emma_goldman
31st October 2006, 10:45
http://www.canada. com/ottawacitize n/story.html? id=c47ad372- c21d-4cbc- 9bfa-f569bcd4a79 6&k=56161
Punk rocker Jello Biafra is nothing if not engaging.
by Mike Devlin
The Victoria Times Colonist
Monday, October 30, 2006
Jello Biafra sharpens razor wit in spoken word shtick. 668
words with 138-word optional end
VICTORIA -- One doesn't interview Jello Biafra. One sits and
listens while the former Dead Kennedys frontman fills the
air with hyperbole. Prodding him to talk is unnecessary. A
simple hello is enough to propel Biafra on a 20-minute
tirade. Even his answering machine rants for a whopping one
minute and 15 seconds.
To those familiar with the North American punk-rock scene
fixture, reports of Biafra running off at the mouth are
nothing new. For the past 20 years, the man born Eric
Boucher has made his living largely as a spoken-word
performer. Which is not altogether surprising: Biafra, 48,
has never been short on ideas.
His early work with the Dead Kennedys, which disbanded in
1986 following an obscenity trial, was some of the wittiest
and most thought-provoking in punk. California Uber Alles,
Holiday in Cambodia, Let's Lynch the Landlord and Police
Truck are riveting examples of Biafra's
torn-from-the- headlines songwriting style, firmly rooted in
Reagan-era politics and delivered with a forked-tongue zip.
At the moment, Biafra -- a Green party supporter who
finished fourth in his 1979 run for mayor of San Francisco
-- talks at a slower clip, but his razor wit remains focused
on a U.S. president.
Biafra is currently on the road to promote his latest
release, In the Grip of Official Treason, a massive three-CD
spoken-word set that takes more than a few shots at the U.S.
government. Much like the seven releases that preceded it,
In the Grip of Official Treason is overbearing and overlong,
but relentlessly entertaining. Biafra is nothing if not
engaging.
"I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Canada or your
lovely new prime minister, but I do have a few things to
offer," Biafra says from his home in San Francisco.
"Take heart in the fact that the last two Conservative
governments in Canada crashed and burned spectacularly. Then
again, maybe they've taken more lessons from right-wing
Christian supremacists and people who know how to engage in
some serious election fraud, like down here in the States."
Welcome to Biafra's world, where everyone is evil and only
one person is right: him.
He's full of insight, into his own life and those of
government officials; but to some, his shtick is plagued by
outlandish allegations that stand on shaky factual footing.
"Whatever finds me finds me, and I try to make sure it's
true, or go by my gut feeling," he says. "In the end, we all
believe what we want to believe."
To fill the four-hour running time, Biafra spends weeks
preparing material for his spoken-word concerts. His
newsgathering is done via a number of sources -- he won't
reveal which ones -- but rest assured, none are the
mainstream media outlets he so often criticizes.
"It's the same with becoming depressed about how corporate
punk has become. You can either let it get you down or just
pull the plug on the mainstream and go on with your life. I
decided around age 13 that mainstream pop culture was not
important to me. There was too much good in the world to
waste my time keeping up with the bad stuff."
Fans of Biafra's from the Dead Kennedy days have seen and
heard a lot of bad in recent years, he says.
In 1998, his ex-bandmates in the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra
and his label, Alternative Tentacles, which owns the rights
to the band's recordings, for unpaid royalties. Biafra
denies the claims, despite the fact a jury ordered Biafra to
pay $200,000 to the band.
Adding further insult to injury, the band is touring and
recording as the Dead Kennedys -- without Biafra, its
primary songwriter, leader and singer.
"All I mean to them is money," he says, seething. "They are
very open that their sole motive is money, and as long as
their lives revolve around the worship of money, as far as
I'm concerned they despise everything the band ever stood
for and have completely ruined the Dead Kennedys."
Punk rocker Jello Biafra is nothing if not engaging.
by Mike Devlin
The Victoria Times Colonist
Monday, October 30, 2006
Jello Biafra sharpens razor wit in spoken word shtick. 668
words with 138-word optional end
VICTORIA -- One doesn't interview Jello Biafra. One sits and
listens while the former Dead Kennedys frontman fills the
air with hyperbole. Prodding him to talk is unnecessary. A
simple hello is enough to propel Biafra on a 20-minute
tirade. Even his answering machine rants for a whopping one
minute and 15 seconds.
To those familiar with the North American punk-rock scene
fixture, reports of Biafra running off at the mouth are
nothing new. For the past 20 years, the man born Eric
Boucher has made his living largely as a spoken-word
performer. Which is not altogether surprising: Biafra, 48,
has never been short on ideas.
His early work with the Dead Kennedys, which disbanded in
1986 following an obscenity trial, was some of the wittiest
and most thought-provoking in punk. California Uber Alles,
Holiday in Cambodia, Let's Lynch the Landlord and Police
Truck are riveting examples of Biafra's
torn-from-the- headlines songwriting style, firmly rooted in
Reagan-era politics and delivered with a forked-tongue zip.
At the moment, Biafra -- a Green party supporter who
finished fourth in his 1979 run for mayor of San Francisco
-- talks at a slower clip, but his razor wit remains focused
on a U.S. president.
Biafra is currently on the road to promote his latest
release, In the Grip of Official Treason, a massive three-CD
spoken-word set that takes more than a few shots at the U.S.
government. Much like the seven releases that preceded it,
In the Grip of Official Treason is overbearing and overlong,
but relentlessly entertaining. Biafra is nothing if not
engaging.
"I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Canada or your
lovely new prime minister, but I do have a few things to
offer," Biafra says from his home in San Francisco.
"Take heart in the fact that the last two Conservative
governments in Canada crashed and burned spectacularly. Then
again, maybe they've taken more lessons from right-wing
Christian supremacists and people who know how to engage in
some serious election fraud, like down here in the States."
Welcome to Biafra's world, where everyone is evil and only
one person is right: him.
He's full of insight, into his own life and those of
government officials; but to some, his shtick is plagued by
outlandish allegations that stand on shaky factual footing.
"Whatever finds me finds me, and I try to make sure it's
true, or go by my gut feeling," he says. "In the end, we all
believe what we want to believe."
To fill the four-hour running time, Biafra spends weeks
preparing material for his spoken-word concerts. His
newsgathering is done via a number of sources -- he won't
reveal which ones -- but rest assured, none are the
mainstream media outlets he so often criticizes.
"It's the same with becoming depressed about how corporate
punk has become. You can either let it get you down or just
pull the plug on the mainstream and go on with your life. I
decided around age 13 that mainstream pop culture was not
important to me. There was too much good in the world to
waste my time keeping up with the bad stuff."
Fans of Biafra's from the Dead Kennedy days have seen and
heard a lot of bad in recent years, he says.
In 1998, his ex-bandmates in the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra
and his label, Alternative Tentacles, which owns the rights
to the band's recordings, for unpaid royalties. Biafra
denies the claims, despite the fact a jury ordered Biafra to
pay $200,000 to the band.
Adding further insult to injury, the band is touring and
recording as the Dead Kennedys -- without Biafra, its
primary songwriter, leader and singer.
"All I mean to them is money," he says, seething. "They are
very open that their sole motive is money, and as long as
their lives revolve around the worship of money, as far as
I'm concerned they despise everything the band ever stood
for and have completely ruined the Dead Kennedys."