Editing Jello Biafra (section)

===Dead Kennedys===
[[File:Jello-Biafra.jpg|thumb|Biafra performing with the Dead Kennedys]]
In June 1978, Boucher responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist [[East Bay Ray]], stating "guitarist wants to form punk band",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/congress/2503/interview10.html |title=Interview with Jello Biafra |publisher=Webcitation.org |access-date=August 3, 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020024641/http://geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/2503/interview10.html |archive-date=October 20, 2009}}</ref> and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Dave|title=Rock Formations: Categorical Answers to how Band Names Were Formed|date=2004|publisher=Cidermill Books|isbn=0974848352|page=214|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOpB23GGxAIC&q=%22jello+biafra%22+occupant&pg=PA214|access-date=June 1, 2017}}</ref> but soon began to use the stage name Jello Biafra, a combination of the brand name [[Jell-O]] and the short-lived African state of [[Biafra]].<ref name="medium.com"/>

Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist [[Klaus Flouride]] to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band.<ref name="re/search">V. Vale, ''Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2'', RE/Search Publications, 1995</ref> Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician,<ref name="re/search"/> though he and his collaborators ([[Joe Keithley|Joey Shithead]] of [[D.O.A. (band)|D.O.A.]] in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer<ref name="shithead">Keithley, Joe. ''I, Shithead''. [[Arsenal Pulp Press]], 2004.</ref> and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
{{listen
 | pos          = right
 | filename     = Holiday in Cambodia.ogg
 | title        = Holiday in Cambodia
 | description  = "Holiday in Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys from ''Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables''
 | format       = [[Ogg]]
}}

The first single by Dead Kennedys was "[[California Über Alles]]". The song, which spoofed California governor [[Jerry Brown]], was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. Its popularity resulted in being covered by other musicians, such as [[The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy]] (who rewrote the lyrics to parody [[Pete Wilson]]), [[John Linnell]] of [[They Might Be Giants]] and [[Six Feet Under (band)|Six Feet Under]] on their ''[[Graveyard Classics]]'' album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "[[Holiday in Cambodia]]" from their debut album ''[[Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables]]''. ''[[AllMusic]]'' cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene"<ref>Mason, Stewart. "[{{AllMusic|class=song|id=t2757927|pure_url=yes}} Holiday In Cambodia: Song Review]". ''Allmusic''. Retrieved January 25, 2006.</ref> and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song.<ref name="Progressive"/>

The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "[[Too Drunk to Fuck]]". The song became a hit in Britain, and the [[BBC]] feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on ''[[Top of the Pops]]''. However, the single peaked at number 36 in the charts.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dead Kennedys - Singles | publisher=officialcharts.com | url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/dead%20kennedys/ | accessdate=September 5, 2014}}</ref>

The EP ''[[In God We Trust, Inc.]]'' contained the song "[[Nazi Punks Fuck Off!]]" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about [[Ronald Reagan]]. Punk musician and scholar [[Vic Bondi]] considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk".<ref>{{cite book|first=Vic|last=Bondi|authorlink=Vic Bondi|title=Feeding Noise Back Into the System: Hardcore, Hip Hop, and Heavy Metal|publisher=Brandeis University|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=May 1, 1993|page=5}}</ref> The band's most controversial album, ''[[Frankenchrist]]'', brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused [[MTV]] of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss [[surrealism|surrealist]] artist [[H. R. Giger]] entitled ''[[Penis Landscape]]''.

The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the [[Whisky a Go Go]]), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including [[CBGB]] in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "[[Pull My Strings]]" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Spencer|last=Ackerman|url=http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=online&s=ackerman061404|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040628105334/http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=online&s=ackerman061404|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 28, 2004|title=Reagan's Punk Rock. Reagan Youth|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=June 14, 2004}}</ref>

On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "[[Selling out|sell out]]" attacked him at the [[924 Gilman Street]] club in [[Berkeley, California]]. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while [[moshing]]. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair.<ref name="Goldberg">{{cite magazine|first=Michael|last=Goldberg|title=Jello Biafra Attacked|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=July 14, 1994}}</ref> Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries.<ref group="nb">[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p3666|pure_url=yes}} ''Allmusic''], having had both his legs broken. However, a July 1994 issue of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' claims that his injuries included "extensive damage to the ligaments of one knee as well as a superficial head wound."</ref> The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of ''[[Pure Chewing Satisfaction]]'' was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Jack Gilman (director), Jello Biafra, Ian MacKaye, Lars Frederickson, Matt Freeman|url=http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/title/2928/ |title=924 Gilman St DVD: Let's Talk About Tact and Timing |publisher=Microcosm Publishing |location=Portland, Oregon|date=2008|access-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808053526/http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/title/2928/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Biafra has been a prominent figure in the Californian punk scene and was one of the third-generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence.<ref group="nb">Biafra's spoken word work has been less influential to other artists than his music. However, Biafra's spoken word work is often mentioned by [[Sean Kennedy (author)|Sean Kennedy]] as being a major influence on his work: "Episode 2". ''SKTFMTV''. By Sean Kennedy. Perf. Sean Kennedy, Jello Biafra. [http://sktfmtv.rantmedia.ca/ Rantmedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203233939/http://sktfmtv.rantmedia.ca/ |date=February 3, 2006 }}.</ref> Hardcore punk author [[Steven Blush]] describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."<ref>{{cite book|first=Steven|last=Blush|title=American Hardcore: A Tribal History|publisher=[[Feral House]]|location=Los Angeles, California|date=2001|pages=102–103|isbn=0-922915-71-7}}</ref>

After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with [[D.O.A. (band)|D.O.A.]] for the album ''Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors'', received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album ''[[Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1]]''.

====Obscenity prosecution====
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the [[Parents Music Resource Center]] (PMRC).<ref>{{cite news|first=Ted|last=Drozdowski|url=http://www.providencephoenix.com/archive/music/97/07/10/JELLO.html|title=Bullshit detector|newspaper=[[The Phoenix (newspaper)|Providence Phoenix]]|date=July 10–17, 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060304152601/http://www.providencephoenix.com/archive/music/97/07/10/JELLO.html |archive-date=March 4, 2006|accessdate=January 24, 2006}}</ref> In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney [[James Hahn]], brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album ''[[Frankenchrist]]''.<ref group="nb">Guarino alleged that a family claimed that the poster had harmed their children. This was the first instance of a musician on trial for obscenity. Many sources cite the trial of [[2 Live Crew]] as the first, but that trial was three years after Biafra's.</ref> However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster ''Landscape XX'' (''[[Penis Landscape]]'') included with the album.

Music author [[Reebee Garofalo]] argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle."<ref>{{cite book|first=Reebee|last=Garofalo|title=Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA|publisher=[[Allyn & Bacon]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=1997|pages=433–434|isbn=0-205-13703-2}}</ref> Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, [[Dirk Dirksen]], and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to retry the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped.<ref>{{cite news|title=Deadlock in Biafra Trial Results in Dismissal|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-28-me-2818-story.html|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]]|date=August 28, 1997}}</ref> The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.

Biafra has a [[cameo role]] in the 1988 film ''[[Tapeheads]]''. He plays an [[FBI]] agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by [[Tim Robbins]] and [[John Cusack]]). While arresting them, his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.

On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program ''[[This American Life]]'', [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/285/Know-Your-Enemy "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy"], which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the ''Frankenchrist'' trial.

''Porn Rock: The Obscenity Trial of Jello Biafra'', a play written by Lawrence Meyers, was staged in Los Angeles in February 2025, depicting the obscenity prosecution and its implications.<ref name="PORN ROCK">{{cite web |last1=Scheffler |first1=Daniel |title=PORN ROCK |url=https://www.spin.com/2025/03/porn-rock-trial-of-jello-biafra/ |website=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |access-date=April 17, 2025 |date=March 5, 2025}}</ref>

====Lawsuit and reunion activities====
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of [[Alternative Tentacles]] records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a [[whistleblower]] employee at the record label notified the band.<ref>''Dead Kennedys v. Biafra'', 46 F.Supp.2d 1028 (1999)</ref>

According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "[[Holiday in Cambodia]]", to be used in a commercial for [[Levi's]] Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and [[sweatshop|sweatshop labor]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Kimberly|last=Chun|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/05/11/kim.DTL&type=music|title=Everything's Better With Jello|newspaper=[[The San Francisco Chronicle]]|date=May 11, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417164137/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fgate%2Farchive%2F2001%2F05%2F11%2Fkim.DTL&type=music |archive-date=April 17, 2008 }}</ref> Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.deadkennedys.com/check.htm |title=Welcome To The Official Website For Dead Kennedys |publisher=Deadkennedys.com |access-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213131/http://www.deadkennedys.com/check.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.

In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in [[punitive damages]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=17130 |title=Dead Kennedys Plan New Archival Releases Following Judgement Against Former Lead Singer Jello Biafra |website=Mi2N.com |access-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-date=May 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526185731/http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=17130 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phillaw.com/casepdfs/Dead%20Kennedys%20Superior%20Court.pdf |title=Westlaw :''Dead Kennedys vs. Biafra'' |publisher=Phillaw.com |access-date=August 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227000532/http://www.phillaw.com/casepdfs/Dead%20Kennedys%20Superior%20Court.pdf |archive-date=February 27, 2012 }}</ref> Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles.<ref>[http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jello-biafra-gets-shot-down-by-dead-kennedys/ JELLO BIAFRA Gets Shot Down By DEAD KENNEDYS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202190146/http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jello-biafra-gets-shot-down-by-dead-kennedys/ |date=February 2, 2018 }} Blabbermouth.com, accessed January 3, 2017</ref> Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.<ref name=Penalty>{{cite web |url=http://www.punknews.org/article/28168 |title=Jeff Penalty leaves the Dead Kennedys |website=www.punknews.org|date=March 20, 2008 |access-date=July 17, 2011 |archive-date=May 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521100001/http://www.punknews.org/article/28168 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a May 2025 interview with ''[[Guitar World]]'', [[East Bay Ray]] discussed a potential reunion with Jello Biafra saying that he and [[Klaus Fluoride]] were open to a reunion however it would never happen and that Biafra was to blame. He said that over the years lucrative offers such as one in 2017 from [[Riot Fest]] were proposed to the band but Biafra was against it. “It’s not an issue for me or Klaus. It’s Biafra that turns down any offers for us to do something; we don’t have any problem.” East Bay Ray went on criticize Biafra's post Dead Kennedys career and how Biafra took credit for writing most of the band's songs in which he took exception to Biafra's claims by saying “We actually wrote as a band, where in effect, due to the chemistry between us, it was a case of two and two equaling five. None of us has had a solo career that was bigger than Dead Kennedys, which, to me, shows the power of a bunch of talented people getting together and creating something that was far greater than the sum of its parts. Jello didn’t bring in the songs. I know he’s created the myth that he wrote them all, but the question here is that if he did, why didn’t he ever do anything significant after leaving the band?,” adding, “[[Iggy Pop|Iggy]] left [[the Stooges]] and had a career; ditto [[Lou Reed]] with [[the Velvet Underground]] or [[Morrissey]] with [[the Smiths]]. Where’s Biafra’s solo career with a bunch of great songs? The songs were written in numerous different ways. “Holiday in Cambodia” started as a jam in the rehearsal studio” he said.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dead Kennedys’ East Bay Ray: Jello Biafra Won’t Reunite With Us Despite Lucrative Offers |url=https://consequence.net/2025/05/dead-kennedys-jello-biafra-wont-reunite/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR43ZRsml_c4QMnJl9l_jFfYf8k-pRkAIMWPeRuOQjgnY0iaVCU783wwOHt4cQ_aem_xRDdYh9x3cmG2HR0n-aMvA|website=Consequence | date=May 7, 2025 |access-date=May 8, 2025}}</ref>

Biafra, in a 2012 interview with the ''[[Tampa Bay Times]]'', stated he was not happy with the current direction of his former bandmates, nor did he want to restart the Dead Kennedys for [[nostalgia]] purposes:

<blockquote>"We haven't talk in a dozen years. In their hearts they've become [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] and I just wouldn't do something like that unless we can bring back the real thing. In a way getting me back into the band would be their worst nightmare, like make them rehearse. When people tell me that I owe it to the fans to regurgitate nothing but old music with the people I used to play with, that's totally the opposite of what punk and Dead Kennedys means to me. The true spirit of the whole thing is to keep going, keep moving and make more new stuff. Nobody was more cynical than the original punks about nostalgia and retro because of all the rage on TV and people started to get nostalgic in goofy ass ways for the sixties and they were thinking, ''Yeah, that will never happen to us. That's not what I'm here for, sorry. It's not as if the people who come to the Guantanamo School of Medicine shows wanting nothing but old Dead Kennedys songs don't leave with a smile on their face once they've heard the new songs. It's not like I've forgot how to write this shit."<ref name="TBT">{{cite web |last1=Spears |first1=Steve |title=Jello Biafra talks about Dead Kennedys reunion |url=https://www.tampabay.com/content/jello-biafra-talks-about-dead-kennedys-reunion/2058581/ |website=[[Tampa Bay Times]] |access-date=May 13, 2025 |date=August 24, 2012}}</ref></blockquote>