush, the paraf­fin to Biafra’s naked flame.

Dead Kennedys’ con­tin­u­ing influ­ence is an extra­or­di­nary achieve­ment for a band that had prac­ti­cally zero radio play and only released records on inde­pen­dent labels. They not only existed out­side of the main­stream but were, as V. Vale of Search and Destroy noted, the first band of their stature to turn on and attack the music indus­try itself. The DKs set so much in motion. They were inte­gral to the for­mu­la­tion of an alter­na­tive net­work that allowed bands on the first rung of the lad­der to tour out­side of their own back­yard. They were instru­men­tal in sup­port­ing the con­cept of all-ages shows and spurned the advances of cor­po­rate rock pro­mot­ers and indus­try lap­dogs. They legit­imized the notion of an Amer­i­can punk band tour­ing inter­na­tion­ally while dis­sem­i­nat­ing the true hor­ror of their native country’s for­eign poli­cies, effec­tively serv­ing as anti-ambassadors on their travels.

The book uses dozens of first-hand inter­views, pho­tos, and orig­i­nal art­work to offer a new per­spec­tive on a group who would become mired in con­tro­versy almost from the get-go. It applauds the band’s key role in trans­form­ing punk rhetoric, both polem­i­cal and musi­cal, into some­thing gen­uinely threatening—and enor­mously funny. The author offers con­text in terms of both the global and local tra­jec­tory of punk and, while not flinch­ing from the wildly dif­fer­ing takes indi­vid­ual band mem­bers have on the evo­lu­tion of the band, attempts to be celebratory—if not uncritical.

Praise

“We have a sense of humor and we’re not afraid to use it in a vicious way if we have to. In some ways, we’re cul­tural ter­ror­ists, using music instead of guns.“

—Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys

“It was obvi­ous that the DKs weren’t just another band that was gonna come and go. They were some­thing spe­cial. Biafra was an absolute tal­ent. And he had a band behind him that were tight and good.“

—Howie Klein, con­cert pro­moter, disc jockey, and record label executive

“One day, this kid from my social stud­ies class brought in a cas­sette tape of The Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit for Rot­ting Veg­eta­bles and I lis­tened to it and my life was changed completely.“

—Adam Gierasch, film director

“One of my favorite rock ’n’ roll mem­o­ries is of an after-party dur­ing the DKs’ first visit to Seat­tle. Rec­og­nize that bands like this for me—these actual guys being at a party in the same house that I was in—was like being in the pres­ence of Led Zep­pelin or Kiss.“

—Duff McK­a­gan of Guns ’n’ Roses

“My edu­ca­tion was punk rock—what the Dead Kennedys said … It was attack­ing Amer­ica, but it was Amer­i­can at the same time.“

—Bil­lie Joe Arm­strong of Green Day

Click here to go to PM Press Site.

Col­lage Museum of San Francisco

Curated by Win­ston Smith

René Apal­lec  •  Peter Lewis  •  Francesca Berrini

Win­ston Smith  •  Erik Chipchase  •  Casey Lewis

Fri­day, Novem­ber 22nd  •  7pm-10pm  •  Free Admission

Grant’s Tomb Crypt

René Apal­lec

The works of the late René Apal­lec will be dis­played for the first time in the United States.  Mys­te­ri­ous and obscure, his com­po­si­tions call out to us from a long van­ished world that has since been swept away by the tumul­tuous era of the Great War.  Come and explore this rare glimpse into the mind of a lost and for­got­ten artis­tic genius.

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Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis has been cre­at­ing his tech­ni­color dream­scapes for sev­eral years from his fabled Pacific “Island King­dom” (New Zealand).  His aston­ish­ing com­po­si­tions are like a psy­che­delic bar­ber mir­ror that expands end­lessly into infin­ity.  Buckle up for this wild ride and pre­pare to revel in his unique vision.

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Francesca Berrini

Francesca Berrini is a skilled and accom­plished artist who’s work resem­bles a head-on col­li­sion between for­lorn bible sto­ries and the slightly off-kilter world of gram­mar school text books.  Dinosaurs frolic with beloved bib­li­cal per­son­ages.  Enor­mous insects covert with Dick and Jane.  Pro­to­zoa are soothed and cod­dled by famous his­tor­i­cal char­ac­ters.  Inspired (if slightly twisted) fun for the whole family.

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Win­ston Smith

Win­ston Smith’s so-called “art” has defaced the cov­ers of count­less low-life punk bands from Dead Kennedys to D.O.A. to Green Day.  Through­out the last three and a half decades Win­ston has pur­sued a sin­gu­lar vision of artis­tic chaos and sub­lime imagery.  His com­po­si­tions range from the elu­sive to the stark.  View at your own risk.

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Erik Chipchase — Mer­ce­nary Graphics

From our pre­mier show to this new exhi­bi­tion our spe­cial guest artist Erik Chipchase has been respon­si­ble for a num­ber of iconic posters for events at Grant’s Tomb.  Erik’s clas­sic graphic style is a unique blend of Pro­le­tar­ian Deco and Retro-Chic.

His con­tri­bu­tions for the launch of the Col­lage Museum of San Fran­cisco are wel­comed and appre­ci­ated.  Come cel­e­brate the dawn­ing of a new error!

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Casey Lewis

Casey Lewis has been work­ing with sev­eral art medi­ums for the past 35 years from stained glass to his true pas­sion, col­lage. With a heavy Dada influ­ence Casey has incor­po­rated fluid shapes and bold col­ors into his work. A true trip through abstract Jazz put to paper.

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For more infor­ma­tion on The Col­lage Museum of San Fran­cisco, visit:

www.CollageMuseumSF.com