Engaging and thought provoking, the ranting and intelligent Jello Biafra questions everything that is held sacred. Biafra address censorship, social responsibility, government follies and mistruths, educational overhaul, the decriminalization of drugs and why he isn't nostalgic about punk rock's "glory days."
Biafra's main media is spoken word. Spoken word is an umbrella term for crossing the boundaries of poetry, commentary, comedy, theater, and performance art or in Biafra's case, all of the above.
Biafra is best-known as leader and vocalist of the Dead Kennedys, a pioneering punk rock band featuring smart, political lyrics with furious music.
He ran for mayor of San Francisco in 1979. While he did not win, he became a magnet for the vote of those dissatisfied with the leading candidates. During his campaign he never lost his sense of humor, wearing T-shirts from an opponent's previous campaign, and vacuuming leaves off another opponent's front lawn.
Biafra ranks as the first musician to be put on trial because of the content of a record album (in 1985, three years before 2 Live Crew). The Frankenchrist album released with his group, Dead Kennedys, contained in its original release a reproduction of a painting by Swiss artist H.R. Geiger. Obscenity charges followed, under the urging of Tipper Gore and the Parent's Music Resource Center, after a woman spotted the record in her daughter's collection. It was because of this painting that Biafra's house in San Francisco was raided and torn apart by a squad of Los Angeles and San Francisco police officers. Former L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, regrets the episode. Stating, "About midway through the trial we realized that the lyrics of the album were in many ways socially responsible, very anti-drug and pro-individual."
Biafra practices what he preaches by recording albums of his music and spoken-word pieces on his own record label, Alternative Tentacles. As a devoted advocate of free speech, artistic freedom, and just plain getting your ideas out in the open, he created A.T. as a means for out-of-the-mainstream artists to record and distribute their work. His 1998 spoken-word album, "If Evolution is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Survive," is a triple-CD opus which takes on the topics of the media, censorship, and the death-penalty appeal case of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
His 2000 album, entitled "Become the Media" is a no-humor-barred account of the "fiscal year of uprising" starting with the Seattle protests, his Green Party and election activities, and the rise of independent media. He was involved in the Seattle protests of the WTO, and recorded a music EP under the moniker "No WTO Combo" with Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana). At a past spoken word show, Jello said, "One of the worst forms of censorship is what people are not being told." His live performances take that idea head-on, with Biafra weighing in on the entire spectrum of social, political, and artistic topics.
