“Holiday In Cambodia” by Dead Kennedys

"Holiday in Cambodia" first surfaced as the second single by Dead Kennedys, put out in May 1980 on Optional Music with "Police Truck" as the B-side, and the band cut it again for their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, that same year. It's hardcore punk with a horror-movie streak: East Bay Ray's electric guitar creeps in with a slow, menacing twang before the whole band stampedes, Klaus Flouride's bass stalks underneath, and the drummer credited simply as Ted batters away like the building's on fire.

Over the top, Jello Biafra sneers, trills and hollers like a demented game-show host, all quivering vibrato and bug-eyed sarcasm. The credits list a producer named Norm, with East Bay Ray assisting and Oliver DiCicco engineering, and it's raw without being sloppy, every stop and lurch landing hard.

The single's sleeve carried a harrowing photograph from the Thammasat University massacre in Thailand, as confrontational as anything in the grooves. That original recording, and "Police Truck" with it, later resurfaced on the 1987 compilation Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.