Dead Kennedys
“Bedtime for Democracy”
(Manifesto/Decay Records)
DK baby. If you don’t know what they sound like then there’s no real point in you reading this review, is there? I mean, they broke up a long time ago and I don’t think there are a lot of late arrivers to the Dead Kennedy train. “Bedtime for Democracy” is DK’s final studio album, originally released in 1986, and this one is digitally remastered, which is a nice way of saying that they want you to buy the same album. Again.
Still though, it’s a good record full of eighties punk, the way only Dead Kennedys could play it-more thrash than Black Flag, faster than the Dead Milkmen. It’s not like it’s the best record you’ll ever own or anything like that. It’s not Banarama’s “Greatest Hits”. “Bedtime” does showcase the stripped down, crazy ass sound that made the Dead Kennedys the legends that they are. At under 1:30 on most of the tracks, you’re in for a ride you won’t soon forget. Unless you’ve never heard them, of course, in which case you’re already on another review, wondering if you should buy the new Bangles album. Like you need a review to tell you that.
