''Plastic Surgery Disasters'' is the second full-length album released by

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Initially consisting of lead guitarist East Bay Ray, bassist Klaus Fl ...

. Recorded in San Francisco during June 1982, it was produced by the band and punk record producer Thom Wilson, with

Geza X Geza Gedeon (born September 28, 1952), professionally known as Geza X, is an American producer. He was a personality in the Los Angeles punk scene in the late 1970s. He is now a producer. Early life and career Gedeon was born in Indiana and mov ...

getting a "special thanks" underneath the DK's/Wilson credit for additional production. (DK's guitarist East Bay Ray redundantly added his own name to the production credits on Manifesto reissues of the album.) The album is darker and more hardcore-influenced than their debut album '' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables'' as a result of the band trying to expand on the sound and mood they had achieved with their 1980 single " Holiday in Cambodia". It was the first full-length album to feature drummer D.H. Peligro, and is frontman

Jello Biafra Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and political activist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Init ...

's favorite Dead Kennedys album. According to Jello Biafra, the main musical influences for the album were

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, Les Baxter and the Groundhogs.

Artwork

The album's cover features the band's name superimposed over the black-and-white photograph "Hands" by photojournalist Michael Wells. Wells's photo depicts the emaciated forearm and hand of a malnourished

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

n child in the palm of a European missionary to highlight the horrors of

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

in parts of the African continent during the 1970s and 80s. The same image was used by another San Francisco-based punk band called Society Dog for their 1981 EP ''.....Off of the Leash.''. Most pressings of the album include a booklet containing lyrics and pieces of

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

artwork by Biafra and Winston Smith that thematically tie in to the lyrics of each song on the album.

Track listings

On the album's original vinyl and cassette releases, the A-side comprises tracks 1–8, ending with “Winnebago Warrior”, and the B-side tracks 9–13, kicking off with “Riot”. Some reissues parse out Melissa Webber's spoken intro to the album from the opening song, "Government Flu", and list it as a separate track entitled "Advice from Christmas Past". Similarly, Webber's spoken outro after "Moon Over Marin" revisits "Advice from Christmas Past" and is listed as such on some editions of the album. The compact disc of the album has been reissued to include the EP '' In God We Trust, Inc.'' as eight tracks added onto its end and also appear on streaming versions of ''Plastic Surgery Disasters''.

Personnel

;Dead Kennedys *

– lead vocals * East Bay Ray – guitars *

Klaus Flouride Klaus Flouride is the stage name of Geoffrey Lyall (born May 30, 1949), an American musician who is the bassist and backing vocalist for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Ca ...

– bass, backing vocals, clarinet on "Terminal Preppie" * D. H. Peligro – drums, backing vocals ;Additional performers * Dave Barrett – saxophone on "Terminal Preppie" * Bruce Askley – saxophone on "Terminal Preppie" * Melissa Webber – backing vocals (credited as "The Voice of Christmas Past") * Ninotchka (Therese Soder) – backing vocals on "Forest Fire" and "Winnebago Warrior" ;Production * Thom Wilson – production * East Bay Ray – production * Oliver Dicicco – engineering * John Cuniberti – engineering, mixing * Winston Smith – artwork * Jello Biafra – artwork

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1982 albums Alternative Tentacles albums Dead Kennedys albums Albums produced by Thom Wilson Faulty Products albums