{"id":102,"date":"2025-06-20T15:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T15:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rebelagainuk.com\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2025-08-18T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:15:00","slug":"band-profiles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rebelagainuk.com\/?page_id=102","title":{"rendered":"Band Profiles"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

DEAD KENNEDYS<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

WHEN + WHERE?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

The Dead Kennedys formed in 1978 in San Francisco, California with the original line-up:<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Jello Biafra on vocals<\/span><\/span><\/p>

East Bay Ray on guitar<\/span><\/p>

Klaus Flouride on bass<\/span><\/p>

6025 on rhythm guitar<\/span><\/p>

Ted on drums<\/span><\/p>

The reason why Dead Kennedys is one of the best punk bands in existence is that they carry all the raw profanity of the Sex Pistols, the vivid intracity of the Damned, the lightening speed of Minor Threat, the political art-punk imagery of Crass… and an extreme amount of talent to pull them all off at once. It’s easy to see how they made an international impact: Jello Biafra was inspired by the UK punk scene and we loved him right back, so much so that their single Too Drunk To Fuck <\/i>in 1981 almost made it into the UK Top 30 (imagine presenter Tony Blackburn, shitting his pants knowing he might have to say the ‘f word’ on BBC’s Top of the Pops<\/i>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Their rise to fame\/infamy was also helped out by a couple of appearances in the American news: the first in 1979 when Jello Biafa ran for the Mayor of San Francisco, promoting intentions such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits in the city, legalising squatting in abandoned buildings and requiring police officers to run for election every four years, and he actually came forth in the election. Later in 1986, the Dead Kennedys were in the news for something a bit less positive and a bit more lawsuit-y… In their 1985 album Frankenchrist<\/i>, the artwork by H.R Giger known as Penis Landscape <\/i>(you can Google it if you want but I’m gonna tell you that it’s quite self-explanatory) was included as an insert, fuelling a criminal charge against the band for \u201cdistribution of harmful matter\u201d. Although they were acquitted in court in ’86, record shops across California refused to stock the album in wake of the case, driving their record label Alternative Tentacles to bankruptcy. And yeah this all does sound pretty bad, but apparently Jello was set on using Penis Landscape <\/i>for the album’s cover (until the rest of the band convinced him otherwise), so you could say that, in comparison, everyone got off lightly.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Since their split in 1986 and partial reform in 2001, Dead Kennedys has become an iconic name in punk around the world; you won’t see many punk-patched jackets without a classic DK logo patch, you can even sometimes hear Holiday in Cambodia <\/i>and Kill The Poor <\/i>being played in bars (though if you hear it in Birmingham UK it’s probably my request, I’m still working on getting the DJ of my favourite bar to play Nazi Punks Fuck Off <\/i>but he keeps saying it doesn’t fit the vibe) and I saw recently that Dead Kennedys has one and a half million likes on Facebook (what the fuck!). <\/i>Unfortunately though, a lot of talk surrounding DK is more about whether you’re on the side of the reformed band, consisting of East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and drummer D.H. Peligro who play without Jello Biafra, or Jello Biafra’s side, who refuses to work with the band. Although I touch on this later in the Verdict, I think we should all talk about how fucking great their music is instead, please.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

MUSIC<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

After a doubtful first couple years, as a band whose name stirred up more controversy in the media than their vicious, barbed lyrics and cutting edge sound, as a band who suffered the early departure of guitarist 6025 and then a poorly attended tour around the East Coast, Dead Kennedys released in September 1980 their debut, best-selling album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables<\/i>, containing the previously released singles Holiday in Cambodia <\/i>and California Uber Alles<\/i>. As someone who prides themselves in doing everything stupidly and backwards (having only bought the Fresh Fruit <\/i>debut a couple weeks ago after listening to all of their later albums first), I can at least tell you with educated (maybe that’s a stretch) insight Fresh Fruit <\/i>is Dead Kennedys’ most diverse, original and defectless album, with some of the best production of all their releases. Everything about its sound is stark, vivid and brittle, and my favourite tracks I Kill Children <\/i>and their cover of Viva Las Vegas <\/i>are thick with colour at a bouncing speed – East Bay Ray’s surf riffs swinging, Klaus Flouride’s bass burbling along and Ted’s manic drumming coursing throughout, all showing off what I think is the best of DK’s sound. Even their bluer tracks Ill in the Head <\/i>and Drug Me <\/i>carry this exhilarative freakiness you really don’t hear much of again until their 1985 album Frankenchrist<\/i>, and their lively anthems Kill The Poor <\/i>and Let’s Lynch the Landlord <\/i>show off Jello Biafra’s skill as a frontman, as well as the original recordings of California Uber Alles <\/i>and Holiday in Cambodia; <\/i>all the deep, warbling vibrato and solid, top of the range yells and the biting, bile-riddled satirical lyrics really just seal the fucking deal \u2013 Dead Kennedys is one of a kind, fresh, new, untouchable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Later in 1981, after drummer Ted had left the band to become an architect and the scurrilous Too Drunk to Fuck <\/i>had reached the UK Top 40, Dead Kennedys \u2013 alongside their new drummer D.H. Peligro \u2013 released the even more quick, profane, hardcore, outrageous and probably my favourite EP In God We Trust, Inc. <\/i>(full review)<\/a><\/b><\/i>, which gives the big, loud and clear fuck you<\/i> to profit-driven religious organisations, exploitative chemical plant employers and most unambiguously, Nazis. Nazi Punks Fuck Off <\/i>as well as Dog Bite <\/i>are two of my all-time favourite DK tracks because of their wild, fast flinging riffs and along with D.H’s light-speed drumming, the pace is up so high<\/i> that everything seems <\/i>like it should be a 13-minute blur, but the band’s bang-on musicianship induces flawless chaos instead. The rest of the EP follows suit, and I really think In God We Trust, Inc <\/i>is hardcore punk done right: even in its riled vicious pace, none of Dead Kennedys’ full-flavoured, intricate vitality, on display in Fresh Fruit <\/i>as well as their second studio album, Plastic Surgery Disasters <\/i>(1982), is lost. <\/span><\/span><\/p>

There are claims that Plastic Surgery Disasters <\/i>is Dead Kennedys’ best album, and I’ll go even further to say that this album is as powerful, iconic and as saturated in creativity as The Damned’s distinguished Black Album. <\/i>Everything from its ferocious intricacy, its muscular shifts in pacing, fully limbered bass hooks, guitar riffs and its variance in tone between tracks justifies the comparison: the red-hot speed and solid bass riff in Buzzbomb<\/i> ranks in the likes of their previous hardcore release In God We Trust, Inc.<\/i>, and the masterful tracks Bleed For Me <\/i>and Riot <\/i>splurt out as much audial information as their classic Holiday in Cambodia<\/i>. One of my favourites of the album is the final track Moon Over Marin<\/i> (surprisingly for me, who deems the description \u201cmelodic\u201d of any kind of song an insult). But it really is a nice, melodic, slower song with an addictive riff and a cheery, bright vocal, in spite of Jello’s frankly sad anti-pollution lyrics. I think that during this release in 1982, Dead Kennedys reached their pinnacle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

And as if Dead Kennedys’ sound wasn’t outlandish enough, they push the boat out and over the edge of the cliff with their ‘experimental’ 1985 album Frankenchrist<\/i>, whose sinister-sounding title reflects the band’s move to a darker, slower, and more eerie way of playing. I like the kind of droning, enveloping tones and the dead choir chorus in A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch<\/i>, which is only really heard again in the live tracks Short Songs <\/i>and Straight A’s <\/i>(appearing in the post break-up compilation Give Me Convenience and Give Me Death <\/i>(1987)), and the enormous stomping noise of At My Job <\/i>and its jarring synths really sets you on edge: this really is new territory for the Dead Kennedys. Frankenchrist<\/i>‘s downfall for me is how most tracks feel unnecessarily drawn out like Stars and Stripes of Corruption<\/i>, sitting at 6 and a half minutes long (Frankenchrist <\/i>features 10 tracks totalling 45 minutes while Fresh Fruit <\/i>contains 14 totalling 33). I don’t have a brainless vendetta against songs longer than 45 seconds, but Dead Kennedys already proved how much substance they can pack into short songs, so slowing them down doesn’t really add anything. <\/span><\/span><\/p>

Saying that, their final album, Bedtime For Democracy,<\/i> released a year later in 1986, sports 21 tracks averaging at a minute and a half each. Although the album signals a return to the hardcore sound present in In God We Trust, Inc.,<\/i> the album lacks substance for me in comparison. The first six tracks all feel like fillers and although I like the idea of the greyscale and stony Macho Insecurity <\/i>and Gone With My Wind<\/i>, the production of the album is what lets it down: there’s a shit ton of reverb on Jello’s vocals, the vitality of East Bay Ray’s guitar is muffled and the only surviving element of D.H’s drumming is a dull and constant snare. A few tracks escape the burden and those are I Spy<\/i>, Anarchy For Sale <\/i>and Lie Detector <\/i>(my favourite of the album), but other than that, Bedtime For Democracy <\/i>is a poorly produced album with too many songs. With that being said, however, if this was Dead Kennedys’ only album it would’ve reviewed much higher: comparison is killer, and their later releases had a massive amount to live up to.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist (1985)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dead Kennedys - Bedtime for Democracy (1986)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

VERDICT<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

In December 1986 the band announced their split, after the release of Bedtime For Democracy <\/i>and the Frankenchrist <\/i>obscenity trial. From 2001, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and D.H. Peligro have reformed Dead Kennedys and toured around the world with a few different singers, and Jello Biafra’s reaction to this can be summarised by his insinuation in a 2013 interview that they were just \u201ca really bad cover band\u201d. The question remains: is there the Dead Kennedys without Jello Biafra? Most support for Jello is pledged in over-enthusiastic, badly spelt YouTube comments which often completely disregard the rest of the band’s talent, which I think is unfair. Most of the commenters argue the pretty baseless rumour (though I’ve believed it too) that the rest of the band wanted to allow Holiday in Cambodia <\/i>to be used in a Levi’s jeans advert, something Jello’s preached at his spoken word shows, although there isn’t much to prove it and the band deny it: the main reason for a rift between the band is that in the 1990s, a jury found Jello guilty of fraud for not properly distributing the royalties received from his label Alternative Tentacles <\/i>to the rest of the members. Although I’ve got a lot of admiration for Jello Biafra and I think his lyrics, showmanship and skill for songwriting is one of the best in punk, the other band members are such exceptionally talented musicians that each of them carry a massive amount of value in the band’s music. Three of them together playing in the reformed, \u00be full Dead Kennedys (who I saw live last year and they were brilliant) is always gonna beat, for me, a mere quarter, even if that quarter is the legendary Jello Biafra \u2013 and from what I’ve heard of Jello’s project ‘Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine’, it just sounds like a bit like a bad Dead Kennedys cover band.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

(MY) TOP TRACKS<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

  1. NAZI PUNKS FUCK OFF<\/a> \/ DOG BITE<\/a> (In God We Trust, Inc. <\/i>1981)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/li>

  2. I KILL CHILDREN<\/a> \/ VIVA LAS VEGAS<\/a> (Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables <\/i>1980)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/li>

  3. SHORT SONGS<\/a> \/ STRAIGHT A’S<\/a> (Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death <\/i>1987)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/li>

  4. MAN WITH THE DOGS<\/a> (Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death <\/i>1987)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/li>

  5. BLEED FOR ME<\/a> (Plastic Surgery Disasters <\/i>1982)<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/li><\/ol>

    Come on, do you really think I could only choose five?<\/span><\/span><\/p>

    SOUNDS LIKE…<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

    Why do I have this stupid section? It’s my fucking blog and I’m making it impossible for myself: listen to Dead Kennedys once and you’ll know that nothing else can sound like them, though a lot of bands cite them as an influence. Closest to a DK track I can think of is If I Had A Face <\/i><\/a>by MDC<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

    (MENTIONED) DISCOGRAPHY<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>