By KORY GROW
The Dead Kennedys are finally celebrating the 40th anniversary of their celebrated 1980 debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, by reissuing a “freshly” remixed edition of the LP. A punk benchmark, the album sarcastically skewered early Eighties politics with frontman Jello Biafra’s scabrous wit and guitarist East Bay Ray’s cutting guitar lines on songs like “California Über Alles” and “Kill the Poor.” Rolling Stone counted the record among the greatest punk albums of all time on a 2016 list. The reissue is due out Sept. 30.
Engineer Chris Lord-Alge, whose credits include Green Day’s Grammy-winning American Idiot and albums by Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, and Chris Cornell, zhuzhed up the previously echoey mix by dialing back the reverb. The result, as heard on his “Chemical Warfare” remix, hits a little harder than the original.
“When the label [Manifesto Records] suggested we remix Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, [bassist] Klaus Fluoride and I were skeptical,” guitarist East Bay Ray, who co-produced the original album, said in a statement. “But we thought, ‘Why not? Let’s give it a try.’ And, wow, Grammy-winning maestro Chris Lord-Alge was interested! It turns out he’s a big fan of the band. We tried one song, ‘Chemical Warfare.’ What Chris came back with was amazing. Everyone heard the difference, so we said, ‘All right, let’s go!’” READ MORE