Jello Biafra talks health care, censorship, conservative media and more

Contributed by an Anonymous Source. Posted by aubin on Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 5:00 PM (EST)

Jello Biafra spoke to Spinner while supporting his latest project, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. Along with the Dead Kennedys founder, the band includes Billy Gould (Faith No More), Kimo Ball (Freak Accident), Ralph Spight (Victims Family), and Jon Weiss. They released their debut, The Audacity of Hype on October 20, 2009 through Alternative Tentacles.

Check out the interview here.

Bands in this story

Jello Biafra

Dead Kennedys

Faith No More

Alternative Tentacles Records (26 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

CrankWillDestroy (November 26, 2009)

ghost town

Luke_ (November 26, 2009)

I don't take medical advice from hospital food.

madomen (November 26, 2009)

i seem lose respect for jello every time i hear him speak so im going to avoid this.

BarleyPat (November 29, 2009)

Agreed. I like DK and all, but why anyone remotely takes this man seriously is beyond me.

weegmc (November 26, 2009)

Actually one of his better interviews. Agree with him on everything except the healthcare thing - not his view but his statement ath there is overwhelming support for the public option. No so, mostly because, like Jello himself, alot of people don't trust the government (right or wrong).

Banger (November 27, 2009)

Actually, most polls indicate that a majority of Americans want a public option. The support for the actual bills in Congress, however, is lower, mainly because conservatives are opposed to any bill the Democrats propose and liberals are disappointed by how watered down the bills have become.

weegmc (November 29, 2009)

Yes I agree Americans overwhelmingly want health care reform, but its fair to say the support for what is on the table is luke warm for all the reason you mention. We're great yet fucked up nation.

RavenEffect (November 26, 2009)

I think its pathetic people still take this guys opinion like its the word of god. His live spoken words are extremely underwhelming and its laughable at how many questions he dodges that go against his "beliefs".

kencollapse (November 26, 2009)

So Jello talked?

fox82 (November 28, 2009)

I'm sure he did the entire interview sneering on top of an instrumental.

I_Rock_Hard (November 26, 2009)

i like how this guy thinks that anybody actually cares anything about what eh has to say

MonsterLobster (November 27, 2009)

And that's why I'm glad the space shuttle blew up.

Turnstyles (November 27, 2009)

Jello Biafra, talking about everything ever since 1978.

sheeler (November 27, 2009)

great interview.

thewolfmechanic (November 28, 2009)

good opportunity for discussion:
statement: If one were to refer to one's self as punk, in this day and age, it could be equivocated to one referring to one's self as emo in the year 2039 (with all political, sociopolitical implications)

In short: jello has nothing intelligible to say about health care, bailouts, and/or conservative media. punk was youth talking about their perception of the happenings in THEIR own era.

thewolfmechanic (November 28, 2009)

Disclaimer: I know jello is a punk veteran. however, when he wrote his songs when he was an educated kid. That is what made him authentic. That is why DK's songs rocked... well it was mostly the music and antics, but he mattered too...

thewolfmechanic (November 28, 2009)

Disclaimer: I know jello is a punk veteran. however, when he wrote his songs when he was an UN-educated kid. That is what made him authentic. That is why DK's songs rocked... well it was mostly the music and antics, but he mattered too...

LushJ (November 28, 2009)

Your conclusion doesn't make any sense.

So if someone self-identifies as a punk, there is absolutely no way that he or she can comment on today?

Even if they became a punk last year? Or is the legitimacy of our comments tied to when we first got into punk rock?

thewolfmechanic (November 28, 2009)

Nah. The whole emo and punk comparison was me taking a shot at people who self identify as a punk today because that is just silly.
Jello was once a punk when there was punk. Even in the day when this idea was spawned, they were all kids. Uneducated kids reacting authentically to their surroundings, which is what makes it cool, but not intelligible.

That being said, Jello Is the guy with the microphone saying shit that makes absolutely no sense. I love his stuff when he was in DK, but you could look up videos of him speaking in between songs saying things like "They are decapitating hostages in the middle-east. They learned these tactics from the united states marines." That is a laughably absurd statement. Yet, there are kids that read what he has to say and soak up every word because they want to be "punk"

LushJ (November 29, 2009)

So you're of the opinion that there is no "punk" anymore. Good to know.

By the way, what's all this? (gestures at bands, venues, flyers, zines, blogs, records, labels, distributors, etc etc etc)

thewolfmechanic (November 30, 2009)

Those are all things that surround music which, for the most part, have always surrounded every genre of music. They could also be referred to as components of the music industry. (promotion used to help push a product etc etc etc) music is the product

Please don't get me wrong. Punk music still influences most bands today, but it stops at that. new journalists will put new labels on everything. The musical influence it had still exists. in some minute form, the idea of it might exist. But punk, when it was labeled that, was also referring to a social group, music being one of the components. That period of time is over. You are no more a punk than I am a mod or a Pachuco.

If I listen to punk music, I am not a punk. If I listen to jazz, I am not a pachuco. The names embody a type of people in a certain time period who surround a type of music.

Banger (November 30, 2009)

Even if one were to agree with your first statement, it doesn't follow that the second statement is true. What you label yourself has no impact on the intelligibility of the statements you make.

Instead, it seems to me that you're arguing that Jello is making a claim to authority, that claim being that he is "punk" (even though he doesn't actually make that claim in the article) and that his views are therefore representative of the punk community as a whole (a community which you say doesn't even exist).

thewolfmechanic (December 1, 2009)

"Doesn't exist anymore" would be the way to put that. "anymore" being the operative word.

I never insisted whether the label you give yourself has an impact on the intelligibility of the statements you make or not. I did insist that the singer to a punk band might not have a valid, educated argument concerning bailouts and healthcare.

But yes, I know, he did not make that claim. It was the interviewer who asked Jello those questions for his natural opinion, which he gave as anyone else, being asked, would. The interviewer knew that people would want to read what he has to say. My main question is why?

Just because he was in a key punk band, when he was young, does not mean what he has to say is well informed on the situation. In his hay-day, he was singing about his perspective as a youth, which was raw and passionate, but was also characteristic of tunnel vision.

RRR (November 29, 2009)

I think this new Guantanamo School of Medicine is a fucking GREAT album.