Of course I'm not going to review every song one-by-one like some people do, but I will tell you about a few highlights. Police Truck is awesome and great musically, I Fought the Law is awesome too and in this version the law doesn't win, Kinky Sex is a prophetic spoken word/noise track about the US and UK teaming up to start a war and it's hilarious, Night of the Living Rednecks is a very funny story about Jello being chased down by some dumb rich rednecks, and finally Buzzbomb from Pasadena is musically the same as the original Buzzbomb, but this time it's about an old lady and sung in an old lady's voice for a humorous and creepy feel.

This is one of the best three DK albums, so just go ahead and buy it. Also, it has come to my attention that the ex-DK's have been suing Jello and releasing remastered versions of the albums, so if you can, try looking at the Alternative Tenticles website (Jello Biafra's label) for the album first (Alternative Tentacles is the DK's original label with the original recordings and is ran by the DK's vocalist Jello. Alternative Tentacles don't have all the DK albums available, so if they don't carry it just go ahead and buy one from anywhere like here.


A great compilation.   September 8, 2005
Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Before i go any further (and I made this mistake myself), "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" is more of a Dead Kennedys rarities compilation than a career retrospective. Mind you, this isn't a bad thing, quite a bit of this material is essential-- A and B sides from early singles, some LP sides, and some live tracks all make for quite good listening, and the material is awfully good.

And since most people looking at compilations are thinking "introduction", I'll talk a bit to the band. Formed in the late '70s when vocalist Jello Biafra and bassist Klaus Flouride answered a magazine ad from guitarist East Bay Ray (eventually a drummer named Ted, later replaced by D.H. Peligro would round out the band), the band quickly fused British punk sounds with a political attack, their first single "California Uber Alles" being hte best example of this. Included on this set, the piece is a direct attack on then-California governer Jerry Brown. The band maintained a career of punk music laced with sarcasm, wit and quite a bit of groove and brilliant guitar playing. The band's career pretty much fell apart due to a decency law suit over the artwork of their last album, but by that point they'd laid down their legacy.

So this compilation is probably a reasonable introduction-- several essential pieces, "California Uber Alles", "Police Truck", the legendary titled "Too Drunk to F***", "Life Sentence", are all present, and show off the band's most well known side-- agressive, witty, and propulsive. But also of note is the band's ability to be almost minimalist as on the black "The Prey" and stunningly sarcastic and political, as in "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go 'Round)". These two are disturbingly relevent in the modern era, the latter in particular discusses establishing a war for corporate gain..... for that matter, there's music industry lament "Pull My Strings" (panning the Knack-- "my payola"). Again, given the news of the music industry that's emerged, it seems overly relevent now.

Another point of note-- the CD sounds fantastic-- remastered by the original engineer, the pieces are loud and in your face and all-in-all just superb. While the side effect of being a compilation is a lack of unity and not being a real intro to the albums of the band, its hard to give this five stars (I reserve that for masterpieces), but its a nice piece anyway. Recommended.


A Collection of Wayward Tracks Given a Good Home   January 21, 2007
Donald Hargraves (Munster, Indiana United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I remember having many of these songs on seven inches and twelve inch EPs (45 RPMs instead of 33 RPMs, fewer songs, usually extended versions, remixes or singles deemed worthy of the extra work and effort) before this first came out. This has everything, plus various items not released on LPs (or taken off, like Police Truck).

Probably the key releases to me are Police Truck, Too Drunk to F***, Life Sentance, A Child and His Lawnmower, Saturday Night Holocaust, Pull My $tring$, Kinky Sex Makes the World Go 'Round, The Prey and Night of The Living Rednecks (more a signal of what he would become than as an actual tune). But the rest of the tracks are good to excellent also.

A necessary release for any DK fan, and worthy for those learning about the band.


Greatest Hits?   May 20, 2003
MaratsBathing (NY)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

A lot of people refer to this as a DK "Greatest Hits" compilation. Well, it's not. It's a compilation of early singles and other rarities that aren't available anywhere else. The only "hits" on this disc are "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday in Cambodia", and they're both different versions.

That being said, I'll go on and review this awesome record.

As I said before, this is a collection of early DK singles, B-sides, and other rarities. Records of this type are usually to be avoided, but this is an extremely well-rounded collection that's perfect for new and old fans alike. New fans will be introduced to DK classics such as "California Uber Alles", "Holiday in Cambodia", "Too drunk to ****", and "Police Truck", while DK freaks (like myself) will love the extra B-sides/rarities (most of them from around the Fresh Fruit era) such as "Straight A's", "Insight", and "The man with the dogs". However, the highlights of the comp. are "I fought the law", "Pull my strings", "Kinky sex makes the world go 'round", and "Night of the Living Rednecks". "I fought the law" is a great cover of the Clash's classic tune, "Pull my strings" is an awesome awesome song singing of corporate/sell-out artists who are only interested in money ("I ain't no artist, I'm a buisnessman, no ideas of my own!"), "Kinky sex makes the world go 'round" is a fake phone-call which must be heard to be believed, and "Night of the living rednecks" is a hilarious, spoken track which tells of Jello's encounter with some...jocks in Oregon.

This is probably the best place to start if you're just getting into the DKs. While Fresh Fruit is their masterpiece, it's slightly inaccessible to new fans. This, on the other hand, is a delight from the start. A new fan might tend to skip over quite a few of the tracks, but, in time, it'll grow on them, and hopefully, they'll become full-fledged DK freaks and go on to buy all their other albums.

Bottom Line: Best place to start for new DK fans, but has plenty to offer for veterans.


Great and Important Band   November 15, 2004
W. B. Pinson
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

When I see people lavishing hero like worship on Rage Against the Machine, I just point them to Jello and the boys and say this is everything Rage wants to be. Not only are the Dead Kennedy's as political as Rage Against the Machine, but they do it in a more original, funny and smart way.
Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death is a collection of some of the most smart ass and funny songs they ever produced. This collection focuses mainly on non-album tracks, making it a must own for any fan of the band.
The material on this album ranges from standards like California Uber Alles and Holiday in Cambodia, presented in different versions than on their first album, to live performances like the Knack riffing Pull the Strings, and the funny as hell as improvised Night of the Living Rednecks. Not to mention I Love Short Songs, any punk fan will not be disapointed.
If your just getting into the Kennedy's, I would recommend Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables first, but after that move on to Plastic Surgery Disasters or this album. Great collection of songs from a great band. Screw emo and Sum 41, this is a real punk band.