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Consumercide disassociates itself from any positive comment on the latest incarnation of the Dead Kennedys, without Jello Biafra. The three other members of the previous Dead Kennedys have demonstrated that they have nothing in mind but them$elve$, and that the meaning of Jello's lyrics are worthless to them.
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What
would a website named "consumercide" be without reference
to
the dissident musical art of the Dead Kennedys (DK's)?
Unfortunately
they are now no longer, but the
spirit
of their music and lyrics will never cease.
The Dead Kennedys punk music group was easily one of the most interesting and inspiring musical groups to come out of the 20th Century, in any genre. The remarkable lyricist and lead vocals character known as Jello Biafra (The name being an intentional juxtapose, in Orwellian "Winston Smith" style), piloted the Dead Kennedys to the heights of the punk music scene with his incisive and insightful, highly political lyrics. The band was totally irreverent towards many social conventions and institutions, sympathetic to the marginalised, and heavily dissenting when it came to corporate America... and especially the military-industrial complex.
If you don't know the DK's, please check out some of their lyrics. Some of it is a bit out of date on the surface, some of it (especially the earliest) a bit cryptic, but the perspective that drove it is still as poignant for today's global woes. The music itself is very hard edged punk, distorted guitar led music, which will sound a bit like white noise to you if you haven't yet "developed the ear". But once you do, it's a musical style that will remain with you. DK's is the undisputed father figure for many modern pop-punk groups.
As mentioned above, the Dead Kennedys is no longer. Regrettably they were targeted by the US's "Moral Majority", and more particularly the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) who (in true 'newspeak' style) were a minority of crusaders merely pretending to be moral, with a deeper agenda aligned with the power and control maintainance of U.S. elites. This group had many corporate and government connections; Tipper Gore, for example (wife of ex US Vice President Al Gore), was one of these unscrupulous characters. The moral majority involved the Dead Kennedys in a legal proceeding under the auspices of the charge of "distributing harmful matter to minors". It was an action by the PMRC that had absolutely no respect for the American Constitution.
Dead Kennedys had included a poster with its 1985 album entitled "Frankenchrist", which was a reproduction of Giger's provocative painting, Landscape #20: Where Are We Coming From, also known as Penis Landscape.
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do not click on the above if you are offended by images of nudity or sexually graphic images, or if you are under the age of 18
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On the edge of the DKs poster was emblazoned
the album title, in a red, white and blue american flag parodising style.
The picture by Giger featured a flat, vast matrix of butt cheeks and genitalia,
all engaged in intercourse, as you might be able to pick out 
.
To Jello, this poster represented the degradation of the human body and spirit that was occurring in society, the ultimate dehumanisation and commodification of humanity and the human body. This was particularly an attack on American Corporatisation and the devolution of society towards "corporate martial law". Shades of this were probably what Giger himself intended in this work. Nevertheless the PMRC covertly saw the work in DKs as a "cost effective" reason to pursue a case against an outspoken dissident.
The case was thrown out by a court after a 7-5 hung jury, many concerned for the free speech ramifications for America if it was upheld. However the case had its effect in the financial and stress toll it took upon the DKs, as they disbanded around the time of the trial.
Biafra continued his work with a number of other bands, and put out the same high quality stuff that characterised the Dead Kennedys performances. He also created a number of spoken word albums and has been doing the spoken word tour circuit around the world.
This DKs page is a relatively small and pathetic tribute to the massive contribution that Jello Biafra has made to the western world; it is hoped that his dissent and morality will continue to reach ears and minds, and awaken them to a very different but pragmatic perspective of the power struggles and covert operations of the US, and more generally, of western society.
also check out this
link.
Lyrics to songs by
The Dead Kennedys
& Jello Biafra (et. al.)
Warning: lyrics are frequently profane. If you have a problem with this, don't look at them. Instead, Click here.
Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
I have read on epinions.com that Frankenchrist was mediocre and not as good as the earlier stuff. Bullshit. When it was released I was part of a group young hooligans that hung on every new album release from the DKs, and none of us were disappointed in this release. Like anything, just give it the time to get through. Notable works include "chicken farm" "macho-rama" and "MTV get off the air", and perhaps the king of this album, "Stars and stripes of corruption"...
Give Me
Convenience or Give Me Death
Jello Biafra in LARD:
Jello Biafra with DOA:
The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy (Jello with DOA)
Last Scream
of the Missing Neighbors
Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon with the Toad Liquors:
Will the Fetus Be Aborted? (single)
Other:
An Interview with Jello Biafra
The Jello Biafra FAQ & discography
The Alternative Tentacles Records Catalog (external site)
Source notes:
The information above is a 'distorted mirror' of the information originally found at paranoia.com. That website has since disappeared. (If anyone knows where it went please drop consumercide.com a line, and a link will be inserted here.) Thanks to gallium for this material, and, of course, The Dead Kennedys -especially Jello- for having the guts, intelligence and concern to create the music in the first place.
Consumercide is gradually improving the original pages a bit, as is possible -eg corrections*, album cover graphics.etc. * Lyrics are modified in cases where the actual lyrics sung disagreed with the original lyrics, i.e., these lyrics are (hopefully) accurate to the music itself.
This
Small intro reprinted from the Gallium DK site:
(note:
It is very unlikely that those mailto's will work now
as
they are so old-consumercide)
Feel free to contribute
to this topic
by sending me a
message (email link on home page).
...you know isn't it interesting with a lot of these corporate people, money does to them what crack does to other people? Where after a while all they can think about-since they've already made more money than they can ever figure out how to spend-is how to make "I gotta make more, I gotta make more,I gotta make more, I don't care who I hurt, I gotta make more" and instead of robbing a liquor store they rob EVERYBODY...
This is why I support the Green Party's platform calling for a MAXIMUM wage. To cure people of money addiction you have to intercept it at the source. Put them through rehab!
--Jello Biafra, from the spoken word album "Machine Gun in the Clown's
Hands" Disk Three, "The Rolling blackout Revue"
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