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My first version of this album was on a shitty dubbed cassette around ‘85. I borrowed the record for someone when I was 14 years old and when I was taping it in my bedroom, my dad walked past and was horrified to see the band’s name on the album cover, not to mention the music. I was delighted with his reaction (of course).

**Run Out Groove Side A: “is life as boring as you are?”

Run Out Groove Side B: “Well??? Who are the brain police?”

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Wisconsin is fast-paced 80′s punk with Dr. Demento-meets-Jay-Tiller (Tiller is from Wisconsin’s Couch Flambeau) level vocals, which is a bit off-putting, borderline ear-bleeding but it does make The Crucifucks unique. The musicianship is surprisingly competent, with lots of big rhythm and remarkable, almost prog-rock level hypnotic guitar riffs and solos (ie “Concession Stand”). There’s also some crazy experimentation, especially on the epic track “When the Top Comes Off” where all of the above-mentioned characteristics are present (and the screechy grating vocals are on overdrive). The tracks “Artificial Competition” and “The Savior” both have great grooves but for home-state solidarity, I’m going to say the title track “Wisconsin” is my favorite on the album though it’s probably the least-punk track on the LP with a rather delightful lilting jangly guitar that morphs into a great blues riff (but it still has Dart’s nails-on-chalkboard screech).

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Bedtime for Democracy was DK’s fourth and final studio LP; the band broke up soon after its release. It’s 80′s hyper-political hardcore punk that focuses on anti-Reaganism (“Gone With My Wind”), anti-militarism (“Rambozo the Clown”), anti-fascism (“Where Do You Draw the Line”), anti-capitalism (“Fleshdunce”) anti-censorship (“Triumph of the Swill”) and anti-conformity, particularly directed at the punk scene (“Chickenshit Conformist”). Though obviously 80′s focused, Jello Biafra had a knack for seeing into the future (or maybe not much has changed) – see the track “The Great Wall” with its chorus “We’ll build a Great Wall around our power” or the toxic masculinity and dishonesty that has been venerated to the highest levels of power in our land – see “Macho Insecurity” and “Lie Detector.”

Dead Kennedys’ Bedtime for Democracy certainly isn’t my favorite DK album, nor is it their best – though it did go to #1 on the UK Indie chart – but it certainly feels good to blast it very very loud today. Allmusic says about the record, “The Dead Kennedys go out in a blaze of snarling, defiant glory in their final studio release. They drub a bushel basket’s worth of entrenched interests, including scientists, the military, the power hungry, macho attitudes, classicism, lie detectors, Reagan and his economic policies, the press, the entertainment industry, and the commercialization of rock and revolutionary attitudes. The album’s manic speed punk style recalls In God We Trust Inc., particularly on the frenetic cover of Johnny Paycheck’s hit “Take This Job and Shove It.” When the tempo slows, a few songs resemble frantic rockabilly; of these, “Hop With the Jetset” lampoons the privileged classes, “I Spy” savages government agents, and “Where Do Ya Draw the Line” is a plea in favor of anarchy. The quiet, furtive “D.M.S.O.” is a highly atypical number strongly resembling the theme to The Pink Panther. The lengthy, anthemic “Cesspools in Eden” is a hard rock number with unusual chord changes and lyrics railing against toxic waste; similarly, “Chickenshit Conformist” alternates slow and hyperfast sections and sports wide-ranging verses that constitute a scathing indictment of the rock music industry. As usual, the rushed hardcore numbers often garble or swallow up the well-written lyrics (if you want people to follow you into revolution, your ideas need to be intelligible). The album cover sports witheringly disparaging artwork; also included in this release are two muckraking newspapers, one containing clip art, and the other written articles about the obscenity trial embroiling the band at that point. While it’s not totally successful, at least the Dead Kennedys had the satisfaction of going out on their own terms. It’s all well worth hearing.”

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Lyrics for “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now”

I am Emperor Ronald Reagan
Born again with fascist cravings
Still, you make me president

Human rights will soon go ‘way
I am now your Shah today
Now I command all of you
Now your gonna pray in school
I’ll make sure they’re christian too

California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California

Ku Klux Klan will control you
Still you think it’s natural
N***er knockin for the master race
Still you wear a happy face

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the Third World War?!?
You too will meet the secret police
They’ll draft you and they’ll jail your niece

You’ll go quietly to boot camp
They’ll shoot you dead, make you a man
Don’t worry, it’s for a cause
Feeding global corporations’ claws

Die on a brand new poison gas
El Salvador or Afghanistan
Making money for President Reagan
And all the friends of President Reagan

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Our copy includes the 28-page 12″x12″ sized black & white booklet, pictured here, with collage-style clippings, comics, captions; the lyrics printed on its back cover.

Look at me go

So it’s Halloween
And you feel like dancin’
And you feel like shinin’
And you feel like letting loose

Oh, whatcha gonna be
Babe, you better know
And you better plan
Better plan all day

Better plan all week
Better plan all month
Better plan all year

You’re dressed up like a clown
Putting on your act
It’s the only time all year
You’ll ever admit that

I can see your eyes, I can see your brain
Baby, nothing’s changed
I can see your eyes, I can see your brain
Baby, nothing’s changed

Because you’re hiding in a mask
Take your fun seriously
No, don’t blow this year’s chance
Tomorrow your mold goes back on
After Halloween, after Halloween

You go to work today
You’ll go to work tomorrow
Shit faced tonight
You’ll brag about it for months

Remember what I did
Remember what I was
Back on Halloween

But what’s in between
Where are your ideas
You sit around and dream
For next Halloween

Why not everyday, are you so afraid
What will people say
Why not everyday, are you so afraid
What will people say
After Halloween, after Halloween, after Halloween

Because your role is planned for you
There’s nothing you can do
But stop and think it through
But what will the boss say to you

And what will your girlfriend say to you
And the people out on the street they might glare at you
And what do you know you’re pretty self conscious too

So you run back and stuff yourselves in rigid business costumes
Only at night to score is your leather uniform exhumed
Why don’t you take your social regulations
Shove ‘em up your ass

Why don’t you take your social regulations
Shove ’em up your ass
Why don’t you take your social regulations
And shove ’em up your ass

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Run-off groove etchings: Side A – “The weather will not change” Side B – “The cancer of time is eating us away”

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Side 1 includes five driving punk-tempoed singles, including a cover of The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “That’s Progress,” sounding classic DK and which was included on the comp “Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.” “Power is Boring” showcases Biafra’s skill at angry, clever and witty lyrics – if now somewhat dated – delivered at breakneck speed:

Believe me, if I were dicator
You know what I’d do?!?!?
Come to think of it,
There’s a problem there
For aspiring tyrants like me and you…

Ever wonder what it’d really be like
To be your own dicator
Might be its own kind of prison
Of total fear

Can’t make love or go anywhere
Without bodyguards in your hair
Never know which trusted friend
Has plans to blow you away

3,000 pairs of shoes
No one to talk to
‘Nuff guns to kill everyone you own
The masses act so loyal
Yet you can’t sleep in the same place twice
I wouldn’t want to be a Noriega or Khadafi
Would you?

Power is boring
Power is boring
Power is boring

Side 2 is one very long track, “Full Metal Jackoff,” an angry political rant against the politics of the 80′s: Iran-Contra, drugs, Wall Street and neo-Nazis. Musically VERY heavy, verging on Motorhead heavy, with Jello’s distinctive low/high punk sneering screech soaring above.

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Side B is a bit more obscure, less punk and more experimental/dissonant in its sound. Lyrically “Isotope Soap” by Geza X disturbingly amusing (”Washed my hair now my head is bare with isotope soap”) while other songs are overtly political and anti-capitalism: “Corporate Food” by Anonymous and “Joke’s on You” by Christian Lunch. (According to the comp’s insert, he went into self-imposed exile to Germany until Reagan left office.) Reggae filtered through a punk lens even makes a showing on The Offs’ “Everyone’s a Bigot,” which is infectiously catchy despite its subject material.

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