Jello Biafra

from wikipedia.com:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jello_Biafra

"In April of the same year, police officers raided his house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC).[11] In June of 1986, Biafra was brought to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful matter" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist.[12] In actuality, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather a print of a poster included with the album, Landscape #XX (also known as Penis Landscape), by Swiss surreal artist H. R. Giger. Biafra believes the trial was politically motivated; it was often reported that the PMRC took Biafra to court as a cost effective way of sending a message out to other musicians who have "offensive" content in their music[13]. Music author Rebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle."[14] Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2000 fine, Biafra founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit made up of several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a district attorney motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances. His early spoken word albums focused heavily on the trial (especially in High Priest of Harmful Matter), which made him renowned for his anti-censorship stance."

I was a big DK fan back in the day. I saw Jello live on one of his first big spoken word tours in the 80's at the university in Albany, NY that I attended, and he did talk a lot about the trial. Jello got most of the glory but East Bay Ray's surf-guitar-crossed-with-punk-rock sound was really unique and made a great soundtrack for Jello's over-the-top vocals of riteous indignation.

I read in Rolling Stone or Alternative Press recently that East Bay Ray is suing Jello for some of the money the DK's made. Seems that Jello may be just another slimey capitalist beneath the preachy punk exterior.

Plastic Surgery Disasters is still a great record though.

He did sue, along with Klaus Fluoride and DH Peligro, and won. The band has since reformed using for a while as vocalist Brandon Cruz, formerly of the band Dr. Know and was also Eddie on the TV series "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." They have since replaced him with a 20-something-ish guy who goes by the name Jeff Penalty. Seen them play in Chicago almost exactly a year ago(never had the opportunity to see them in their prime, too young) with the later singer, and the band still has it(although no new material, which could be looked at as a drawback or a positive, depending on your point of view). The singer was the target for plenty of beer cans, trays of nachos and cheese, etc. for the first few songs of the set(looked like it happens quite frequently, due to the way he dodged the bulk of them), but later seemed to warm up to the guy(either that, or they seen that the throwing of garbage at him was not fazing him in the least).