Dead Kennedys "In God We Trust, Inc." 1981****

"In God We Trust, Inc", what an album! Even more hardcore than their incendiary masterpiece "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables", this one contains 8 songs of condensed fury in less than 14 minutes. Songs are played at almost supersonic speed and the words are barked rather than sung (thankfully, the lyrics are printed on the back of the album). The cover by frequent DK collaborator Winston Smith shows a golden Jesus on a cross of U.S. Dollars embossed with the number 666 and George Washington portrayed as a serpent. Was he trying to offend everyone? No, just midtown America. The back cover shows clearly his opinion on the American middle class, portraying a couple of well-to-do ladies approvingly watching a Ku-Klux-Klan ceremony. "Religious Vomit" and "Moral Majority" open the record with a not-so-subtle attack on organized religion: "All religions make me wanna throw up/All religions make me sick...They all claim that they have the answer/When they don't even know the question/They're just a bunch of liars/They just want your money/They just want your consciousness...". Further topics include pharmaceutical drugs ("Hyperactive Child"), murderous big corporations ("Kepone Factory") and violent neo-nazi's infiltration of the punk movement: "Punk ain't no religious cult/Punk means thinkin' for yourself/You ain't hardcore 'cause you spike your hair/When a stupid jock lives inside your head/Nazi punks Nazi punks Nazi punks Fuck off!!!". "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" is a hilarious reworking of "California Uber Alles" aimed at the new Reagan government "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 you worry, it's for a cause/Feeding global corporations claws/Die on our brand new poison gas/El Salvador or Afghanistan/Making money for President Reagan/And all the friends of President Reagan/California Uber Alles..." (Read the complete album lyrics here.) Well, Jello was a tad overreacting, Reagan didn't take it that far - it actually took the Republicans a few more years to draft the Patriot Act, spy on all their citizens and open the Guantanamo concentration camp. To top it all off, the album ends with a sarcastic kick-ass cover of cowboy classic "Rawhide". It's always been a party favorite of mine: to be played only after 02:00 AM, really loud and with everybody drunk out of their head. Can be combined with the Kennedy's "Too Drunk To Fuck" for maximum effect.

***** for Nazi Punks Fuck Off, Rawhide

**** for Moral Majority, We've Got a Bigger Problem Now

*** for Religious Vomit, Hyperactive Child, Kepone Factory, Dog Bite