Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

No More Selfies/the Ghost Of Vince Lombardi

Alternative Tentacles

At last, Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine have finally delivered the two songs missing from the Tea Party Revenge Porn LP version on vinyl, the instant classics, “No More Selfies” and “The Ghost of Vince Lombardi”! This is very strong stuff. Hear the inimitable Mr. B skewer the place the world’s put itself in, like no one else would—or could—as he and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine capture the full power of the live shows on disc as never before. Only so many artists have a track record of lyrics this good, and back it up with music as good or better. It’s usually one of the other, but rarely this fierce, thanks to the wall of sound production of the mysterious Marshall Lawless, with Kurt Schlegel at the board this time. Co-conspirators now feature both string-titans of longtime AT mainstay Victims Family: guitarist Ralph Spight (also Freak Accident) and wonder bassist Larry Boothroyd (also Triclops, Brubaker); plus drummer / metal percussionist Jason Willer (UK Subs, Nik Turner, Charger, The Mob). Why on a 7-inch and not on the LP? The high speed “driving tests” Biafra always uses to find the best rockin’ song order for his albums (since the Dead Kennedy days of Fresh Fruit!) meant going “lean, mean (and louder!)” for the LP version, and two more songs in the middle for the CDs and download. These are not outtakes or “bonus tracks”. They make quite a strong 45 on their own. So play often!...

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Tea Party Revenge Porn

Alternative Tentacles

Hot on the heels of five viral video singles, Tea Party Revenge Porn, the first full album since 2014 by Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, is finally here! This is very strong stuff. Hear the inimitable Mr. B skewer the place the country has put itself in like no one else would—or could—as he and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine capture the full power of their live shows on disc as never before.  Only so many artists have a track record of lyrics this good, and back it up with music as good or better. It’s usually one of the other, but rarely this fierce, thanks to the wall of sound production of the mysterious Marshall Lawless, with Kurt Schlegel at the board this time. Co-conspirators now feature both string-titans of longtime AT mainstay Victims Family: guitarist Ralph Spight (also Freak Accident) and wonder bassist Larry Boothroyd (also Triclops, Brubaker); plus drummer / metal percussionist Jason Willer (UK Subs, Nik Turner, Charger, The Mob). So as germs and police riots rage, there’s no better primal scream therapy than a long-awaited new Jello Biafra album. From Dead Kennedys to Lard to the now-classic albums with the Melvins, DOA, NoMeansNo, Mojo Nixon; and of course, The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, Tea Party Revenge Porn is right up there with all of it.

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

White People And The Damage Done

Alternative Tentacles

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  “Wrecking Ball” was one thing. Now comes the long-awaited anti-austerity blast-a-thon with the teeth, venom and one-of-a-kind music of Jello Biafra. The second full-length from Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine picks up where last fall’s SHOCK-U-PY! left off. Covered in gruesome detail this time are corruption (“The Brown Lipstick Parade”), “Werewolves of Wall Street,” “Road Rage,” and corporate McMedia making pop stars out of small-time crooks to shield the big ones (“John Dillinger”) or tabloid pop stars to lobotomize everyone else (“Hollywood Goof Disease”). The title track shines a light on our never-ending foreign policy disasters in ways even Jello’s spoken word albums never did. “Crapture” is the perfect song to play for those lovely End Times believers, pointing out how much better the world would be for everyone else left behind—replete with melodies on the scale Biafra hasn’t really touched since “Moon Over Marin.”  Above all, White People and the Damage Done rocks! No pop punk here, just Jello and crew taking punk fire in unexplored directions, with wall-of-sound, in-your-face production from Marshall Lawless and Matt Kelley (lots of Jello projects, Hieroglyphics, The Coup, Digital Underground, Zen Guerrilla). Lineup retains the double-barreled guitar attack of Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident) and Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Griddle, Mol Triffid), joined by bassist Andrew Weiss (Rollins Band, Ween, Butthole Surfers, more) and drummer Paul Della Pelle (Helios Creed, Nik Turner’s Space Ritual, and Philly HC legends Ruin). Jello Biafra and the...

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

SHOCK-U-PY!

Alternative Tentacles

Election fever is here and even more of a circus than usual, so who better to jump in and stir up trouble than Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine? Their new EP SHOCK-U-PY! is the perfect soundtrack for the fall political melee. Biafra explains: “Here’s our tribute inspired by the Occupy movement. Not just ‘occupy’—SHOCK-U-PY!—since my favorite kind of resistance can have theater, pranks and other creative sabotage—non-violent, of course!” The SHOCK-U-PY! EP includes the exclusive track “Barackstar O’Bummer” not appearing on his upcoming album, plus Biafra’s remix of “We Occupy,” a DOA song for the uprising that Biafra guested on. “We both go way back in the direct action side of things so I’m honored Joe Keithley asked me to sing on this song.” “Occupy may be out of the corporate news machine right now” says Biafra, “but that hardly means that it’s gone away and it won’t go away until the problems go away. To me, it’s a reigniting of the anti-corporate ‘spirit of Seattle’ but this time it’s bigger because times are more severe.” The Guantanamo School of Medicine will be touring worldwide to support the SHOCK-U-PY! EP as well as their forthcoming full-shebang album, White People and the Damage Done. The EP is the first recording to feature Andrew Weiss on bass (Ween, Rollins Band, Butthole Surfers) and the powerhouse drums of Paul Della Pelle (from Philadelphia hardcore legends Ruin, Helios Creed, Nik Turner’s Space Ritual and more). The rest of the Guantanamo School of Medicine are...

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Enhanced Methods Of Questioning

Alternative Tentacles

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine are at it again! Hot on the heels of their debut full-length The Audacity of Hype, the group—featuring Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident, Hellworms), Jon Weiss (Sharkbait, Horsey), Billy Gould (Faith No More) and Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Carneyball Johnson, Mol Triffid, Griddle)—roars back with five unreleased rippers. CD and download versions include “Metamorphosis Exploration on Deviation Street,” a transmogrified 18-minute cover of the Deviants’ classic. The band’s twin guitar attack retains some of the space-punk overtones and spy-music-on-meth chaos of Dead Kennedys, while adding a healthy dose of Detroit-style proto-punk, flavored with Weiss’s industrial excursions into metal percussion. This is Biafra’s first full-time band since Dead Kennedys broke up in 1986, and the depth and breadth of his musical chops and lyrical triumphs are on full display on these ferocious tracks.

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Audacity Of Hype

Alternative Tentacles

***BACK IN PRINT ON LIMITED BLUE VINYL!!! In the twenty or so years since his brainchild, The Dead Kennedys, officially disbanded, Jello Biafra has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations with some of the most compelling figures in underground music. Recording projects and touring with the likes of Melvins, NoMeansNo, DOA, Mojo Nixon, and Lard (with Ministry's Al Jorgensen) among others have kept his "punk as political weapon" message sharp, but the lack of his own band made these collaborations usually short-lived and left Biafra with a ton of songs that never saw the light of day.Inspired by The Stooges gig on Iggy Pop's 60th birthday in San Francisco, Biafra laid plans for his own 50th birthday party and finally decided it was time to start a band of his own. After cramming practices for a month, the four-piece dubbed themselves Jello Biafra and the Axis of Merry Evildoers! and featured Biafra, Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident, Hellworms), Jon Weiss (Sharkbait, Horsey), and Billy Gould (Faith No More) The band took the stage in a sold-out two-night stand at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Flush from that exhilarating triumph, nine months of rehearsal and writing followed; they added ace guitarist Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Carneyball Johnson, Mol Triffid, Griddle), and christened themselves Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. The Audacity of Hype was produced by Biafra and engineered by hip hop producer and longtime co-conspirator Matt Kelley (Hieroglyphics, The...