2/17/2024 0 Comments Terminal city ricochet quotesThe Last Temptation of Reid, an excellent full-length album (with no duplication from the single), standardizes the concept, resolving itself into a more-or-less even blend of the Dead Kennedys and Ministry. A casual and exciting bit of supergrouping, The Power of Lard (a three-song 12-inch) demonstrates the fun potential in this seemingly unlikely alliance. That gets matched up to pounding, semi-industrialized rock by Ministry guitarist Al Jourgensen, bassist Paul Barker and drummer Jeff Ward. To Lard, one of his continuing side projects, Biafra contributes a voice, label and sense of humor. Other than its daunting length, the set’s major flaw is the cloddish editing, which inserts brief, jarringly different-sounding bits. In addition, Biafra offers a serio-comic wish list for the future and a resonantly entertaining news-driven reminiscence of his curious childhood. Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police, arising from several 1994 appearances, fills an attention-testing three CDs with further lectures on (no points for this one) censorship, retailers’ suppression, anti-gay amendments and the like. Good, angry fun, dripping sarcasm through a sharpened point. On I Blow Minds for a Living, recorded on tour in late ’90 and early ’91, he rants merrily about then-president George Bush, censorship, petroleum politics and the Gulf War, censorship, his actual mayoral campaign, censorship, pot, censorship and another one of his favorite topics, censorship. In addition to a typically intelligent and amusing 1988 lecture on the general topic of contemporary censorship, Biafra offers an absurdist post-mortem and detailed account of the events that began on April 15, 1986, when police raided his San Francisco apartment. Giger artwork reproduced and included in the DKs’ Frankenchrist), Biafra spewed out two-disc High Priest of Harmful Matter. Following his 1987 acquittal for “distribution of harmful matter to minors” (a case resulting from a piece of H.R. Those old enough to remember Lenny Bruce or even Mort Sahl in his prime may consider this topical comedy in the grand tradition younger listeners may find it a fruitful inkling of what Biafra was singing about in the DKs.Īs someone whose outspoken opinions and actions are enough to bring down the legal wrath of the land’s moral guardians, it’s convenient that Biafra owns an independent label on which to rebut his accusers. Biafra applies his acerbic wit, endless outrage, abundant intelligence and theatricality to a variety of concerns, making the record highly worthwhile and grimly amusing. Biafra has found his ideal medium here, and this is as sharp, funny and informative as any Dead Kennedys record. The political satire of No More Cocoons was recorded at college appearances, radio interviews and readings. (The subsequent legal debacle with his former bandmates is another matter.) Until he was set upon by skinheads and seriously injured in the fabled East Bay 924 Gilman club in May ’94, the often-embattled Biafra was busily and enthusiastically proving that even old punks can change their musical stripes without endangering their synergistic sense of humor and outrage. Since the shuttering of San Franciscan political punk provocateurs Dead Kennedys in the late ’80s, Jello Biafra (the onetime Eric Boucher of Boulder, Colorado) has continued to ply his prankster-cum-missionary trade with spoken-word records and numerous intriguing musical collaborations. Terminal City Ricochet (Alternative Tentacles) 1989.Prairie Home Invasion (Alternative Tentacles) 1994.Will the Fetus Be Aborted? EP (Alternative Tentacles) 1993.Jello Biafra With Plainfield EP (Alternative Tentacles) 1993.Tumor Circus (Alternative Tentacles) 1991.The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy (Alternative Tentacles) 1991.Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors (Alternative Tentacles) 1990.Pure Chewing Satisfaction (Alternative Tentacles) 1997.The Last Temptation of Reid (Alternative Tentacles) 1990. The Power of Lard EP (Alternative Tentacles) 1988.The Witch Trials EP (Subterranean/Alternative Tentacles) 1981.The Big Ka-Boom Part One (Alternative Tentacles) 2002.Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand (Alternative Tentacles) 2002.Become the Media (Alternative Tentacles) 2001.If Evolution Is Allowed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve (Alternative Tentacles) 1998.Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police (Alternative Tentacles) 1994. I Blow Minds for a Living (Alternative Tentacles) 1991.High Priest of Harmful Matter Tales From the Trial (Alternative Tentacles) 1989.No More Cocoons (Alternative Tentacles) 1987.
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