Jello Biafra

Love him or hate him, Jello Biafra has always stood strong for what he believes. I have read and heard him referred to an "asshole" in one article reviewing the NO WTO Combo disk from 1999's "Battle in Seattle" (although in a bit of a contradiction, the author of that particular review also admitted that Biafra made quite a few good points and was, essentially, right).

For that matter, I remember somehow or other having the tape (yes, the cassette tape) of "Give Me Convenience, or Give Me Death" to my high school, back in the day. There was this girl (not surprisingly, she has grown up to be a conservative, as so many people from my hometown have - it's a bulwark of conservatism right here in "blue state" New Jersey) - and there are a few of them around. In any case, I remember that again, somehow (can't remember how any longer) she got her hands on the tape, and started reading the lyrics. She dismissed them as "disgusting" (she was specifically referring to the lyrics for "Too Drunk To Fuck", and I'll never forget the expression on her face when she said it, or the dismissive tone of her voice that she said it with. The notion that it might be tongue in cheek surely did not occur to her. But I remember it well, because it kind of came as a bit of a surprise to me that someone so young would take what I saw as a typically old or adult response to it. I'm not sure why it should have surprised me, other than my own naivete. But when I think of the Dead Kennedys, and particularly of Jello Biafra, and just how some people will respond to his works and/or words, and how he and his lyrics an his actions will be interpreted, she always comes to mind.

Jello Biafra is not for everyone, though. He tends to be very melodramatic, that much is true. He is prone to exaggeration at times, as well. Perhaps those criticism can be leveled at him, and fairly at that. So be it.

But Jello also was a necessary voice of criticism, at a time when it was needed the most. He has consistently spoken out against abuses and even crimes, as he saw them. He did not mince words, nor did he back down or look the other way. Clearly, he is a fighter. He believes in something, and he stands up for what he believes in. In a sense that many would view as unconventional, he is patriotic. Not in the Fox News Nation kind of a way, but in a very real sense, he loves his country, keeps informed about the issues as a result of this, and speaks out for what he truly believes in. Say what you will about him, whether or not you agree with his viewpoints, but I think it would be hard to argue those points.

To that end, his first band, the Dead Kennedys, made a name for themselves. Nobody was as outright political and in your face, before or since. No, not even System of a Down or Rage Against the Machine can really compare. Those are both big bands and, as active and outspoken as they tended to be, their surely had to be money and promotion that got in the way. After all, those were both huge bands with a lot of air play, with music videos, and all of that kind of stuff.

By contrast, Jello, no matter what band he happened to be in at the time, always did things on his own terms. He did what he wanted to do, and said what he wanted to say. That cost him. He was targeted by many, the lyrics for the Kennedys seemed to serve as the symbol for many, most famously perhaps the PMRC, for what kid needed to be protected from.

The DK broke up following the controversy generated by the poster of an art piece by Swiss artist HR Giger that they included in their final album, Frankenchrist. Their music, and this poster, was defined the authorities as pornography. The intrusion by the authorities that ensued, which included, if memory serves me correctly, the authorities going to his home and taking stuff from their, before he was put on trial for distributing "harmful matter" to minors.

The Dead Kennedys were considered a dangerous band. In the 1984 release of a concert in San Francisco (released in different forms since on DVD), you see the police beginning to gather as the concert goes on inside. In the video of Dave Grohl's address for South by Southwest, which you can find on my blog along with the entry about it (March 15th, 2013), Grohl mentions how, during "Rock Against Reagan" in Washington, Jello's words comparing the Washington Monument to the Ku Klux Klan triggered a violent police reaction. Those words can be found on the concluding track of the Frankenchrist album, "Stars and Stripes of Corruption", and Jello also has used the lyrics, which he is obviously proud of, on some spoken word material. So, since it is a good sampling of what Jello believes and sings about, and also shows why some might find his words and approach offensive, I submit the lyrics for "Stars and Stripes of Corruption" here:


Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
I couldn't wait
I headed straight for the capitol mall
My heart began to pound
Yahoo! it really exists
The american international pictures logo

I looked up at that Capitol building
Couldn't help but wonder why
I felt like saying hello, old friend

Walked up the hill to touch it
Then I unzipped my pants
And pissed on it when nobody was looking

Like a great eternal klansman
With his two flashing red eyes
Turn around he's always watching
The Washington Monument pricks the sky
With flags like pubic hair ringed 'round the bottom

The symbols of our heritage
Lit up proudly in the night
Somehow fits to see the homeless people
Passed out on the lawn

So this is where it happens
The power games and bribes
All lobbying for a piece of ass

Of the stars and stripes of corruption
Makes me feel so ashamed
To be an American
When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Vietnam
While fiddling while Rome burns at home
The boss says, you're laid off. blame the Japanese
America's back, alright
At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation

No wonder others hate us
And the Hitlers we handpick
To bleed their people dry
For our Evil Empire

The drug we're fed
To make us like it
Is God and country with a band

People we know who should know better
Howl, America riles. let's go to war!
Business scams are what's worth dying for

Are the Soviets our worst enemy?
We're destroying ourselves instead
Who cares about our civil rights
As long as I get paid?

The blind me-generation
Doesn't care if life's a lie

So easily used, so proud to enforce

The stars and stripes of corruption
Let's bring it all down!
Tell me who's the real patriots
The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
Or the people with the guts to work
For some real change
Rednecks and bombs don't make us strong
We loot the world, yet we can't even feed ourselves
Our real test of strength is caring
Not the toys of war we sell the world
Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
Old glory for a blanket
As you suck on your thumbs

Real freedom scares you
'cos it means responsibility

So you chicken out and threaten me

Saying, love it or leave it
I'll get beat up if I criticize it
You say you'll fight to the death
To save your worthless flag

If you want a banana republic that bad
Why don't you go move to one
But what can just one of us do?
Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?

We don't destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out

We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It's easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam

And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

I'm thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I'm on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws

Let kids learn communication
Instead of schools pushing competition
How about more art and theater instead of sports?

People will always do drugs
Let's legalize them
Crime drops when the mob can't price them
Budget's in the red?
Let's tax religion

No one will do it for us
We'll just have to fix ourselves
Honesty ain't all that hard
Just put rambo back inside your pants
Causing trouble for the system is much more fun

Thank you for the toilet paper
But your flag is meaningless to me
Look around, we're all people
Who needs countries anyway?

Our land, I love it too
I think I love it more than you
I care enough to fight

The stars and stripes of corruption
Let's bring it all down!
If we don't try
If we just lie
If we can't find
A way to do it better than this
Who will?

The DK broke up following the controversy generated by the poster of an art piece by Swiss artist HR Giger that they included in their final album, Frankenchrist. Their music, and this poster, was defined the authorities as pornography. The intrusion by the authorities that ensued, which included, if memory serves me correctly, the authorities going to his home and taking stuff from their, before he was put on trial for distributing "harmful matter" to minors.

The trial almost bankrupted Biafra's Alternative Tentacles, and marked the end of the Dead Kennedys as a band. Since then, the group broke up. Unlike some other groups who have well publicized reunions, this is one group that seems very unlikely to ever get back together. The other members of the Dead Kennedys, who have reassembled and formed a new version of the band, have sued Jello numerous times, and Biafra himself seems less than impressed with this latest version of the band, referring to it as the "DK Kennedys", and blasting them for having too transparent commercial ambitions.

I will say that, being a fan of the Dead Kennedys and having long felt bad that I never actually got to see them in person, when the opportunity presented itself to see "The Dead Kennedys", I jumped on it. In fact, I have seen them a few times, but they are weak without Jello, truth be told.

In the meantime, Jello still has plenty of energy, despite having obviously gotten considerably older, and not being nearly as slim as he used to be back in the old days. Yet, there is something about him, an intensity, and an intelligence that many seem to want to detract from, that is exciting, even electrifying. Probably, that is the reason that Jello still releases not only new music, but good, solid stuff at that. Thought-provoking stuff, and the best album just might be the most recent. The DK, in the meantime, still tour periodically, but it is strictly off the strength of the old DK material. The position of lead singers seems to be a bit of a revolving door with them, as well. I think the reason for this, simply stated, is that it is impossible to replace someone like Jello. It is my understanding that the band actually offered to reunite with Jello, but that he wanted no part of this.

Following the end of the Dead Kennedys, fans may have been excused to assume that this was the end of Jello being active, at least in the punk music scene.

But that would be a mistake, to underestimate this guy. He immediately became active with his spoken word material, and has released numerous things over the course of the decades, now. Also, he has done some side projects with different bands. But before I elaborate further, here is a part of an article (see the link below) that really sums up Jello's activities post-DK rather nicely:

In the twenty seven years that have followed the demise of Dead Kennedys, JELLO BIAFRA devoted himself to activism, spoken word tours, collaborations with musicians as diverse as Mojo Nixon, Napalm Death, NoMeansNo, DOA, Reverend Horton Heat, Sepultura (Biotech is Godzilla), Melvins (fans sometimes refer to their collaborative releases under the moniker "The Jelvins"), guested on records by ICE-T, Revolting Cocks and more, formed LARD with Ministry's Al Jorgenson and many other musical projects. BIAFRA released more than 450 records (and counting) on his Alternative Tentacles label, amassed the Library of Congress of Punk Rock and Exotica record collections, collaborated with artists including Shepard Fairey and Sandow Birk, performed as a DJ, caught Tipper Gore lying on live national TV during his second Oprah appearance, ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello," delivered the hemp legalization pseudo-anthem "Grow More Pot," formed The No WTO Combo with Krist Novoselic (Nirvana, Sweet 75), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), and Gina Mainwal (Sweet 75), wrote a section in the Yoko Ono-compiled book Memories of John Lennon (putting him in print alongside Elton John, Bono, Tom Hayden and Alicia Keys), began his YouTube series of spoken word video rants What Would Jello Do?, acted in several movies, was invited to vote on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and ran for the Green Party nomination for President of the United States. Twice. 

So, that's as solid a summary of the activities of Jello Biafra in the nearly thirty years since the end of the Dead Kennedys as I have seen, from Rik Johnson of Examiner.com (March 19, 2013), and since I couldn't top that myself, I figured that it would serve just as well to borrow it here, for the purposes of my own blog entry on the subject. Now, to borrow from it again, here is something else in that same article that should interest fans: the discography of all the releases the Jello has been a part of, from the days of the DK, to the most recent release with his new band, the Guantanamo School of Medicine:

Discography:
1980: Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), The Witch Trials s/t EP/CD
1981: Dead Kennedys In God We Trust, Inc. EP, Dead Kennedys Nazi Punks Fuck Off! 7"
1982: Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters LP/CD
1985: Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist LP/CD
1986: Dead Kennedys Bedtime For Democracy LP/CD
1987: Dead Kennedys Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death LP/CD, Jello Biafra No More Cocoons spoken word 2xLP/2xCD
1989: Jello Biafra High Priest of Harmful Matter spoken word 2xLP/2xCD, Lard The Power of Lard EP/CD, Jello Biafra w/ D.O.A. Last Scream Of The Missing Neighbors LP/CD
1990: Lard The Last Temptation of Reid LP/CD
1991: Jello Biafra w/ Nomeansno The Sky Is Falling And I Want My Mommy LP/CD, Tumor Circus s/t LP/CD, Tumor Circus Take Me Back or I'll Drown Our Dog 7", Jello Biafra Die For Oil, Sucker spoken word 7", Jello Biafra I Blow Minds For A Living spoken word 2xLP/2xCD, Tumor Circus Meathook Up My Rectum 7"
1993: Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon Will The Fetus Be Aborted? EP
1994: Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon Prairie Home Invasion LP/CD, Jello Biafra Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police spoken word 3xLP/3xCD, Lard Pure Chewing Satisfaction LP/CD
1998: Jello Biafra If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve 3xLP/3xCD
2000: Lard 70's Rock Must Die EP/CD, The No-WTO Combo (feat. Jello Biafra, Krist Novoselic, Kim Thayil, and Gina Mainwal) Live From the Battle in Seattle LP/CD, Jello Biafra The Green Wedge 7", Jello Biafra Become the Media 3xLP/3xCD
2002: Jello Biafra The Big Ka-Boom, Part 1 LP/CD, Jello Biafra Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand 3xLP/3xCD
2004: Jello Biafra with the Melvins Never Breathe What You Can't See LP/CD
2005: Jello Biafra with the Melvins Sieg Howdy! LP/CD
2006 Jello Biafra In the Grip of Official Treason 3xCD (Virus 370)
2008: Jello Biafra Jezebel 7"
2009: Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine The Audacity of Hype LP/CD 2011: Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine Enhanced Methods of Questioning EP/CD
2012: Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine Shock-U-Py! 10" EP/CD EP
2013: Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine White People and the Damage Done

Jello Biafra's real name is Eric Boucher, but the name that he gave himself, and which he is best known for, has a story behind it. He recalls the Nigerian war against the Biafran nation, and the genocide that followed. Their were kids starving to death, and widespread famine caused not only a genocide, but suffering on such a scale, and of a ethnic cleansing kind not seen since the days of the Holocaust and World War II. Using the name of a product like Jell-o, which conjures images of humorous commercials and a lighthearted snack or dessert, with the name of a place best known (at least in the West) for a deadly genocide was on purpose. Again, you do not have to agree with everything that he says or does, but everything that he does is meant to make you pause and think, as well as to challenge. He has succeeded admirably in that regard, and is still at it, at an age when most have long ago given up on their punk ambitions.

I found quite a bit of the information on this blog entry in the following article, which reviews the most recent album of Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, "White People and the Damage Done". It is an excellent article, with a solid review of the album (I thought, anyway), which I mostly agreed with. It also gave a decent background history of Jello Biafra, and any fan would surely be happy to read this. So, this comes strongly recommended! I already mentioned it above, but here is the info again. It is from Rik Johnson of Examiner.com (March 19, 2013), and here's the link:

http://www.examiner.com/article/jello-biafra-to-release-new-album