"It's likely that, if asked, the band will attribute my departure to scheduling conflicts brought about by my documentary work, but in reality it's a tediously long story involving personality conflicts, creative differences, arguments about splitting money equally, arguments about how the band should be run, arguments about the wisdom of hiring a band manager whose other star client was a Christian folk artist, arguments about whether we should or shouldn't go on MTV, and arguments about many other wretched things." --Jeff Penalty, hopefully the last singer of the remnants of the Dead Kennedys. (World Entertainment News Network, 03.22.2008)'Frisco (that's right, San Fran)--Give it up, quit, retire, it's over, go away, stop. You're Van Halen. Jello Biafra is an asshole, but these guys really live-down to his own descriptions of their real reasons for the legendary civil trial. What was the suit over? The rights to the name and the music of the band, and royalties they claimed Biafra hadn't paid them. Outside of the residuals owed, the rest was unadulterated greed. Now former singer Jeff Penalty was with them for a whopping five-years. Biafra fronted them from 1978-1987, with a split brought-on by constant police harassment and internal-struggles like in the above quote. If you ever felt jealous of your the idols, this is a refreshing reminder that success isn't always what you think it is. Some people have an extraordinary knack for blowing it.
This whole saga began in 2000 when the other Dead Kennedys won the lawsuit against Biafra (I sold all of the copies of their discography at that time). The first thing they did was to re-release the catalog in what can only be described as un-remastered versions with shoddy second-generation copies of the artwork and audio. Then came the tours and merchandising. Some twerp I know even suggested to me during some of this that the Dead Kennedys were better without Jello, a patently absurd notion that deserves no further comment. Did Jello rip-off the others when he held the catalog? I believe the answer is a qualified "yes." He did, but these creeps are far worse, and it's finally showing.
Granted, things went to Jello's head after the break-up of the Dead Kennedys, and his arrogance was palpable at his lectures during the 1990s--something I and thousands can attest to. My own brother saw the incident where he was beaten-up, and I can attest that it was earned. But what did we expect? Punk is about rudeness and shaking people up. The albums are there forever as a document. What these clowns did afterwards is unimportant.
This story has been over since the late-1980s when the band was on trial for obscenity, having the temerity to publish a poster of artwork by Swiss Surrealist H.R. Giger, enclosed with their 1985 opus "Frankenchrist." Look at Jeff Penalty's comments on the rest of the Dead Kennedys, and compare it alongside the previous comments of Jello Biafra. It all sounds the same, doesn't it? That's because they're telling the same story, the same facts about a group of washed-up rock-n'-rollers. At least Jello isn't pretending anymore.
"At least Jello isn't pretending anymore"....
ReplyDeleteUnless you count the two albums he did in 2006 and 2007 with the Melvins, the work he is still doing with Al Jourgensen of Ministry fame, etc., etc., etc.
Good posts you have but when it comes to music, especially punk rock, don't count the old guys out. I just went to see Tesco Vee of the Meatmen and White Flag just last weekend. He's got a new album with a new lineup coming very soon. Granted it was a bit sad (I have a problem with old men in their late 50's fondling themselves in public. not out of sense of decency or anything like that, just don't really care to see it. also couldn't really take a guy seriously who excused Screwdriver for being a WP band just because they wrote some "really rockin' tunes"), though he could still put on a great show
And is any more really one word? Just asking.
I disagree about the projects that Jello has been involved in. They're not great as far as the Ministry-based ones, but I thought the Melvins collaboration was good.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on the artists--as for the DK's, it obvious that it's just a money-grab without any real substance. Of course, you could say that about the Sex Pistols, but they never got paid in-the-beginning. Did Jello rip-them-off? The answer is likely "yes."
I never liked the bands you mention. My tastes are more in the realm of Psychic TV, Coil, Wire, PiL, Killing Joke-postpunk was far-and-away the best byproduct of punk, as well as the DIY ethic and the distro networks it inspired. Most of that is over now, but the Internet has filled-the-gap.
Frankly, I think the most exciting thing in the last few years is the regrouping of Throbbing Gristle...
"Anymore"? Who cares? This isn't a dissertation. Just telling...
I'm a fan of all the bands you mentioned, but not so much into old bands getting back together, even if it is TG. I just feel there is a time and place for everything, and their time is past. Not that they shouldn't continue to produce more art, it's just that for me reunion tours are for geriatric dinosaurs like The Who or The Rolling Stones. Both good bands, just kind of embarrassing to see 55+ year old men poncing around on stage like they were in their 20's again.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what was my point? Oh yeah, just hassling you on the "anymore" bit. Keep up the good work. Too bad about Paul Raven giving up the ghost, but all good things must come to an end. I was looking forward to seeing him on the C U La Tour with Ministry, but at least he left some good stuff behind before he passed.
Oh yeah, don't know if you are a fan, but the new issue of Maximum Rock n Roll is a special 30th anniversary of the last Sex Pistols show in San Fran. Apparently Jello, Thurston Moore, Rollins, and other punk luminaries have write ups about what the Pistols, and their last gig, meant to them. Or something.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree about TG, and their reasons for breaking-up back in 1981 come down to this: Genesis wanted to have Cosey as his lady, but she chose Chris Carter. Now that so many years have passed, I don't really see any reason why not, they were never really rock-n'-roll anyway. Also, I don't see any real end-point with Industrial, if that's what you want to call it.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that youth culture as the predominant-trend is ending because the demographics are changing to an older society, specifically America.
As for reunions, it's a mixed bag, obviously. If you were in a youth-oriented group or movement, yes, it looks a bit silly to be up there at 55 screaming as though you were 23. It depends on the artists, the music, and the forces that created it all. The trends that caused TG to coalesce seem well-in-place to me, certainly not anyone in punk, which has a pretty clean ending-point: 1978.
After that, it's akin to an American Civil War reenactment as a "movement." TG was their own deal, even with SPK, Coil, Monte Cazazza, NON, and all the rest. Many of them weren't even aware of each other's existence. Much of that came later through dissemination. Word-up!
Paul Raven: He was interesting as a bassist. A PiL reunion with Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, and maybe even Martin Atkins or an earlier drummer would be good. I look at a number of the groups I named as being outside of genres and almost outside of the cultural-flow, timeless, at least at their best. Punk was great, but it ended really fast, you could barely catch it.
Scenes end very quickly, their lifespan is rarely more than 2-3 years. The bands who are too tied to them are the ones that usually shouldn't reunite. It's complicated, no absolutes here.
Sex Pistols: I would be interested to read that. It amazes me that Maximumrocknroll still exists. By the time the Pistols did that show in 'Frisco, punk was essentially over, it had self-destructed. The rest was basically pantomime, but there were a few high-points with hardcore, but it was still aping punk.
ReplyDeleteIt also all depends on where you think punk originated--the band Suicide was putting-up fliers for some of their tiny-gigs in 1971-72 calling themselves "punk," and then you have the MC5 and the Stooges in the 1960s and early-1970s, and that first Ramones LP in 1974, which nearly EVERY punker in the UK had before places like the 100 Club and all the fun at McClaren's SEX shop on King's Road, all the rest.
My take is that things coalesce because of complex social forces, but it's hard to say if people are going to go back to making their own original musics again, including the distro of it, rather than aping the last material.
That said, it's very hard to really do something totally original nowadays, you have to hybrid things, which most people have a problem with due to their own issues with conformism and orthodox-thinking. But you see someone break-out occasionally, even in the mainstream.