Frankenchrist
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Frankenchrist is the third album released by the Dead Kennedys in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles.
The album was a subject of great controversy because of a poster inserted in the original record sleeve. The poster, H. R. Giger's Landscape #XX, or Penis Landscape, was a painting depicting rows of disembodied penises in sexual intercourse. The band was brought to trial for distributing harmful matter to minors, and though the case did not result in a conviction, Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles was driven almost to bankruptcy. Only through the support of fans was the label able to stay alive. Biafra came out as a champion of free speech, and was one of the most active opponents of the Parents Music Resource Center. The cover itself depicts a Shriners parade.
The songs here focus on the more nightmarish, psychedelic, hard-rocking side of the Kennedys' musical personality. The spaghetti western fascination is also noticeable in the horn parts and in East Bay Ray's atmospheric guitar work. Frankenchrist is noted for its relative lack of traditionally 'hardcore' material (Most of the songs are slower and longer than the majority of other Dead Kennedys songs). "M.T.V. − Get off the Air" is notable for its pointed slam of the music establishment and "Stars and Stripes of Corruption" for its detailed layout of Biafra's political philosophies. On the original vinyl version, Side A was tracks 1-5 and Side B was tracks 6-10.
