A journey through the eclectic record collection of Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra
During his time as frontman for Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra was nothing less than a force of nature. An icon of the early West Coast punk movement, His confrontational, occasionally frightening performances perfectly encapsulated punk rock’s anger, joy and weirdness. On a much deeper level, Biafra was a musical genius. Every aspect of the band’s operation was constructed in a very specific way by the frontman; from the shocking artwork to the pugnacious content of the songs, Jello was always at the helm.
Speaking to the controversial nature of Dead Kennedys, Jello was the first person to find himself in a court of law as the result of an ‘obscene album cover’. Since the break-up of his band in the 1980s, the frontman has continued to carve his own path through punk and alternative rock music, maintaining the same shocking nature that we all know and love. It seems almost unnatural, therefore, to find this freak of nature sitting peacefully amid a sea of vinyl, alongside his cat.
It is not so much that the frontman has mellowed over the years; it is simply that Biafra feels determinedly at home surrounded by the collection he has spent his life amassing. The frontman is a self-confessed vinyl junkie, which he puts down to his early attitude of, “Oh my God, we made five bucks at the gig! I could spend it on speed, or spend it on coke, or spend it on records. The choice was obvious – you can play a record and bounce off the walls and get an adrenaline high again and again and again, if it’s a good record. You put a line of dope on a turntable, it’s gone, it’s done.”
The result of this addiction to vinyl is that Biafra has perhaps one of the most eclectic and obscure record collections in the known world. Ranging from Peruvian psychedelic rock to novelty horror albums, there is seemingly no end to the record stacks of the Dead Kennedys singer. Revealing his lair of music to Fuse back in 2014, the first album he picked out comes in the form of a bizarre cover album by Mrs. Miller. The elderly singer has risen to fame with her hit cover of Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’, but Biafra was more interested in her psychedelic phase. Producing Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing from his stack, Biafra shares, “Here she is doing ‘Green Tambourine’, a song called ‘Renaissance of Smut’, ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’, ‘The Roach’ – how can you go wrong with her little green hash brownies?”
Jello goes on to share his appreciation for German Schlager singer Heino, happily recounting how 1977’s Super Hits was “some of the most frighteningly hideous music I had ever heard, but fascinatingly so”, leading the frontman to collect a variety of the singer’s other records. While most of his collection was amassed by digging through the backstreet record shops of the world, a select few came from his parents. Apparently, his father’s copy of The Azuma Kabuki Musicians was the only record he has ever had to trade for, noting that it was very influential during his teenage stoner years – “Why didn’t George Harrison listen to this instead of all that Indian music? This is so much cooler!” Jello exclaimed.
If you weren’t yet convinced by the intense obscurity of Jello’s collection, he soon pulls out Batman and Robin, a record made by legendary experimental jazz composer Sun Ra, “Need some money one day? Make a Batman record”, the frontman chuckles. Continuing this theme, he produces a battered copy of Robbie the Werewolf’s At the Waleback, “This is an early ’60s folk record, but it’s horror novelty stuff.”
You certainly get the sense that these few picks barely scratch the surface of the weird and wonderful record collection of Jello Biafra. The unbelievable range of genres covered within his short interview with Fuse goes some way to giving an explanation for the intense originality and weirdness of his musical career. Continuing to release music through his own label, Alternative Tentacles, the ex-Dead Kennedys singer shows no signs of mellowing out anytime soon.
