Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafrais the former lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys, and is currently a musician and spoken word artist. After he left the Dead Kennedys, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPunk Singer
Date of Birth17 June 1958
CityBoulder, CO
CountryUnited States of America
The last true punk band to get a major label contract was The Dickies.
What they're not doing is marketing the Dead Kennedys in the spirit of what the band stood for.
So basically the understanding on these so-called reissues is that they were done behind my back, without my permission, and the band informed me that I would no longer be paid on them at all.
There's sort of an open offer to work with a guy in Los Angeles who does big band and orchestra arrangements who was at least an acquaintance to Les Baxter before he passed away.
From the beginning, there was so much pressure in the early San Francisco punk scene for everyone to be different than everyone else, to flaunt your intelligence and insights instead of every band sounding alike, like what plagues punk music in particular today.
The United States has been declared under martial law...All constitutional rights have been suspended. Anyone interfering with the collection of urine samples will be shot. Anyone failing to attend morning school prayer will be shot. The number one enemy of progress is questions. National security is more important than individual rights. Sports broadcasts will proceed as scheduled. Shut up, be happy, obey all orders without question. At last everything is done for you.
We have to wipe out Bushism itself, before it wipes us out. That means showing up and voting smart in every election, big and small. I think that in many ways that, the local elections are even more important than the national elections. It's the mayors and the city councils and county comissioners and the school boards and the legislators that decide how to spend the money they fleece off of us in taxes.
Once you get involved with bloodsport litigation, you can not only get drunk on your own greed but start to believe your own lies.
I do fear for the generations of people who came of age thinking that pop-punk is what punk is, and that all the rebellion you need is just to stick your tongue out in the mirror every once in a while.
Yes, I think it's a freedom of expression issue. My feeling is the best way to counter bad speech is with more speech.
We didn't have money to put out everything we wanted to put out.
They've gone to great length to disguise the fact that I'm not in the band, even sending out a photo to promoters with my picture in it which then winds up in some of the ads on the flyers.
I realized later on that a lot of times I'd go back to Colorado to hide from all the mayhem in San Francisco so I could get songs written.
I got involved because I wanted to help inspire more people to get off their butts and register and vote - not just in this election, but in every other election from now on, you know?