Everyone has Room for Jello

Dead Kennedys

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

1980, Cherry Red Records

produced by Norm

Jello Biafra - vocals

East Bay Ray - guitar

Klaus Flouride - bass

Ted - drums

6025 - guitar on ill in the head

Paul Roessler - keyboards

singles-

• California Uber Alles/The Man with the Dogs
• Holiday in Cambodia/Police Truck
• Kill the Poor/In-sight
• Too Drunk to Fuck/the Prey

Punk as a genre can sometimes be hard to pin down.  Which is okay, this is how Punk likes it.  Keeps you guessing.  Imagine my surprise, after listening to many oi, street punk, american hardcore, and ska bands, when I stumbled onto the Dead Kennedys.  So different in comparison, and yet they do fit into the genre.  This is not Black Flag, not Less than Jake, not the Sex Pistols, and not the Ramones, they could actually play.  The music was melodic, but played fast and aggressive...  like surfers on speed.  Jello actually wrote songs that weren't about teen angst, getting drunk, or breaking things.  Politically motivated, the lyrics are satyrical and shocking.  The music is upbeat enough to get you to sing along words about starvation, chemical warfare, and communism.  

This album is their debut, and has since been rereleased through Alternative Tentacles, and Faulty Products.  The tracks on the album change depending on which record company releases the album and in what year.  Sometimes other tracks are squeezed in or put at the end.  Also, the photo on the back cover changes from version to version.