Jello Biafra has announced plans to release a new spoken word album sometime this year. Titled In The Grip Of Official Treason, the album will cover "subjects, as you might guess, are Fall of the Rome Under Bush, Iraqnophobia, Vote Fraud, comatose bribe-addled Democrats, Geometry teacher part II, the full "Ass Clowns in Toyland" (Ministry), new "Die For Oil, Sucker," etc."

Punknews.org spoke to the former Dead Kennedys and current Jello Biafra and the Melvins frontman recently, who explained the gap since 2002's Big Ka-Boom, Part One and Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand:

There's been recordings all along, but I just never got the time to chop 'em all down, and I thought, if events are moving so quickly with Iraq and stolen elections and, hurricanes and all, then the question becomes - at what point do I cut it off and turn it into another spoken album?

Every once in a while, anybody who puts their feelings out there and gets listened to by other people have to step back from time to time and decide how much of their own bullshit they actually believe and where they want to take things from here. Right now I'm sort of in a "back to rock" mode, but there's a lot of Iraq stuff on tape and that goddamn Bush, as soon as I put out Machine Gun in a Clowns Hand about September 11 and Afghanistan, he goes and hijacks September 11 and the war on terrorism and goes into Iraq right as my Afghanistan album came out.

Jello is also asking fans to help with the artwork for the album but adds: " I don't want any designs too reliant on Bush, Saddam, Condosleezza, etc., that will date the whole thing like an '80s Hardcore album with Reagan on the cover."

Aspiring artists can contact AT.