Dead Kennedys have announced a reissue of their 1980 debut LP Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. The updated version has been remixed from the original multitrack tapes by engineer Chris Lord-Alge (who has worked with Chaka Khan, Green Day, and Bruce Springsteen, among others). The reissue arrives September 30 via Manifesto and includes previously unseen imagery and essays from Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, David Ellefson of Megadeth, Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise, and more. Check out the newly remixed version of “Chemical Warfare” below.
“When the label suggested we remix Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables [bassist] Klaus Fluoride and I were skeptical,” Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray said in a press release. “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!’”
Lord-Alge added: “Revisiting Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was such an inside peek at a band packing so much excitement onto tape for every song. The style and playing has such drive and spirit. The big challenge for me was keeping it honest to its original sound and not letting it become modern but improving the separation and clarity. A major chapter in history for Dead Kennedys.”
“My education was punk rock—what the Dead Kennedys said—it was attacking America, but it was America at the same time,” Billie Joe Armstrong wrote in the album’s liner notes.
Dave Grohl remembered the group’s influence on him as a teen: “I went to the DK’s Rock against Reagan show in Washington. The Dead Kennedys were playing, and were one of my favorite bands. There were police helicopters all over the place and buses filled up with riot police. As a 13-year-old kid, that was like my own little revolution.”
Read Pitchfork’s feature “The 20 Best Punk Movies.”
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