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You can’t spell "Dead Kennedys" without J-E-L-L-O. You may be surprised to find out that after suing Jello Biafra for negligence in promoting the Dead Kennendys catalog, members of the band have gained control of the name and catalog, and are currently promoting a tour as "The Dead Kennedys". Have they buried the hatchet? Not a chance. Filling in Jello’s shoes is Brandon Cruz, AKA Eddie Corbett from The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Brandon’s no stranger to punk, having sang in the band Dr. Know during the 80’s. I’ve got nothing against (or for) them, but at best, Brandon’s still a "scab singer" in Jello’s eyes and mine as well. The Fake Dead Kennedys have reportedly resorted to 10k advances from clubs before letting them know that Jello wasn’t included. Rumor has it that tickets have been sold using old promo shots featuring Jello. Add to that the less than stellar fan reviews featuring crib sheets and mediocre performances. It stinks. Jello has called them "The world’s greediest karaoke band" and not without good reason. Say what you want about the lawsuits, but you can’t have a reunion tour without the main lyrical force behind the band. Greed is the only explanation. It can’t be for the love of the music and certainly not the message. The band broke up during the Frankenchrist obscenity lawsuit, leaving Jello to bear the brunt of legal, financial and moral burdens. The whole thing was supposedly started after an accounting error was found in royalty payments made to the band as a whole, including Jello. All debts were paid around the time that Jello refused to allow Holliday in Cambodia to be used in a Levi’s commercial. Next thing you know, the band members are charging Jello with mismanaging the back catalog and bringing him to court. There’s not much that can be said about the lawsuit that members of the Dead Kennedys brought against Jello Biafra that hasn’t been said already. That’s not going to stop me from rehashing it. The band brought in high-powered entertainment attorneys and other expert witnesses to attest that Jello should have been taking out ads in Billboard and making videos for VH1. This came from someone associated with the Grateful Dead camp. B and C list bands reunite all the time. They tour with new singers, drummers etc. The Buzzcocks new line up has been together longer than the original, but that’s ok since they continue to make quality music and stay true to their roots, that’s if you don’t count the Toyota commercial. The Dead Kennedys were one of the few remaining bands that old-timers could count on. Boycott the fake Dead Kennedys. Don’t give your money to them. Sue him for royalties if you think he owes you, but don’t tarnish the name of the band. It’s ironic that a name as loaded as the Dead Kennedys can be tarnished, but it can. Jello wants you to boycott the rereleases too. That’s a hard call to make. He gets royalties from the new releases, but not until he pays back the $200,000 that he owes according to the settlement. They have been remastered, potentially removing what once was the only weak link in the DK’s legacy. The studio recordings were great in that they were cheap and brought the music to the masses, but they ultimately detracted from the potential sonic impact of the songs. As a fan, I’m ravenous for any recordings that might have better sound quality. Jello’s word is that the artwork is shoddy and the songwriting credits have been changed. Bottom line is that the remastered recordings would have to be pretty good in order to justify the dirty feeling that I’d have after walking away from the counter with them. Old copies of the Alternative Tentacles releases are going to be hard to come by since Jello had to fork over all the back stock as part of the agreement. Jello has promised an appeal, and it’s going to cost him. If you’re familiar with the drill, there’s another legal defense fund set up. Don't worry if you can’t give a lot. Jello claims the bulk of the donations during the Frankenchrist debacle came from people stuffing a couple singles or a fiver in an envelope. Do you feel the need to draw your own conclusions? I think you should. I have compiled a list of some links from both sides.
The Alternative Tentacles legal defense fund and appeal news. Chart Attack. http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2001/01/2202.cfm Anarchy for sale: Dead Kennedys v Jello Biafra & ATR A fairly unbiased summary of events followed by a lot of good web links to other articles and related links, many of which were borrowed for this page. http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id398/pg1 Ex-Dead Kennedys vs Jello Biafra V. Vale from ReSearch offers up his opinions. http://www.vsearchmedia.com/latest/biafeat.shtml Dead Kennedys Resurrect Get the straight media’s take on the situation from ABC News The Dead Kennedys News web site Uh, for some reason there is a seperate web site devoted to news, and run by the band. It refutes Jellos claims point by point and has other articles as well. The Official Dead Kennedys Web Site. Also run by the ex-Dead Kennedys, this site maintains a purely non-confrontational attitude towards Jello, as if nothing ever happened. I guess they don’t want to disrupt the bottom line. Jello even gets top billing on the band member’s bio page. It’s like they ‘re saying "See! We’re one big happy family, we never meant him any harm." Funny thing, they give more information about Brandon and the others then they do about Jello, and he’s been the most active out of all of them. As a whole, the web site is pretty disappointing. The pictures aren’t captioned and information is sparse. All they can tell you about one-time band member 6025 is one sentence that says he "has unfortunately been suffering from a disability since the early '80s." If you’re curious, there are pictures of the scab. Showdown at the DK corral. Short and to the point. Pro Jello. Nice illustration. The Rape of Jello Biafra Well, you pretty much get the point from the title. http://www.proj-ex.net/article1068.html Interview with Jello Biafra A fairly lengthy interview with Jello about all sorts of things. http://www.yankthechain.com/jello.html
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