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Dead Kennedys Bio
The Dead Kennedys were formed when vocalist Jello Biafra - having seen the
Sex Pistols' final live performance at the San Francisco Winterland in January
1978 - answered a music paper advert placed by guitarist East Bay Ray. They were
joined by bassist Klaus Flouride, drummer Bruce Slesinger (aka Ted) and a second
guitarist known to posterity simply as 6025. The latter soon departed, while
Slesinger was replaced in 1981 by D. H. Peligro. After a brief rehearsal period,
the Dead Kennedys played their first gig in July 1978. Initially, their music
was a fairly faithful reproduction of British punk rock, all beefy guitar sound,
rumbling bass and enthusiastically whacked drums. Yet from the start there was
obviously more to them than this: the band were quite clearly playing within
their musical abilities, and there was a depth to the lyrics which raised the
group above the average punk outfit. Biafra's main lyrical concerns were
political and his polemical broadsides attacked any number of easy but
nonetheless deserving targets - big-business skullduggery, the Reagan
administration, atrocities perpetrated by the Klan, and the feeble response of
liberals to such issues. Underpinned by an acute sense of humour and Biafra's
extraordinary tremulous vocal, early songs such as "Let's Lynch The Landlord",
"I Kill Children", "Chemical Warfare" and "Funland At The Beach" satirized the
twin elements of extreme violence and conservatism which characterize much of
American life. The Dead Kennedys' inflammatory name and provocative behaviour
(in one 1979 prank, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco - and came fourth)
attracted the attention of a number of far-right politico-religious groups. The
band's problems with these self-appointed moral guardians were compounded by a
confrontational relationship with US authorities, ensuring an aggressive police
presence at most of their gigs. These associations scared off major record
companies from signing the band, so their only option was to release records on
their own label - Alternative Tentacles - set up in 1979. Early British
singles were issued on indie label Cherry Red, beginning with "California Über
Alles", a blistering attack on the Governor of California, Jerry Brown. "Holiday
In Cambodia" followed and is perhaps the band's definitive moment - a perfect
mix of hilarious yuppie-baiting lyrics and evil-sounding music. Almost as
essential were "Kill The Poor" and "Too Drunk To Fuck" (remarkably, a British
Top 40 single in 1981), but the debut LP, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
(1980), was largely sunk by unsympathetic production. Nevertheless, a British
tour in late 1980 established the band as a figurehead for an audience long
deprived of the Pistols and affronted by the alleged 'sellout' of the Clash,
Biafra stage-diving to great enthusiasm. The eight-track EP, In God We Trust
Inc. (1981), took things further, boasting a speed and power which left most
reviewers nonplussed and contemporaries trailing. There followed a lengthy
hiatus before the album Plastic Surgery Disasters appeared in late 1982. A vast
improvement on Fresh Fruit . . . , this fine collection of songs retained the
trademark savagery and satire, but the musical content had diversified, even
including such unexpected moments as Flouride playing clarinet. After two years
of touring, the more melodic Frankenchrist (1985) appeared, marked by a frantic
sense of desperation which reflected America's increasingly right-wing political
landscape. As ever, the group ran into controversy, this time with the LP's
accompanying poster, "Penis Landscape" by Swiss artist H. R. Giger. Detailing
several rows of copulating genitalia, it provoked a legal offensive against the
band, beginning in April 1986. As well as having his flat torn apart by the
police, Biafra was charged with 'distributing harmful matter to minors', a
charge which he repulsed on the basis of the First Amendment right to free
speech, and which was finally overturned the following year. The band, meantime,
had taken the decision to disband in early 1986, before release of their final
album, Bedtime For Democracy (1986), which suggested their creative relationship
had run out of steam. Since the split, all the Kennedy members have remained
active in music. Biafra immediately took off on a bewildering range of projects,
including spoken word performances and musical collaborations, most effectively
as Lard, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of Ministry. East Bay Ray worked on
an album with Algerian räi legend Cheika Rimitti, and has formed a 'sinister
cabaret band' called Candyass. Flouride has released a couple of idiosyncratic
solo LPs, and Peligro has his own eponymous band.
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