Dead Kennedys: Political Punks
Created | Updated Jun 16, 2004
The Dead Kennedys, formed in 1978 and lasted until 1986, lived a life of controversy and influenced many current day Punk bands. With Jello Biafra on Vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, drumming lead originally by Ted, then D.H Peligro took over. Klaus Flouride was the only bass player and a mysterious mentally unstable "6025" was the 2nd guitarist in their opening year or two.
1978. Easy Bay Ray put an ad in the local paper. he wanted to form a band, Jello Biafra responded and the formed the Dead Kennedys.In July of 1978, when Punk Rock was becoming more and more popular in the masses, the Dead Kennedys played their first gig after a few short practices. This historic gig was at the Mabuhay Gardens, often called The "Fab Mab" was located in San Francisco's North Beach area, which many Punk bands had been emerging from for nearly 10 years. After a short time the Dead Kennedys were becoming known as 'the' live act to see in the San Francisco area. They were described as a The Sex Pistols cross with the Ventures. It goes without saying that their shows would have been electric
After a year of doing nothing but Live shows and earning a high Political Punk reputation, the DKs released their first single to much acclain in the Punk world. California Über Alles left the Punk world stunned and wanting more. Thankfuly Biafra and the gang (now without 6025) delivered a "long drawn out epic"1 known as Holliday in Cambodia and remains one of the bands best songs of all time. It wasn't long until their first album Fresh Fruit for rotting Vegetables was realesed in 1980. This had classic songs on it Kill The Poor, Too Drunk to F**k and Let's lynch the Land lord, and naturally, the 2 singles were on it also.
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1Quote from Jello Biafra
