h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A623684

Excellent Entry Loved it. Should have no problems with Peer Review (IMHO ). If it hadn't just entered PR I would pick it now, but it has to wait a week before it can be chosen Meanwhile I am gonna have to dig out all the old DK albums now Good work Kheldar Until later.....
BCNU - Crescent

Glad you liked it . Wasn't sure about the grammar and all that, but thanks to Shazz, most of that is corrected now

I agree completely... and would also pick it now (as I'm on the hunt for one more) but it is a bit too fresh.... DOH! I think I'll record FFfRV to the hard drive now so it can be added to my daily play list...

I must say that Frankenchrist is my personal favourite...

Excellent stuff. I haven't really heard the DKs, but I recently saw Jello do his spoken word thing at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. I wanted to buy a couple of albums, but I now know that he won't receive any royalties. So, I'm going to get them through, er, 'alternative methods', and donate to his appeal fund instead

The Spoken Word Albums have nothing to do with the lawsuit. It's just the DK albums, and not even all of them. Fresh Fruit is still available on Alternative Tentacles. The rest is not anymore. The rights to the SP-albums are all owned by Biafra too

It was the DK albums I meant. I don't know about getting the Spoken Word albums, though - I heard an excerpt on the AT website, and I was put off by the whooping Americans that responded in what seemed like writhing ecstacy to every statement

It's about the text, not about the background sounds . After a while you won't even hear those cheerings anymore

An excellent, thoroughly well-informed entry, Kheldar. I've got all the DK LPs but the spoken word albums are ones that I keep meaning to buy, but as yet haven't. You may just have inspired me to go spending.

I was actually thinking about doing a DK entry but as you are obviously so well informed about Jello I'll leave it up to you. If you don't fancy having a go then let me know and I might give it a crack, or if you fancy collaborating on it then let me know (perhaps I could do the music bit and you could take care of all the other interesting stuff, of which there is lots.)

There's one tale about Jello that you have omitted but I don't properly recall - something to do with an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show alongside Tippa Gore, where he completely blew away her arguments and basically won the support of the entire audience (at least that's how I heard it described at the time.) I'll try to find out more about it but if you already know then please refresh my memory, even if you don't include it.

Anyhow, like I said at the start, an excellent entry. If I were a scout I would pick it now for immediate inclusion, but I'm not.

As far as I can recall, she had said that she had had nothing to do with the raid on Biafra's home. But, in an interview with a newspaper, she said she'd like to 'take credit for it'. Biafra produced the interview on TV.

It was pretty dumb to pick someone like Biafra as a showcase for the 'crackdown on obscenity', when he seems pretty intelligent and aware. Surely there were other, dumber targets? But, as I say, I'm unfamiliar with the music - I only know of him through his spoken word. Maybe they assumed Punk=Stupid. Looking at the bands who claim to be punk today, like Blink 182, and Alien Ant Farm, it could be an easy mistake to make. But the politics of the DKs surely marked them as different from the shouty morons?

BTW, I have heard some of the Mojo Nixon stuff, and it's excellent and very funny. Especially the song 'Love me, I'm a Liberal'

I haven't heard the Mojo Nixon 'Love Me, I'm a Liberal', but suspect that it's a cover of the Phil Ochs song of the same title.

References in the first verse to Medgar Evers, Mr. Kennedy and Malcolm X?

NBY

I couldn't swear to this, but I think the Biafra/Nixon version of 'Love Me, I'm A Liberal' was an update of the Phil Ochs song, with some revised lyrics. They did a lot of that sort of thing - for instance, rewriting 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken?' as a pro-choice anthem called 'Will The Fetus Be Aborted?'

Great Entry, BTW! One minor point - I believe that Biafra's 'distributing harmful matter' bust was specifically focused on the Giger print included with 'Frankenchrist', rather than on the album itself. The Giger artwork in question was called 'Penis Landscape', a title which offers some clues as to why some people may have objected to it! I think may have been a photomontage rather than a painting, so it might be safer to call it a print and not a painting.

Speaking of interesting titles, even though asterisks would have to be employed, you could mention that the DKs had a UK Top 40 single in 1981 with 'Too Drunk To F**k'. Or 'A record by a group who choose to call themselves The Dead Kennedys', as I remember it being called during the BBC Radio 1 chart rundown...

A great article. Thanks, I've learnt a lot from it. Years ago the DKs were one of my favourite bands, even now I occasionally stick on "Kill The Poor" and reminisce about the days I though I was a revolutionary. Its nice to know that Jello still is one

BTW a fact that might be worthy of a footnote. Giger as well as doing the "penislandscape" picture is also the designer of the monster and its world in the Alien films.

Thanks all ! I'll make a few additions to the article then

Modifications made...anyone care to check up on them ?

This is a truly excellent Entry, Kheldar!

The only things I can see that are wrong are a couple of minor spelling points: San Francisco is spelt 'San Fransisco' in the fourth paragraph of the 'Biafra and Punk Rock' section, and Al Jourgensen's name is spelt ending in '-on' in the bit where you talk about Lard. But my Dutch spelling isn't too hot, so I'll let you off!

It might also be worth mentioning that Al was fairly famous in his own right as the main man in Ministry. He was better known than Jello at the time they got together in Lard.

A quick suggestion (feel free to ignore).
You could link to the AT website, and the indymedia website - there's a link to the indymedia centre on my user page.

Good idea, DG - and if you go to my Music Website Jukebox page on http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A242245 , there are links to the Alternative Tentacles website pages for both Biafra and the Dead Kennedys.

One more thing - even if they have now become evil money-chasing sellouts, I think the other DKs should at least be named in the Entry. You have mentioned East Bay Ray, but not that he was the guitarist, or that his real name was Ray Glasser. The bassist called himself Klaus Flouride. The original drummer was Bruce 'Ted' Slesinger, who was replaced by Darren Peligro in time for the 1982 album 'Plastic Surgery Disasters'.

OK, thanx for the input there . I had to make a few choices what to put in and what not, so it can very well be that I missed out on a few things that should've been there. I am indeed aware of the mentioned facts, so if it will make the entry look better, I will put them in. Thanks again