"All I wanted was a Pepsi"

Today's playlist is all about bands from around here (liberally speaking):

Dead Kennedys -- Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Black Flag -- The First Four Years
Suicidal Tendencies (their early years, of course) -- Suicidal Tendencies
Circle Jerks -- Group Sex

The Dead Kennedys stayed an amazing band right up until some former members sued Jello Biafra for *not* selling out in his old age (circa 1998). Oh, please! I think his best quip explaining why he did not try to get their videos played on MTV was to point out that they wrote a song called "MTV - Get Off The Air," but the judge wasn't swayed by that remark. That's too bad. I think Biafra lost the rights to all the songs in that lawsuit. Well, at least we still have him and his label. Check out what he is up to here.

The next two bands, well, they were good in the beginning, but they both turned towards metal. Why do we lose so many good hardcore punk bands to metal? Is it the money? Is it MTV? "Doesn't matter. I'll probably get hit by a car anyway."

And then there was the Circle Jerks. I still love that I could fit their entire first album at the end of my cassette tape after the entire Black Flag album (all on one side). It was like putting a hidden track on a record - you would never know it was there unless you just let the tape play..