10 More Near Perfect Punk Rock Albums
9. Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980)
By 1980 the UK punk scene was being folded into the sounds of post punk and new wave. In America it soldiered on, however. Groups like the Dead Kennedys took what the Ramones and Sex Pistols had started, incorporating just as much slapstick humour into their sound as attitude.
By their second record they had adopted a far darker, heavier tone which informed the emerging hardcore scene. But their debut reflects the transition period between the first wave of punk, and its movement into the underground.
Rather than aggressively screaming in your usual hardcore punk manor, lead singer Jello Biafra sung with a humorous vibrato. His lyrics were satirical more than outright vengeful. Kill The Poor, hears Jello satirically espouse the virtues of the atom bomb as an efficient solution to the working class. I Kill Children was an early take on hardcore with barely audible lyrics - again it was a satire on conservative America's obsession with violence and war. You've then got the instantly recognisable Holiday in Cambodia; a track that bastardises surf rock by covering it in filth.