How did we get our name?
It is to symbolize the end of the American dream and the beginning of the decline and fall of the American Empire. America is falling apart at the seams for a variety of reasons and so in order to call attention to that we call attention to what the catalyst was. Why people are so self-centered these days and totally in it for themselves. This is how every single empire throuhgout history, when the people get too rich and stuck up and snotty.  In the 1950's you see Life Magazine ads... "America bigger, bigger, stronger everyday, fancier appliances...
And then suddenly Kennedy got killed. The glamour boy president and his gorgeous wife are no more and they are stuck with Johnson instead. Then the other Kennedy brother gets killed too, thus painting the seed for a real extreme brand of cynicism that you have in this country now where nobody trusts anybody else and constantly everybody is out to rip off everybody else. I think Vietnam and Watergate were the main cause, but the ball got rolling with the Kennedy killings.

---The Dead Kennedys

BEDTIME FOR CONFORMITY

thanx for checking out my tribute to the one of the best bands ever

I never got to see the Dead Kennedys play live, but I've talked with many who have!  Since starting to listen to DK in 1991, I've got what I think is almost an entirely complete discography.  I know how difficult it can be to locate lyrics and songlists on the web, so I've done my best to provide as much as possible; if there is anything else you would like to see on here, please e-mail me! 

My main reason for making this page was to upload rare media to the web which would not likely be here otherwise.  This includes what I have from random publishings such as the "unauthorized" bio, interviews in Flipside, the Alternative Tentacles songbooks, and also from Glen E. Friedman's book "F**k You Heroes" which came out in 1996.  Glen's book contains some of the only photos of much of the early punk, rap, and underground pro skateboarding which was going down in the early to late 1980's.  I also have a copy of an interview with Glen where he talks about some of his background and philosophy.
  Other Friedman photos include early Rollins, Adolescents, Ian Mackaye, Derby Crash, etc.

Links to the other Dead Kennedys pages (and the Jello page) (and to any other punk bands you could possibly think of) can be found here
also go here for DK album covers

DISCOGRAPHY

In guessed chronological order...

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Kill the Poor * Forward to Death * When Ya Get Drafted * Let's Lynch the Landlord *
Drug Me * Your Emotions * Chemical Warfare * California Uber Alles * I Kill Children *
Stealing People's Mail * Funland at the Beach * Ill In The Head * Holiday in Cambodia *
Viva Las Vegas * (Police Truck appears as the 1st track on the cassette)

Plastic Surgery Disasters
Government Flu * Terminal Preppie * Trust Your Mechanic * Well Paid Scientist *
Buzzbomb * Forest Fire * Halloween * Winnebago Warrior * Riot * Bleed For Me *
I Am The Owl * Dead End * Moon Over Marin

In God We Trust, Inc.
Religious Vomit * Moral Majority * Hyperactive Child * Kepone Factory *
Dog Bite * Nazi Punks F**k Off * We've Got a Bigger Problem Now * Rawhide

Frankenchrist
Soup is Good Food * Hellnation * This Could Be Anywhere * A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch *
Chicken Farm * Jock-O-Rama * Goons of Hazard * MTV: GET OFF THE AIR * At My Job *
Stars and Stripes of Corruption

Bedtime For Democracy
Take this Job and Shove It * Hop With the Jet Set * Dear Abby * Rambozo the Clown * Fleshdunce *
The Great Wall * Shrink * Triumph of the Swill * Macho Insecurity * I Spy * Cesspools in Eden *
One-Way Ticket to Pluto * Do the Slag * A Commercial * Gone With My Wind * Anarchy For Sale *
Chickenshit Conformist * Where Do Ya Draw the Line * Potshot Heard Around the World *
D.M.S.O. * Lie Detector

Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Police Truck * Too Drunk to Fuck * California Uber Alles * The Man With the Dogs * Insight *
Life Sentence * A Child and His Lawnmower * Holiday In Cambodia * I Fought the Law *
Saturday Night Holocaust * Pull My Strings * Short Songs * Straight A's *
Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round * The Prey * Night of the Living Rednecks *
Buzzbomb From Pasadena 

---------------------

Albums Jello Has Released With Others

LARD:::The Last Temptation of Reid
Forkboy * Pineapple Face * Mate Spawn & Die * Drug Raid at 4am * Can God Fill Teeth? *
Bozo Skeleton * Sylvestre Matuschka * They're Coming to Take Me Away * I Am Your Clock

LARD:::Power of Lard
The Power of Lard * Hellfudge * Time to Melt

Jello Biafra with DOA:::Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors
That's Progress * Attack of the Peacekeepers * Wish I Was in El Salvador * Power is Boring *
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place * Full Metal Jackoff

Jello Biafra with NOMEANSNO:::The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy
Falling Space Junk * Jesus Was A Terrorist * Bruce's Diary * Bad * Ride the Flume *
Chew * Sharks in the Gene Pool * The Myth is Real - Let's Eat

Tumor Circus
Hazing For Success * Human Cyst * The Man With the Corkscrew Eyes * Fireball * Swine Flu *
Calcutta A-Go-Go * Take Me Back Or I'll Drown Our Dog (Headlines) *
Meathook Up My Rectum * Turn Off the Respirator

Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon:::Will the Fetus Be Aborted?
Will the Fetus Be Aborted? * The Lost World * Drinkin' With Jesus * Ackey Rakey Heart

Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon:::Prairie Home Invasion
Buy My Snake Oil * Where Are We Gonna Work (when the trees are gone?) *
Convoy In the Sky * Atomic Power * Are You Drinkin' With Me Jesus * Love Me, I'm A Liberal *
Burgers of Wrath * Noatalgia for An Age That Never Existed * Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster *
Mascot Mania * Let's Go Burn Ole Nashville Down * Will the Fetus Be Aborted * Plastic Jesus

Rare Media

OLD FLIPSIDE INTERVIEWS
Interview with DK
Interview with Jello

Glen E. Friedman Photos
PHOTO OF JELLO LIVE
PHOTO OF JELLO AFTER A SHOW
PHOTO OF JELLO AS A CRAZY NUN

I especially made this page in order to include this story by jello:
"Remember The Knack? 'My Sharona', skinny ties, that "We got your money" greedsmile on the album cover?  This was mainstream America's first real whiff of what the industry called New Wave. Forget Punk: here was someone with a top ten smash who was happy to play by their rules. It appeared 1980 was the year to cash in. Every year the California music establishment's house organ, BAM magazine, plays host to a backslapping circus banquet known as the Bammie Awards. This year it was time to break the ice with that still-mysterious upstart on the block, the...(dripping horror movie letters)...New Wave by inviting a couple of local bands to play at the ceremony - The Mutants and Dead Kennedys. At the awards rehearsal we showed them a light-hearted parody of 'California Uber Alles'. The audience that night got something a little different. Here was an auditorium filled with people who'd paid up to $50 a ticket to see Jerry Garcia, Journey, and that ilk walk up onstage to hold a trophy in the air and maybe play a song or two.
We came onstage in our snappy matching New Wave uniforms and started playing 'California Uber Alles'. An 'S' was spray painted across our white shirts. We interrupted our "hit" song and pulled skinny black Knack-ties from around our backs the cross the 'S's on our shirts thus forming a dollar sign (note audience laughter at this point). We then launched into this chronicle of the music industry based on the careers of several of the people sitting in the audience that night. They heard every word. So did the estimated 25,000 listeners tuned into the live simulcast on commercial rock radio station KMEL. Ray went off on a long 70's-style guitar solo complete with cock rock stage moves while the rest of us feigned boredom and yawned. Ronnie Montrose did the same thing a few minutes later only he was serious! After we finished some of those in charge of the event grew very cold indeed. 'Pull My Strings' was not quite the malleable brand of New Wave they had in mind. Boz Scaggs was reportedly seen clawing at his chair. The KMEL sound engineers didn't seem to happy either. Stranger still was when Eddie Money said he liked it.
For some reason we were never asked to play the "Bammie" Awards again. Eager to please? Hell no. Our band was intended as a prank to begin with. Of all the pranks we pulled this remains one of my favorites."

The Purple Music Page