Dead Kennedys announce 40th anniversary remix of classic album

San Francisco punk band Dead Kennedys has announced plans to reissue its debut album “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.”Photo: Manifest Records

San Francisco punk iconsDead Kennedyshave announced plans to reissue their classic 1980 debut album“腐烂蔬菜的新鲜水果”迟来的40周年。

The upcoming reissue will be remixed from the record’s original master tapes by engineer Chris Lord-Alge, best known for his work on Green Day’s “American Idiot” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” and feature essays by Green Day’sBillie Joe Armstrong, Foo Fighters frontmanDave Grohl还有弗莱彻(Fletcher)的潘尼西(Pennywise)等。

预计2022年混音将于9月30日通过唱片公司发售Manifesto, with the original album also available for purchase. The band released a remixed version of “Chemical Warfare” as a teaser for the new project two years ago.

“When the label suggested we remix ‘Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables,’ (bassist) Klaus Fluoride and I were skeptical, but we thought, ‘Why not? Let’s give it a try,’ ” said guitarist East Bay Ray in a statement. “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!’”

The story of the Dead Kennedys has become a legend in the Bay Area. The region’s most famous early punk band rose in all-ages clubs, including Mabuhay Gardens and Temple Beautiful, before it released “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.”

“Call it punk. Call it new wave,” The Chronicle’s music critic Joel Selvin wrote in an Oct. 8, 1979, article. “This rough, rude, raw brand of rock ’n’ roll, now muscling its way out of the underground, threatens to shake up the pop music scene — and, some say, the social scene as well.”

The influential punk rock band — which also featured vocalist Jello Biafra and drummer D.H. Peligro — toured from 1978 to 1986, producing popular punk anthems such as “Holiday in Cambodia” and “California Über Alles” before becoming embroiled in never-endinglegal battlesthrough the 1990s and early 2000s.

“My education was punk rock — what the Dead Kennedys said — it was attacking America, but it was America at the same time,” Armstrong writes in the album’s liner notes.

Grohl, who oncecovered “Holiday in Cambodia” with Foo Fighters,also shares the impact the band had on him in his formative years.

“I went to the DK’s Rock against Reagan show in Washington,” he writes. “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.”

Since Biafra split from the band in ’86, the three other members of the Dead Kennedys have been touring with a旋转门of lead singers — at one point with “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” co-star Brandon Cruz at the microphone.但是,“腐烂蔬菜的新鲜水果”仍然是他们的集体加冕时刻。

“Revisiting ‘Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables’was such an inside peek at a band packing so much excitement onto tape for every song,” Lord-Alge said in a statement. “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.”

Jello Biafra was the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys from 1978 to 1986.Photo: John O / The Chronicle

  • Aidin Vaziri
    Aidin VaziriAidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF