A Short History of the Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedys were a punk band. A hardcore punk band. In fact they were an aggressive, fast, assertive, political, spontaneous and oppositional hardcore punk band. They released five albums between 1980 and 1986 which had the lyrics printed for the listener because it was impossible to hear what their 'singer' Jello Biafra was shouting about. Even with the lyrics printed in front of you, you had to be able to read fast, to speed-read because this was speed-punk. The songs had meaning though. The lyrics weren't just some angsty run-of-the-mill stuff. They were political and satirical. They were full of arguments and counter-arguments. But it is true to say that Biafra was an angry youth, it can be heard in his delivery. But then again, the Dead Kennedys were totally uncompromising in outlook, in output and in outsider-appeal.

They came out of the same San Francisco scene as fellow hardcore band Black Flag. At first the Dead Kennedys were made up of Jello Biafra, Ted who played drums, Klaus Flouride who played bass, and East Bay Ray who played guitar, and they signed to IRS, Miles Coupland's label who had also signed the likes of REM. But Biafra was so shocked by the way band's were treated by standard record labels that he set up his own, Alternative Tentacles, which still survives to this day. However the band released their debut album on IRS. It was called 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables' and is still a vital hardcore album. The album begins with the track 'Kill The Poor' which is about, well, killing the poor of the world and states there would be 'no more welfare tax to pay unsightly slums gone up in flashing light...'. It was satirical. Other subject matter included the evil media, greedy landlords and landowners, and war for profit. It was all pretty simple stuff, though more direct and hard-hitting for it. The two stand-out tracks are 'California Uber Alles' and 'Holiday In Cambodia', mainly because you can sing along with them. Compared to British commune-punks Crass it was pretty timid stuff.

Even so, as the band went on they became a little more hardcore than before. They hired a new drummer, D.H.Peligro. He upped the tempo from the first album on their second effort 'In God We Trust'. It was recorded and released on Biafra's own Alternative Tentacles and attacked evangelists, Mickey Mouse, and the Moral Majority. Not hard to miss targets one and all. Follow-up albums ' Plastic Surgery Disasters' and 'Frankenchrist' were much the same. All adrenaline and anger, all simple political assassinations on pet hate subjects. The drumming sounds just fine and the occasional guitar solo is thrown in for good measure. Synthesizers make sneaky appearances, which help with the texture. Though texture, complexity, deep-thinking and subtlety are not what the Dead Kennedys were all about. They were crucial because they gave a voice to disillusioned kids, to pockets of people all over the country who found it hard to be true to themselves when surrounded by the daily pressure of conforming to something they were not. They gave like-minded people something tangible to agree about - a record, a real physical thing, with real words. It was the equivalent of the London soap-boxes. Where on certain street corners you have the right (or once did) to get, literally, on a box and tell the passers-by what you're thinking of, what annoys you, what changes should take place. Some people listen, some people don't. Some people agree, some people don't. It's all about Democracy. The Dead Kennedys were nothing radical. They were simply a bunch of people using their democratic right to say what they thought about stuff and getting into a little bit of trouble because of it. They weren't saying anything profound or intelligent, just relying on what they thought would be offensive little slogans. Stuff to get noticed by. But the problem is: the band were good at being negative. It's easy to point a finger at what is bad. It's much harder to come up with a real workable alternative. The Dead Kennedys never came up with an alternative. They were happy to moan at stuff just like the majority. Just like the moral majority. They were never a real threat. They were happy shouting their simple slogans and trying oh-so-hard to shock. Hardcore should be renamed 'grumblecore'.