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| Dead Kennedys > Albums & Lyrics |
This just in... the members' REAL names...
East Bay Ray - Ray Peppernell, Klaus Flouride - Geoffrey Lyall, D.H. Peligro - Darren Henley, Jello Biafra - Eric Boucher... Now, on to the feature presentation...
It all began when East Bay Ray placed an ad in a music paper. It was responded to by non other than Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher), who was seeking a job and wanted to be the vocalist for the band.
They were soon joined by bassist Klaus Flouride, drummer Bruce Slesinger, and another guitarist known as 6025. He left in March of '79 and Slesinger was replaced by D.H. Peligro in 1981.
The British punk scene had yet to impact America fully, mainly because of the large size of the country, compared to the much smaller England. Bands with little money couldn't travel abroad. The Sex Pistols toured in late '77, but fell apart after a show in San Francisco, and Biafra was there to witness the occasion. Fueled by this and a trip to Britain in 1977, in the middle of full blown punk, Biafra began to feel a need to spread it in the States. America was primed for punk, aided with the unique culture of the time. The Dead Kennedys played their first performance in July 1978, and that set a precedent for what was to come. It was clear from the start that the Dead Kennedys were not your average band.
Biafra's lyrical themes were mainly poltical, attacking the Government under the control of Ronald Reagan, the Klan, big business, and such. All songs had a glorious sense of sarcasm, from "Let's Lynch the Landlord" to "Chemical Warfare". The band remained special, backed up by the incredible way that Biafra sang, truly, never has been duplicated, and the strong political viewpoints of the band. But they weren't just talk. Most notably was Biafra's run for mayor of San Francisco in 1979. This began as a prank, but turned into a serious campaign, where he received the votes of those that were fed up with the current candidates. Key platforms included the clown suit wearing of business men, and, remarkably, he placed fourth out of ten. Imagine what the bottom six felt like.
Obviously, even the name of the band was designed to offend people, or at least gain notice. To the delight of the band, they got the attention of far right groups, which led to problems, namely their difficult relationship with authorities, and the abundance of police at typical concerts. (Don't the police have anything better to do? They probably thought moshes were riots in the makings.)
The Dead Kennedys formed their own label, Alternative Tentacles, headed by Biafra, in 1979 to publish their releases. Some of their works were put out on independent labels like Fast and Cherry Red. "California Über Alles" of 1979 was their first- an attack on Jerry Brown, the then Governor of California. "Holiday in Cambodia" of June, 1980 was the band's breakthrough song, a momement of definition that made them stand out, a mix of hilarious lyrics and evil sounding music. "Kill The Poor" and "Too Drunk to Fuck", 1980 and 1981, completed the quartet of singles that are compared to the most important early punk records.
With the release of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in September 1980, the band toured Britain, now desperate for something new in the punk scene. Biafra also used this as a time to introduce stage diving to British audiences.
During each of the band's three visits to the United Kingdom, they took part in a series of interviews that presented that sharp intellects were behind the intentionally harsh and crude smokescreen. The brutality was taken further with In God We Trust Inc. of December 1981. Other punk bands could no longer compete with their unintelligent style, and the focus was brought upon other bands like Black Flag and the like in the US.
In November one year later a new album was released, Plastic Surgery Disasters, the band's overall best collection of songs, marked by its wit and satire, and brought surprises, like Flouride on the clarinet. They played the US and toured Australia and New Zealand, but remained quiet in the UK until 1985, broken by the release of Frankenchrist, an LP that would eventually lead to the band's end. It showed once more the band's profound ability to annoy people, caused by the inclusion of the infamous "Penis Landscape" poster by H.R. Giger. (The Swiss must be a little more tolerant.) At the time, only Klaus raised the question of whether there would be some backlash, but Biafra continued at the time, saying "What do you mean, this is 1985, why would anybody be that dumb? Nobody prosecutes people over things like that anymore. . ."
The San Fransisco police raided his residence and tore it apart, and Biafra, head of Alternative Tentacles, chose to take his charge of "Distributing Harmful Material to Minors" to court instead of paying a $2,000 fine and spending a year in prison. Surprisingly, considering the long trial, the band managed to produce "Bedtime for Democracy", but it was clear that the band was losing its edge. Biafra was acquitted, but the whole incident, not to mention the lack of support from the music industry (Except Frank Zappa. . .), caused the band to fall apart, and they each split their seperate ways. Klaus made some bizarre releases himself, Ray has a recording project called Scrapyard, and Peligro has a new band and album called Peligro. Biafra went into the world of spoken word, and collaborated with DOA, NoMeansNo, and a country album with Mojo Nixon (Praire Home Invasion), as well as a new band, Lard, formed with with former members of Ministry (Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker), most recently.
Released in 1987, Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death is a good collection of songs, including some of the early recordings and a mix of odds and ends. Assured a place in music history, with their impact on bands to come, the Dead Kennedys left their mark. As I analyze, the idea behind the band was brilliant. Superficially, the Dead Kennedys were designed to shock and most importantly get attention, from the name to the seemingly evil lyrics. Once attention was gained, some would just be ignorant and persecute them, but others would begin to look into the band. Once you read into the lyrics, you realize that this band isn't just a bunch of vulgar loud-mouths, but that there was some substance to them. The were speaking out politically, and they had found an audience on so many different levels.
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