A lot of people overlook the surf guitar sound on the DKs early stuff. It's very California. East Bay Ray was a good guitarist from the get-go. "Police Truck" by the Dead Kennedys is basically a political California surf song; there's so much surf guitar in the early DKs stuff it's ridiculous. Jello's new band, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, seem to try to imitate that a bit.
Also, um, it was a live show, which was also a music industry event. the two are not mutualy exclusive. I read an interview w/ Jello where he mentioned they all came ut in white shirts and skinny ties to look like a "new wave band" (this in 1979, heh), and it freaked some folks out, but afterwards Eddie Rabbit (remember him? hah) said he thought they were the standout performance or something.
--B.
Chris Doss wrote:
"It was by listening to the solo on that [Dead Kennedy's live performance of "My payola satire of My Sharona"]that I realized that East Bay Ray could actually play guitar pretty well if he wanted to. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a live show per se, but a big music industry event."