JELLO BIAFRA: POLITICO-PUNK 62

The politico-punk godfather, Jello Biafra, turned 62 today.
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print

Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys’ lead singer and songwriter & Alternative Tentacles bossman, turned 62 today.

The video here shows Biafra performing the anti-racist anthem “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”, from the album In God We Trust Inc. The concert was the Dead Kennedys’ performance in June 1984 at the On Broadway, a former San Francisco avant-garde theatre and nightclub. Director Dirk Dirksen documents the performances of Klaus Flouride, D.H. Peligro, East Bay Ray, and Jello Biafra. A 58-minute concert—originally released in VHS format in 1985 as Live in San Francisco and later re-released on DVD in 2000 with a different title: DMPO’s on Broadway—was captured in real time using four cameras.

Dead Kennedys, 1986 | Spin

Biafra today focuses primarily on spoken word performances; however, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.

Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States. He ran for the party’s presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979, he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, uses shock value, and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political issues. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.

In the mid-1980s, Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center, which introduced Parental Advisory stickers.

💧 You might also like BIAFRA: NAZI TRUMPS FUCK OFF.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Featured image via Spin.

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print
Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.
Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.

Related

RUDOLF DETHU

Scroll to Top