GREENMUSE is a regular reader
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Previous Musings
The Selling Of A Legend
In the music world there are bands and
then there are the legends. The almost holy, not limited to but including
The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, The Clash and the Dead Kennedys;
it’s the last one I'm here to talk about.
Jello Biafra was the front man of the band
and wrote almost all of their songs. He also owns Alternative Tentacles
Records, which has been the Kennedys label pretty much since the beginning.
The label has also been home to The Butthole Surfers, Mojo Nixon, Nomeansno,
The Beatnigs and a plethora of assorted other bands. From spoken word,
to folk, the label has it all.
After the Kennedys broke up in 86 things
haven’t been so pleasant between the ex-members, especially between guitarist
Eastbay Ray and Jello. A year or so ago the former Kennedys took Jello
and Alternative Tentacles to court for “failing to promote Dead Kennedys
properly”. Jello thought he had this one in the bag, as no label promotes
a defunct band’s back catalog. Well he was horribly wrong; the judgment
was against Jello and A/T records. With payments to the ex-Kennedys and
the legal costs Jello and A/T records now owe over a million dollars. Jello
is appealing the judgment, but isn’t the worst part of the story. Here
is where things get dirty.
Supposedly the Dead Kennedys have been
booked by a booking agency in Florida, but Jello wont be there. When asked
about his absence the band has been evasive at best. To add insult to injury
the band also released a live album for which Jello had this to say “The
other 3 ex-Kennedys have now released a lame live album that I was not
allowed any input on at all. The sound is OK, but the performances
range from so-so to just plain bad. Not much thought appears to have
gone into the artwork either, in sharp contrast to the original spirit
of the band. I do not recommend this album.” Jello’s former band
mates have also went so far as to release “reissues” of the old albums.
Like a slap in the face, these CD’s failed to give Jello credit for writing
his songs. What makes this even sillier is the fact that D. H Peligro now
has song writing credits on an album that was released before he even joined
the band!
In January East Bay Ray went into Mordam
Records (Alternative Tentacles distributor) and took every unsold copy
of the DK’s albums. The only albums he left were the “Nazi Punks, Fuck
Off!” singles. Now Ray won’t tell Jello what has been done with the albums.
I imagine this must be heartbreaking for Jello to see his life’s work stolen
out from under him and sold to the highest bidder, to have the name
of the band he worked so hard in tarnished. It’s just a matter of time
before we will here the sounds of “Holiday in Cambodia” or “Police Truck”
in a fuckin Gap ad. Have you ever played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater? There’s
a censored version of “Police Truck” in the game. Who knows what’s next?
The mounting legal fees are taking their
toll on Jello and Alternative Tentacles, which may soon be forced to shutdown.
Jello has avoided going to his fans for help as long as he could. Now under
crushing debt he has created the “Alternative Tentacles Legal Defense Fund”.
Fans can send in whatever they can spare to help pay all the mounting legal
fees so Jello can hopefully stop his former band mates from dragging the
good name of the Dead Kennedys through the mud any further. This fund is
much like the “no more censorship fund” for the Frankenchrist trial. Jello
has stated that the money will only go towards legal fees, not to pay his
personal debts. This issue saddens me greatly; I admire the work of Jello
and the other Dead Kennedys. If it wasn’t for East Bay Ray, I may never
have picked up a guitar. So if you see fit to join the fight and help Jello
preserve the Dead Kennedys good name I’ve included some links below for
you to learn more about the situation and contribute.
For more information on this issue
go to WWW.ALTERNATIVETENETACLES.COM
also if you want to contribute to the fund you can send it to:
AT LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
P. O. BOX 419092
San Francisco, CA 94141
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