Dead Kennedys

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From left to right: Klaus Fluoride, Jello Biafra, D.H. Peligro and East Bay Ray
From left to right: Klaus Fluoride, Jello Biafra, D.H. Peligro and East Bay Ray
Background information
Also known as various pseudonyms, including The Sharks, The Creamsicles, The Pink Twinkies, DK Kennedys, Decay (from their intials "DK"), The World's Greediest Karaoke Band
Origin San Francisco, California, USA
Genre(s) Hardcore punk
Anarcho-punk
Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums
Years active 1978 — 1986
2001 — Present
Label(s) Cherry Red
IRS Records
Alternative Tentacles
Manifesto/Decay
Associated
acts		 Jello Biafra (solo career)
Peligro
Skrapyard
The Jungle Studs
Website Original line-up:
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/
New line-up:
http://www.deadkennedys.com/
Members
Jeff Penalty
East Bay Ray
Klaus Flouride
D. H. Peligro
Former members
Jello Biafra
Brandon Cruz
6025
Ted

The Dead Kennedys (often known by their initials DK, as in "decay") are a hardcore punk band from San Francisco, California. During the 1980s, the band gained a large underground following in the international punk and hardcore music scenes. Their music mixed the more experimental elements of English 1970s punk with the raw energy of the 1980s American hardcore punk scene. The Kennedys' songs mix the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk with a humorous, acerbic, satirical, and sarcastic left-wing commentary on current social and political issues. At the same time, some of their songs also mocked the hypocritical stances of some liberal elites. Many of the band's songs criticize the right-wing ideologies of the religious right and the Ronald Reagan administration.

In the late 1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the 1985 Frankenchrist album, which included a poster with art that depicted penises ("Penis Landscape" by H. R. Giger). The band was charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors, but the trial ended with a hung jury. The band officially disbanded in 1986, which led to an acrimonious lawsuit among band members over royalties and rights to the band's music. In 2001, the band re-formed and began touring with a new vocalist over the objections of former lead singer Jello Biafra, who after losing the lawsuit, filed two appeals arguing that the band was liable for fraud.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Late 1970s: Formation of the band

The Dead Kennedys formed in June 1978, after guitarist East Bay Ray (real name Raymond Pepperell) advertised for bandmates after seeing a punk show at the Mabuhay Gardens. The original DK lineup consisted of Jello Biafra (real name Eric Boucher) on vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, Klaus Fluoride (real name Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, and 6025 (real name Carlos Cadona) on drums. This lineup recorded their first demos. In early July, the band wanted a more experienced drummer, so they recruited Ted (real name Bruce Slesinger). The drummer "6025" left the band, but he was invited back as second guitarist. Their first concert was on July 19, 1978, at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, California.

Dead Kennedys played numerous shows at local venues afterwards. Because of the band's provocative name, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including "The Sharks", "The Creamsicles",and "The Pink Twinkies. The name, despite popular belief, was not meant to insult the assassinated Kennedy brothers, but to quote Biafra, "to bring attention to the end of the American Dream".[1] 6025 left the band in March of 1979. In June of 1979, the band released their first single, "California Über Alles", on Alternative Tentacles. They followed with a well received East-Coast tour.

[edit] 1980s

[edit] Disruption of music awards show

On March 25, 1980, the DKs were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in front of music industry bigwigs to give the event some "New Wave credibility," in the words of the organizers. The day of the show was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit, "California Über Alles." In typically subversive, perverse style, the band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra said, "Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band."

The band, who all wore white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks to form a dollar sign, then started playing a new song "Pull My Strings", a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry. which contained the lyrics, "Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star?". The song also referenced The Knack's biggest New Wave hit, "My Sharona". The song was never recorded in the studio but this performance, the first and only time the song was ever performed, was released on the posthumous compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. The band was never invited to play the awards show again.

[edit] Release of Holiday in Cambodia

During the spring of 1980, they recorded and released "Holiday in Cambodia". In the fall, the band released their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. It reached #33 in the UK Albums Chart. In January of 1981, Ted announced that he wanted to leave to pursue a career in architecture and would help look for a replacement. He played his last concert in February. His replacement was D.H. Peligro (real name Darren Henley).

Around the same time, East Bay Ray had tried to pressure the rest of the band to sign a major label deal with Polydor Records; according to Biafra, he was prepared to quit the group if the rest of the band wanted to sign the deal.[2] Polydor balked after they learned that the Kennedys were planning their next single to be "Too Drunk to Fuck".

In May, the band released the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song caused much controversy in the UK as BBC feared the single would reach the Top 30; this would require a mention of the song on Top of the Pops. However, this never came to be as the single peaked at #31. It is also likely that had "Too drunk to fuck" hit the top 30, it would have been banned from playing, in the fashion of The Exploited.

The EP In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) and album Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982) showed a development in musical style, and their music became a political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right and Ronald Reagan. The band continued touring all over the United States, as well as Europe and Australia, during the 1980s and gained a large underground following.

[edit] 1986: Break up of band

In January of 1986, the DKs decided to break up to pursue other interests. They played their last concert on February 21. During the summer they recorded Bedtime for Democracy, which was released in November. In December, the band announced their split. Biafra went on to speak about his political beliefs on numerous television shows and he released a number of spoken-word albums. Ray, Fluoride, and Peligro also went on to solo careers.

[edit] 1986: Criminal obscenity prosecution

The release of the album Frankenchrist in 1985 caused a furor with the newly formed Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In December 1985 a teenage girl purchased the album at the Wherehouse Records store in Los Angeles County.[3] The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the Attorney General for the State of California and to Los Angeles prosecutors.[3]

In 1986 members of the band Dead Kennedys, along with other parties involved in the distribution of Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors. The store where the girl actually purchased the album was never named in the law suit.[3] The criminal charges focused on an illustration by H.R. Giger, titled "Work 219: Landscape XX" (also known as Penis Landscape). Included as a poster with the album, Penis Landscape depicts nine copulating penises.[4]

Members of the band and others were each charged with violating the California Penal Code,[5] which carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in county jail and a base fine of up to $2000. Biafra says that during this time government agents invaded and searched his home. The prosecution tried to present the poster to the jury in isolation for consideration as obscene material, but Judge Isacoff ruled that the poster must be considered along with the music and lyrics.[6] The charges against three of the original defendants, Ruth Schwartz (owner of Mordam Records), Steve Boudreau (a distributor involved in supplying "Frankenchrist" to the Los Angeles Wharehouse store), and Salvatore Alberti (owner of the factory where the record was pressed), were dismissed for lack of evidence.[3]

In August of 1987 the criminal trial was submitted to the jury with the two remaining defendants: Jello Biafra and Michael Bonanno (former Alternative Tentacles label manager).[3] In August of 1987, the criminal trial ended with a hung jury. The split on the jury was 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal for all of the defendants. District Attorneys Michael Guarino and Ira Riener made a motion for a retrial which was denied by The Honorable Susan Isacoff, Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles.[7] The album, however, was banned from many record stores nationwide.

[edit] 1990s: Legal conflicts

[edit] Lawsuits over royalty payments

In the late 1990s, former band members discovered problems with the amount of payments which each band member had received from their record label Alternative Tentacles. Former band members claimed that Jello Biafra had conspired to pay less royalty rates to the band members. Although both sides agreed that the failure to pay these royalties was an accounting mistake, they were upset that Biafra failed to inform the band of the mistake after he and his co-workers discovered it.

Biafra claims that their lawyers had told him only to correspond through lawyers and not directly with the band, as the conflict over payment had apparently arisen before the accounting mistake was discovered. Both sides claim they attempted to resolve the matter without legal action, but the ultimately complicated legal dispute (involving royalties, publishing rights, and a number of other issues) soon led to the courts, where Biafra was found liable for the royalties and guilty of fraud and malice, and was ordered to pay damages of nearly $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages, to the band members.

Malice was defined for the jury as "conduct which is intended to cause injury or despicable conduct which is carried with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights of others."[8]. Biafra's appeal was denied; he had to pay the outstanding royalties and punitive damages,[9], and was forced to hand over the rights to the majority of Dead Kennedys' back catalogue to the Decay Music partnership.

The jury and judges also noted, in their words, that Biafra “lacked credibility” on the songwriting issue and found from evidence presented by both sides that the songwriting credits were due to the entire band, using a clause in the band's written partnership giving a small share of every Dead Kennedys song royalty directly to the band partnership.[10].

Jello had received sole songwriting credit for most Dead Kennedys songs on all released albums for the last 20 years or so without complaints from the band, though a minority of songs had given credit to certain group members or the entire band as a whole, indicating a system designed to reflect the primary composers rather than a regimented system like the Jagger/Richards partnership; today, most Kennedys reissues list the songwriters as "Biafra, Dead Kennedys" indicating Biafra's lyrical contributions -- which the band doesn't dispute, or else simply as "Dead Kennedys"). However, the online database of BMI still retains the original songwriting credits. Ray, Fluoride and Peligro found new distribution through another label, Manifesto Records.

This dispute was hotly contested by all concerned who felt passionately for their cause, and the case caused minor waves within punk circles. Biafra claims that guitarist East Bay Ray had long expressed displeasure with Alternative Tentacles and with the amount of money he received from them, thus the original incentive for the discovery of the back payments. Biafra accused the band of wanting to license the famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" for use in a Levi's jeans commercial, which the band denied.

Biafra apparently pushed this issue in court, although there was no hard evidence and the jurors were apparently unconcerned with corporate use of independently produced political music. Biafra would later complain that the jury was not sympathetic towards underground music and punk culture. The song never appeared in a Levi's commercial, although in interviews Biafra described the situation surrounding the commercial in detail and was able to give specifics about the advertisement, including the name of the advertising agency that had created the commercial's script.

Biafra's former bandmates maintain that they sued because of Jello Biafra's deliberate withholding of money, though when pressed they have acknowledged that the payment was an accounting mistake, but insist that Biafra was wrong in failing to inform the band directly. Details about this issue remain scarce. The band also maintains that the Levi's story was completely fictitious and invented by Biafra to discredit them. Ultimately, these issues have led to a souring of relationships with the erstwhile bandmates, who still have not resolved their personal differences as of 2006.

[edit] Disputes over new commercial activities

Matters were stirred up even further when the three bandmates invited Jello Biafra to "bury the hatchet" in the form of a band reunion. Jello Biafra felt it was unprofessional because no one contacted him directly. In addition, Biafra was disdainful of the reunion, and having long expressed his disdain for nostalgia and rock reunion/oldies tours in particular, argued that the whole affair was motivated by greed.

Several DVDs, re-issues, and live albums have been released since the departure of Biafra. According to Jello, the live albums are "cash-ins" on the Dead Kennedys' name and his music. Jello also accused the releases of the new live material being of poor sound quality and claims to not be receiving royalties from their sale or the sale of any Manifesto Records releases. The other band members deny Biafra's accusations, and have defended the mixes of the material as an effort of hard work. Biafra dismissed the new group as "the world's greediest karaoke band." Nevertheless, in 2003, Klaus Fluoride, bassist for the band, had this to say of performances without the band's former frontman: "There hasn't been a show yet that people didn't really like."[11]

Biafra further criticized them for advertising shows using his own image taken from the original 80s incarnation of the band, which he labeled as false advertising. He recently attacked the reformed Dead Kennedys in a song called "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which appears on his second collaboration with experimental metal band The Melvins, Sieg Howdy!.

Biafra told an audience at a speaking gig in Trenton, NJ that the remaining Dead Kennedys have licensed their single "Too Drunk to Fuck" to be used in a rape scene in a Quentin Tarantino movie.

[edit] Reformation of new band line-up

The reformed Dead Kennedys followed their court victory by announcing a number of tour dates, releasing reissues of all Dead Kennedys albums (except Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, to which they did not have the rights until 2005), releasing several new archival concert DVDs, and licensing several songs to The Manchurian Candidate remake and the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game. East Bay Ray received a fax from Alternative Tentacles purporting Biafra approved the licensing for the game,[12] which Biafra denies happening.

The band claims on their website that they still pay close attention to an anti-corporate ideology, despite performing on September 5, 2003 at a festival in Turkey that was sponsored by Coca-Cola, noting that they have since pulled out of a show in Los Angeles when they found that it was being sponsored by Coors.[13] However, Biafra claims the above mentioned licensing deals prove otherwise; though he makes this claim when he has also licensed to major corporations, approving with the other band members use of Dead Kennedys’ songs in major studio film releases such as Neighbors, Freddy Got Fingered, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.[14].

In 2001, Ray, Peligro, and Fluoride chose former child star Brandon Cruz to replace Biafra's role as vocalist. The band played under name "DK Kennedys" for a few concerts, but have since gone back to "Dead Kennedys" permanently. They have played across the continental United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Russia. Brandon Cruz left the band in May of 2003 and was replaced by Jeff Penalty. The band has released two live albums of archival performances on Manifesto Records: Mutiny on the Bay, an edited-together compilation of various live performances of varying quality from the San Francisco area, and Live at the Deaf Club, a recording of a 1979 performance at the Deaf Club in San Francisco which was greeted with more enthusiasm.

[edit] Personnel timeline 1978-2006

[edit] Lyrical stance

The Dead Kennedys are noted for the acerbity of their lyrics, which generally express a staunchly left-wing view of contemporary America. Unlike other leftist punk bands who use more direct sloganeering, the Kennedys' lyrics are often satirical and sarcastic, all the while retaining the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk. "Holiday in Cambodia" is a multi-layered satire targeting both liberal elites and Cambodia's then-current Khmer Rouge regime (who, together with the US government who at the time of recording, were tacitly supporting Pol Pot in his war against Vietnam). Songs such as "Kill the Poor", "California Über Alles" and "Police Truck" actually take the lyrical viewpoint of the band's hated right-wing targets.

Jello Biafra continues to be a noted critic of the American political establishment, embarking on lecture tours both before and after his time with the band.

[edit] Samples

[edit] Members

Current lineup

Former members

  • Jello Biafra – vocals (June 1978 to February 1986)
  • Brandon Cruz – vocals (November 2001 to May 2003)
  • 6025 – drums (June to July 1978), guitar (July 1978 to March 1979)
  • Ted – drums (July 1978 to February 1981)

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums/EP

[edit] Live albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] VHS/DVD

[edit] Bootlegs

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pfeiffer.
  2. ^ Nardwuar the Human Serviette, December 2005 interview with Jello Biafra and The Melvins, as reproduced in Alternative Tentacles Batcast #15, April 25, 2006
  3. ^ a b c d e Wishnia, Steven. "Of Punk and Pornography: Rockin' With the First Amendment". The Nation. October 24, 1987.
  4. ^ Deflem, Matthieu "RAP, ROCK AND CENSORSHIP: Popular Culture and the Technologies of Justice" March, 2001 revision of a paper presented originally to the Law and Society Association, Chicago, May 30-27 30, 1993. [1]
  5. ^ [2] California Penal Code at leginfo.ca.gov
  6. ^ Staff, "Judge Isacoff, Commissioner Duffey Slate July Retirements" Metropolitan News-Enterprise Friday, May 28, 2004[3]
  7. ^ Drozdowski, Ted. "Jello Biafra cuts to the politics of pop" Bullshit Detector [4].
  8. ^ [5] Music Industry News Network
  9. ^ [6]Phillaw.com, Appeal Verdict, Dead Kennedys v. Jello Biafra
  10. ^ [7] footnote 4, Appeal Verdict
  11. ^ [8] "Interview with Dead Kennedys' Klaus Fluoride" by Mark Prindle, "Citizine", September 1, 2003
  12. ^ Fax from Uli Elser, previous manager of Alternative TentaclesMay 5, 1999
  13. ^ "DKs Pull Out of “Waking the Dead” Show" DeadKennedys.com. October 6, 2005.
  14. ^ Internet Movie Database

[edit] External links

Dead Kennedys
Ted | East Bay Ray | Klaus Flouride | D.H. Peligro
Former members: Jello Biafra | 6025 | Brandon Cruz | Jeff Penalty
Discography
Albums and EPs: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | In God We Trust, Inc. | Plastic Surgery Disasters | Frankenchrist | Bedtime for Democracy | Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Live albums: A Skateboard Party | Mutiny on the Bay | Live at the Deaf Club
Singles: "California Über Alles" | "Holiday in Cambodia" | "Kill the Poor" | "Too Drunk to Fuck" | "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" | "Bleed for Me" | "Halloween"
Related articles
Hardcore punk | Manifesto Records | Alternative Tentacles | Penis Landscape
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