Search - Dead Kennedys :: Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death

The album that changed my life...

Erik K. Johnson | San Antonio TX | 01/03/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is ground zero for me. Prior to hearing this album, I was a weak, impressionable teenager who concerned himself with what everyone else around him was talking about: girls, and fitting in. I listened to whatever was on the small handful of radio stations I could get in my small eastern-Washington town, and accepted it as 'good' music. While so many in my generation claim Nirvana as their band, for me it was the opening riff of Police Truck that made me ditch hair bands. The music was raw and energetic and the lyrics spoke of things that I related too inside, and couldn't possibly be further from all the sex, drugs, and rock n' roll as a lifestyle songs that were considered 'heavy metal' by the radio. This album made me realize that I wasn't weird because I wasn't getting laid as often as Motley Crue and Poison claimed they were in their songs. It made me realize that it better to feel like an outsider and maintain a sense of self than to fit in and be something that I'm not. Since then, I have gone back into all of the Kennedy's material, and the entire punk genre, and continue to live my life by the philosophy I have developed from it. While I've learned many things in my 34 years, and have evolved considerably from the 16 year old kid I was back then, this album was the milestone that made everything I am today possible, and I am thankful for it."