DEAD KENNEDYS from SV #15, Spring '85
What a night... Lupo's (in Providence) packed like a can of sardines, drummer Darren MIA somewhere in New York until showing up halfway through the set and, in the dressing room, the inimitable Jello Biafra holding court for the media assemblage. So, dispensing with the big intros, here's the sharp and sarcastic, ever-so-accurate wit and wisdom of the DK's vocalist...SV: Why didn't you play Boston this time?
Jello: It just didn't work out. We were talking to a couple of people and thought we had a show at one time and, then, it didn't work out. It was obvious that the attitude of the Channel hadn't really changed and Ray, for example, didn't even want to set foot in there for any reason after what happened the last time. I was willing to give it another try if there was a way to work it out but it just didn't work out. It was one of those things.
SV: What have you been doing the last 2 years?
Jello: Well, we mostly toured and toured in '83, which made us acquire the road band syndrome and it started to become a clock-punching affair that could've gone on forever, but somebody had to cry wolf, so I did and then Faulty Products, who manufactured and distributed Alternative Tentacles records folded and took our money with them, so we had no money, no label, just nothing basically. So we had to put a lot of time into rebuilding ourselves and rebuilding the label as a totally independent entity.
SV: Do you have any new records coming out soon?
Jello: The band wants one out in the fall. I want one out as soon as we've learned all the good songs that should go on it. We have enough for a half-assed album now, but we're capable of a killer one, rather than a step sideways, so we've got a lot of work to do.
SV: How do you react to people that put down "preachy" bands like you guys or MDC?
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| PHOTO: TIM TONOOKA |
SV: You were talking about the flag creeping into the punk scene and all that. What do you think the future of the punk scene is, at this point? Do you still have faith in it?
Jello: I don't think it's a sacred cow that's about criticism. I think that's been one of the achilles heels is that it's been unable to criticize itself. Gossip, yes, but criticize, no. What's undermined the so-called scene even more than drug abuse is just outright liars and scammers who use it as a vehicle to get what they, themselves, want. I think the real test of the integrity of punk and hardcore will be what the people are up 5 years from now. Will they be going off to yuppieville and getting jobs, will they all be pushing the cock-rock side of metal that smells just as bad as it ever did. I mean, I like some of the newer metal bands, but I don't really welcome the attitude coming back at all. That was partly what punk was supposed to rise above.
SV: And you think that attitude has crept back into the punk scene with cock-rock and the idiotic lyrics?
Jello: Oh, yeah, the pandering to MTV and whatnot.
SV: Weren't you guys on MTV's "The Cutting Edge"?
Jello: That was shot in 1980, before "Fresh Fruit" even came out. You'll notice our old drummer was in there, too. We wanted to put those out as a live EP, but they now claim they lost the master tape to "Bleed For Me," even though it's in the "Ug--A Music Bore" movie. The other things that they've shown on there are outtakes from "Urgh." That's how old they are.
SV: Would you guys ever make a video for MTV?
Jello: Fuck, no! Let's put it this way. Not everybody agrees with me on that. Klaus likes television. He watches MTV. He thinks we should be on there sometimes. My attitude is if we ever run across a video artist whose mind is as warped as mine or Winston Smith's, that we can trust, artistically, fine, let's shake things up. But we haven't run across anybody like that, yet. I think MTV videos are the worst thing to happen to music since "Saturday Night Fever." I think that if we must have rock video, it might as well be one of two forms--either like the very early showings of the ABC series "In Concert," where they went into a neutral venue and shot bands totally in the raw, live. That inspired me a lot. At the time, I decided there was nothing I'd like more than to become Alice Cooper. Or, you can just let the music be a soundtrick to a short film. Take the band out of the picture. Nothing more stupid than lipsynching. I will not lip-synch. Overall, we're really reluctant to do anything with video because it'll just encourage people to watch TV.
SV: Do you think things like the War-Chest Tour or Rock Against Reagan are going to have any lasting effects?
Jello: I think the effect it's had has been mainly on other artists who either were involved or attended the shows and it gave them a little more of an outlook and maybe a little more feeling with what to do with their own work. I think the most that could be hoped for something like that is to inspire other people to get off their ass and keep it going themselves.
SV: Do you think it's been successful in that way at all?
Jello: A bit. Unfortunately, Americans never really do much of anything until their back is against the wall, like never building a navy until Pearl Haror got bombed, never trying to put a stop to the Vietnam War until after their friend next door came home wrapped in a Hefty corpse bag.
SV: And there are still people that defend the Vietnam War. There are still people out there saying, "we were right" and all that.
Jello: Most of them don't have any real recollection of it. It amazes me how successful our school system has been in erasing people's memories of anything that was real in their childhood. I'm 26 now and even most people my age have no tangilbe recollection of the Vietnam War and I have very graphic recollections of that. Not even Watergate, either, and they say, "Well, I don't remember anything from that period." That's bullshit. They can recall lots of television commercials from the late 60s but they don't remember a thing about the Vietnam War. That shows what happens when your parents attitudes form in the Eisenhower era and they blindfold their kids.
SV: Do you somehow see it coming to the point where it's recorded in the history books that we were right to go over there?
Jello: Absolutely not. I think America's going to smell real bad in the history books, like Ghengis and Kubla Khan did, or what Rome turned into. It's going to be the same thing that America turns into. I can just imagine archaeologists digging up Disney World and figuring that it was some kind of religious mosque or something. They'll either laugh or cry, but they sure aren't going to be very astounded.
(Someone brings up MTV again)
Jello: All MTV has done is redefine the middle of the road. Instead of The Carpenters, we get Culture Club. The first time I ever heard Culture Club, I thought it was The Carpenters. I mean, there's so many interesting records in the world to listen to. Why depend on bad radio to supply you with swill. I've never heard Duran Duran in my life, I've never heard Madonna. I'm very proud of all this, too. TV is just like school or church. It's designed to make people dumber than they already are.
SV: Don't you think there could be some sort of progressive TV station?
Jello: You'd have to have the antenna in Mexico to avoid the FCC banning the whole thing. If any video every captured where Dead Kennedys was coming from, MTV wouldn't show it. Another point to be made on that is if we wound up on MTV, that means MTV-idiots would start turning up in droves at the shows and I'd really rather not play to them, not on their terms, anyway. Anybody's welcome to come if they want to, but I don't want to pander to a commercial rock or cock-rock level to get a point across because stooping to that level erases the point to begin with...
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