History Music / JelloBiafra

* ListSong: Often combined with a TakeThat. From "Yuppie Cadillac":
-->What is it 'bout the Navigator, Escalade, Suburban, Explorer, Yukon
-->That brings out the road rage macho dick in everybody who drives one?
-->Icy curves, slow down; another Pathfinder found its way to hell
-->What a great way to thin the herd
** From "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)":
-->And if our scam works, what a bandwagon it will be
-->Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle in Music/TheMisfits, or [[Creator/MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen Mary-Kate and Ashley]]
-->Gary Coleman in Music/BlackFlag, [[Music/CourtneyLove Courtney]] in Music/{{Nirvana}} at last
-->And Emmanuel Lewis back in action singing for Music/TheGerms
-->When will it end? When people see this for what it is
-->Rock and Roll Swindle [[Music/SexPistols Pistols]] backed a thief
-->So how about Martha Stewart in Music/DeadKennedys?[[note]]The printed lyrics have "Kenny Boy Lay" (referring to the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive disgraced CEO]] of Enron) written instead of Martha Stewart[[/note]]

-->It seems to me that to stay mean, these names should change with time
-->The New York Muggers, Detroit Murders, and Chicago Mob
-->Boston Bigots, Texas Swindlers, and the L.A. Cops
-->Miami Drugs, New Jersey Dumps take on the Denver Smog
-->Seattle Fads, New Orleans Hoods, Milwaukee Cannibals
-->San Diego Jarheads and the Arizona Drought
-->That's mascot mania, mascot mania, uh-huh.

-->Go, Carp, go! Salmonbellies rule!
-->Hit 'em harder Cops! But a hockey team called The Mighty Ducks?
-->Heads explode when Dallas Oswalds meet Washington Bribes
-->Home team band plays Cop Killer when L.A. comes to town
-->Pittsburgh Polluters, Houston Drive-Bys; don't stir near the fear
-->When the Florida Abortion Bombers meet the San Francisco Queers
-->That's mascot mania, mascot mania, uh-huh.

-->Anywhere you go, the game's the same old thing
-->Bet your money on the Bribes; they always win

* 1991 - ''The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy'' (with Music{{Nomeansno}})

While undoubtedly best known as the frontman of HardcorePunk legends Music/DeadKennedys, '''Jello Biafra''' (born Eric Boucher, June 17, 1958) has had quite a career since leaving the band as well. He has amassed quite a large number of spoken-word albums about political activism as well as a large body of recorded music that mostly serves as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to the Kennedys' output. His music recordings, both as collaborations with other artists (D.O.A., Nomeansno, Music/MojoNixon, Music/{{Melvins}}, most of Music/{{Ministry}} as Lard, members of Steel Pole Bath Tub and Grong Grong as Tumor Circus) and with his own band the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have made him a respected elder statesman in the world of punk (a condition he even comments on in the song "Enchanted Thoughtfist"). While his former bandmates from the Kennedys have evolved into the living incarnation of MoneyDearBoy, half-heartedly playing songs "from the good old days about how bad the good old days were", Biafra continues to evolve and to produce some [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic awesome new tunes]].

* 1990 - ''Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors'' (with D.O.A.)
* 1991 - ''The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy'' (with Nomeansno)

** The refrain of "Chew" (from the Nomeansno album) is used again in "Dawn of the Locusts".

* ComicBook/ChickTracts: Referenced by name in "Plague of the Locusts" and "Crapture".

** With D.O.A. he covered Music/TheAnimals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place".

** ''Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors'' has the 13:57 "Full Metal Jackoff".

* MinisculeRocking: Not as often as you'd probably expect given his HardcorePunk roots. His only post-Kennedys track that actually falls under the two-minute limit mentioned in the trope description is the fifty-second-long "Voted Off the Island" from ''Sieg Howdy!''. "Bad" from the Nomeansno collaboration is 2:18, and after that all his other songs are at least two and a half minutes long.

* TitleTrack: Only ''The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy'' and ''White People and the Damage Done'' have them.

* UncommonTime: The verses of "Enchanted Thoughtfist" are in 7/4. "Dawn of the Locusts" has a riff in 13/8. When industrial hip-hop group [[Music/{{Dalek}} dälek]] remixed the latter track, they put a 4/4 drumbeat under the whole song just to make it even more disorienting. Meanwhile, from the Nomeansno collaboration, "Sharks in the Gene Pool" goes through several time signature changes, with one of its riffs in 7/4, and from Lard's ''The Last Temptation of Reid'', "Sylvestre Matruschka" is mostly in 5/4. (The usage of this trope is part of Nomeansno's SignatureStyle; they are known as an UrExample of MathRock for a reason.)

* TheWarOnTerror: Probably half the Melvins collaborations were commentaries on this. Perhaps most pointedly, "Caped Crusader" examines the roots of suicide terrorism.
-->Why do we hate you so
-->To blow ourselves up to blow up you?
-->Every time you bomb our lands
-->It might be time for you to ask
-->What will their kids be like?
-->What will their kids be like?

* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "[[CaptainObvious Will the Fetus Be Aborted?]]" and "Let's Go Burn Ole UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}} Down" are based on older songs but have completely different lyrics unrelated to the concepts of the songs they were based on (although the former is a {{snowclone}} of the original song's title, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"). "Achey Rakey Heart", more pointedly, contains a direct TakeThat towards the original performer, Music/BillyRayCyrus.

* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "[[CaptainObvious Will the Fetus Be Aborted?]]" and "Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down" are based on older songs but have completely different lyrics unrelated to the concepts of the songs they were based on (although the former is a {{snowclone}} of the original song's title, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"). "Achey Rakey Heart", more pointedly, contains a direct TakeThat towards the original performer, Music/BillyRayCyrus.

* DreadfulMusician: ZigZagged. Jello doesn't play any instruments on his recordings because, well, he's not very good at it. He started out trying to teach the other band members the parts he wrote by playing them on guitar and it wound up being easier for him to just scat-sing the parts. (This would cost him when his former band mates in the Music/DeadKennedys sued him). However, he's a very skilled ''composer''. Nearly 90% of the Dead Kennedys songs were solely written by him, and he's responsible for quite a lot of the songwriting on his collaborations as well. He's also managed to be one of the most iconic front men in punk, which serves as a testament to his stage presence and prowess as a vocalist.

* TakeThat: As with his Music/DeadKennedys material, plentiful, including a few against his former bandmates in "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)" and "Voted Off the Island". He's taken a few at UsefulNotes/BarackObama from a left-wing perspective as well ("Barackstar O'Bummer" and the album title ''The Audacity of Hype'' being the most obvious; "I Won't Give Up" counts as well).

-->What will their kids be like?

* BlackComedy: Jello's stage name, which juxtaposes the name of a cheap, mass-produced dessert with the infamous UsefulNotes/{{Biafra}}n Civil War, one of the more publicised cases of mass starvation in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}. Plus quite a lot of his songs.

* BlackComedy: Jello's stage name, which juxtaposes the name of a cheap, mass-produced dessert with the infamous Biafran Civil War, one of the more publicised cases of mass starvation in Africa. Plus quite a lot of his songs.

** "I Wish I Was in El Salvador" refers to "KillThePoor" by name.

-->Just like in Chile or Guatemala

* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "[[CaptainObvious Will the Fetus Be Aborted?]]" and "Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down" are based on older songs but have completely different lyrics unrelated to the concepts of the songs they were based on (although the former is a {{snowclone}} of the original song's title, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"). "Achey Rakey Heart", more pointedly, contains a direct TakeThat towards the original performer.

While undoubtedly best known as the frontman of HardcorePunk legends Music/DeadKennedys, '''Jello Biafra''' (born Eric Boucher, June 17, 1958) has had quite a career since leaving the band as well. He has amassed quite a large number of spoken-word albums about political activism as well as a large body of recorded music that mostly serves as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to the Kennedys' output. His music recordings, both as collaborations with other artists (D.O.A., Nomeansno, Music/MojoNixon, Music/{{Melvins}}, most of Music/{{Ministry}} as Lard, members of Steel Pole Bath Tub and Grong Grong as Tumor Circus) and with his own band the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have made him a respected elder statesman in the world of punk (a condition he even comments on in the song "Enchanted Thoughtfist"). While his former bandmates from the Kennedys have evolved into the living incarnation of MoneyDearBoy, half-heartedly playing songs "from the good old days about how bad the good old days were", Biafra continues to evolve and to produce some [[AwesomeMusic awesome new tunes]].

-->Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle in Music/TheMisfits, or [[MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen Mary-Kate and Ashley]]

While undoubtedly best known as the frontman of HardcorePunk legends Music/DeadKennedys, '''Jello Biafra''' (real name Eric Boucher) has had quite a career since leaving the band as well. He has amassed quite a large number of spoken-word albums about political activism as well as a large body of recorded music that mostly serves as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to the Kennedys' output. His music recordings, both as collaborations with other artists (D.O.A., Nomeansno, Music/MojoNixon, Music/{{Melvins}}, most of Music/{{Ministry}} as Lard, members of Steel Pole Bath Tub and Grong Grong as Tumor Circus) and with his own band the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have made him a respected elder statesman in the world of punk (a condition he even comments on in the song "Enchanted Thoughtfist"). While his former bandmates from the Kennedys have evolved into the living incarnation of MoneyDearBoy, half-heartedly playing songs "from the good old days about how bad the good old days were", Biafra continues to evolve and to produce some [[AwesomeMusic awesome new tunes]].

* UncommonTime: The verses of "Enchanted Thoughtfist" are in 7/4. "Dawn of the Locusts" has a riff in 13/8. When industrial hip-hop group Dälek remixed the latter track, they put a 4/4 drumbeat under the whole song just to make it even more disorienting. Meanwhile, from the Nomeansno collaboration, "Sharks in the Gene Pool" goes through several time signature changes, with one of its riffs in 7/4, and from Lard's ''The Last Temptation of Reid'', "Sylvestre Matruschka" is mostly in 5/4. (The usage of this trope is part of Nomeansno's SignatureStyle; they are known as an UrExample of MathRock for a reason.)

** "Invasion of the Mind Snatchers" may or may not be one to ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', and "Caped Crusader" may or may not be one to, well, ComicBook/{{Batman}} (the main thing ambiguous about these is whether they're intended as Shout-Outs or {{Take That}}s).

* UncommonTime: The verses of "Enchanted Thoughtfist" are in 7/4. "Dawn of the Locusts" has a riff in 13/8. When industrial hip-hop group Dälek remixed the latter track, they put a 4/4 drumbeat under the whole song just to make it even more disorienting. Meanwhile, from the Nomeansno collaboration, "Sharks in the Gene Pool" goes through several time signature changes, with one of its riffs in 7/4, and from Lard's ''The Last Temptation of Reid'', "Sylvestre Matruschka" is mostly in 5/4.

* UncommonTime: The verses of "Enchanted Thoughtfist" are in 7/4. "Dawn of the Locusts" has a riff in 13/8. When industrial hip-hop group Dälek remixed the latter track, they put a 4/4 drumbeat under the whole song just to make it even more disorienting. Meanwhile, from the Nomeansno collaboration, "Sharks in the Gene Pool" goes through several time signature changes; one of its riffs is in 7/4.

* LoudnessWar: Averted with his older work. His newer work starting around the TurnOfTheMillennium dips into this somewhat, but is still nowhere near as bad as the worst examples of the trope. The worst example of this in his work is ''Live from the Battle in Seattle'', which, at [=DR6=], still isn't anywhere near as bad as the worst offenders.

* LoudnessWar: Averted with his older work. His newer work starting around the TurnOfTheMillennium dips into this somewhat, but is still nowhere near as bad as the worst examples of the trope.

* 1994 - ''Prairie Home Invasion'' (with Mojo Nixon; sessions also produced the single ''Will the Fetus Be Aborted?'')

** With Mojo Nixon he covered Darryl Cherney's "Where Are We Gonna Work (When the Trees Are Gone?)", Fred Kirby's "Atomic Power", Music/PhilOchs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" (with some new lyrics to make it more current to TheNineties), the Goldcoast Singers' novelty hit "Plastic Jesus", the traditional songs "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (with new lyrics as "[[CrossesTheLineTwice Will the Fetus Be Aborted]]?") and "Old Joe Clark" (with new lyrics as "Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down"). There was also a "cover" of Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achey Breaky Heart" entitled "Achey Rakey Heart", which as one might expect is more of a {{Parody}} and TakeThat; however, note that this last song is actually credited to Eugene Chadbourne & Evan Johns, despite appearing on Jello and Mojo's single for "Will the Fetus Be Aborted".

* FoxNewsLiberal: As with Music/PhilOchs' original, Jello and Mojo Nixon's version of "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" eviscerates them.

* VocalTagTeam: On his album with Mojo Nixon they are this. Most of the other time if any other vocalists share vocals with him it's a case of StepUpToTheMicrophone.

While undoubtedly best known as the frontman of HardcorePunk legends Music/DeadKennedys, '''Jello Biafra''' (real name Eric Boucher) has had quite a career since leaving the band as well. He has amassed quite a large number of spoken-word albums about political activism as well as a large body of recorded music that mostly serves as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to the Kennedys' output. His music recordings, both as collaborations with other artists (D.O.A., Nomeansno, Mojo Nixon, Music/{{Melvins}}, most of Music/{{Ministry}} as Lard, members of Steel Pole Bath Tub and Grong Grong as Tumor Circus) and with his own band the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have made him a respected elder statesman in the world of punk (a condition he even comments on in the song "Enchanted Thoughtfist"). While his former bandmates from the Kennedys have evolved into the living incarnation of MoneyDearBoy, half-heartedly playing songs "from the good old days about how bad the good old days were", Biafra continues to evolve and to produce some [[AwesomeMusic awesome new tunes]].

* UncommonTime: The verses of "Enchanted Thoughtfist" are in 7/4. "Dawn of the Locusts" has a riff in 13/8. When industrial hip-hop group Dälek remixed the latter track, they put a 4/4 drumbeat under the whole song just to make it even more disorienting.

[[caption-width-right:350:''For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground."'']]