Jello Biafra and GSM release new 7-inch punknews.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from punknews.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jimi Hendrix “a pretty fair guitarist.” Some might quibble, but Biafra’s work fronting San Francisco’s
Dead Kennedys politicized American punk rock. He possesses a keen, vicious satirical eye: Debut single “California Über Alles,” alone, envisioned a “zen fascist” U.S. presidency under former California Gov. Jerry Brown. His “suede/denim secret police” rounded up ordinary American citizens and shipped them to reeducation camps, where they’d “mellow out, or you will pay.” Mind you, the rise of Reagan two years later proved to Biafra that the conservatives were bigger fascists.
DKs transitioned into the hardcore era and became a primary attraction on the worldwide punk circuit before being harassed by forces for censorship of rock music; they were the first band sued for obscenity, over the inclusion of HR Giger’s famed painting “Work 219: Landscape XX” (aka “Penis Landscape”) in 1985’s
6 weeks ago
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine have released a new digital single. It s called Blunder Blubber and it s inspired by Rush Limbaugh. The band stated that it was unreleased track, suggesting that it comes from the archives and was recorded sometime ago.
Jello released a statement: Woo Hoo! For once some good news: Rush Limbaugh is dead! Dead!! DEAD!!! He went so far out of his way to hurt so many people, the whole time laughing his way to the bank. No MAGA monster without him. No capital riots without him, really. And no Ru$h at all without a toxic president named Reagan vetoing the renewal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. You know, the law requiring that if you talk shit on what is still the Public airwaves, you have to let the other side reply? The law people pushed to bring back when Obama took office in 2009, to reign in Fox, til Pelosi declared yet another urgent reform, “off the table”? Boy, do we need the Fairness Doctrine now.
Jello Biafra: “I’m not a drug addict, I’m not religious, music is my higher power, and I never know what’s coming next”
We sit down for an audience with former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra to talk punk, politics, the PMRC and Portlandia…
Words: Mörat
Photos: Ralph Arvesen, Matthew Kadi, Mörat
As the former frontman of legendary punk band Dead Kennedys, and a hugely influential artist in his own right, Jello Biafra has been a thorn in the side of authority since he was old enough to tie his own shoelaces. An advocate of freedom of speech, he ran for mayor of San Francisco in 1979 (finishing third out of 10), faced trial for obscenity in 1986 (finally acquitted but facing financial ruin) and penned such classics as Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Let’s Lynch The Landlord, many of which remain all too relevant to this day.
Hi folks!
Since I have now completed my two countdown radio shows for the Top 50 albums of 2020 see the big takeover “radio” button above to hear one song from each! here is my complete list of the 180 best albums, 100 best archive/retrospective/reissue releases, and 100 best stand-alone singles and EPs of this previous year my best bets on another great year for music, old and new.
And in one of the worst years of our lifetimes, here’s a small tip of my well-worn ballcap in profound gratitude to the artists below, for giving us this music to listen to while stuck at home. Perhaps half the below had already been recorded and was in process before COVID-19 shut us all down, which also curtailed many a scheduled recording session to go with all the cancelled tours.