East Bay Ray is Disingenuous

If you clicked on this article, I assume you know who the Dead Kennedys are.

Jello Biafra was the lead singer.

East Bay Ray was the guitarist.

Klaus Floride was on bass.

DH Peligro was on drums.

I consider the Dead Kennedys as one of my Top 10 Favorite Bands.

I read an article today and it made steam come from my ears.

“It’s not an issue for me or Klaus,” the guitarist insists [Peligro died in 2022]. “It’s Biafra that turns down any offers for us to do something; we don’t have any problem. He got caught with his hands in the till and wants to blame us for getting caught, but he should never have put his hands in there in the first place.....Jello didn’t bring in the songs,” he insists. “I know he’s created the myth that he wrote them all, but the question here is that if he did, why didn’t he ever do anything significant after leaving the band? - Louder Sound

• Not an issue to play Dead Kennedys songs for East Bay or Klaus? That's rich. After the band broke up in 1986, East Bay Ray, Klaus Fluoride, and DH Peligro famously sued Jello Biafra for unpaid royalties, malice, and fraud. Jello lost and the rest of the band wrestled the Dead Kennedys catalog away from him. If you read Jello Biafra's 2001 interview at Pop Matters, I think you'll understand why they aren't getting back together. I 100% guarantee you that if Jello Biafra won that court case, the other 2 (living members) wouldn't play with him today.

• "Why didn't he ever do anything significant after leaving the band?" Really? Alternative Tentacles is one of the oldest independent labels in the United States. The Other Kennedys never cared about the label, they only cared about their band. Jello Biafra nurtured some of my favorite artists, including Alice Donut, Nomeansno, and various Gary Floyd Projects. When it came to actual music, Klaus and East Bay did NOTHING of note. Peligro did make some good music in his brief stints with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and OFF!

  
  

Jello Biafra's discography? Other than Henry Rollins, no rock musician has ever had a better Spoken Word output. Lard was a great band. Jello had GREAT collaborations with the Melvins, Mojo Nixon, and Nomeansno. (I thought the NO WTO Combo kind of sucked.)

Would I like to see the 3 remaining members of the Dead Kennedys play together again? Of course. But if Jello BIafra can't be tempted by large, live festival checks, I don't know how that happens.

When the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over Tour happened, each member freely admitted that they only did it for the money.

According to Google's AI Program: "Jello Biafra was known for his disdain for bands like The Eagles, particularly due to his frustration with bad mellow adult rock radio stations that overplayed them. He considered the Eagles' music to be a betrayal of the punk and politically-charged music scene he was a part of. In his own words, he found such music to be "boring" and would quickly switch it off." 

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Think about the absurdity of an AI program discerning Jello Biafra's thoughts on the Eagles.