1.
Dead Kennedys
–
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the first American hardcore bands to make a significant impact in the United Kingdom, Dead Kennedys lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing establishment political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. During their initial incarnation between 1978 and 1986, they attracted considerable controversy for their lyrics and artwork. This culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury, the group released a total of four studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Following the bands dissolution, Biafra continued to collaborate and record other artists including D. O. A. NoMeansNo and his own bands Lard and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, in 2000, Jello Biafra lost an acrimonious legal case initiated by his former Dead Kennedys band mates over songwriting credits and unpaid royalties. In 2001, the band reformed without Biafra, various singers have since been recruited for vocal duties, the original band lineup consisted of Jello Biafra on vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, Klaus Flouride on bass, and Ted on drums and percussion. This lineup recorded their first demos, in early to mid July, the band recruited 6025 as a rhythm guitarist. Their first live show was on July 19,1978 at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco and they were the opening act on a bill that included DV8 and Negative Trend with The Offs headlining. Dead Kennedys played numerous shows at local venues afterwards, due to the provocative name of the band, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including The DKs, The Sharks, The Creamsicles and The Pink Twinkies. The bands real name generated controversy,22, the 15th anniversary of John F. Kennedys assassination. Despite mounting protests, the owner of Mabuhay declared, I cant cancel them NOW—theres a contract, not, apparently, the kind of contract some people have in mind. However, despite popular belief, the name was not meant to insult the Kennedy family,6025 left the band in March 1979 under somewhat unclear circumstances, generally considered to be musical differences. In June, the released their first single, California Über Alles, on Biafra and East Bay Rays independent label. The band followed with a poorly attended East Coast tour, being a new and fairly unknown band at the time, in early 1980, they recorded and released the single Holiday in Cambodia. In June, the recorded their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. The album reached number 33 on the UK Albums Chart, on March 25,1980, Dead Kennedys were invited to perform California Über Allesat the Bay Area Music Awards in an effort to give the event some new wave credibility, in the words of the organizers. The day of the performance was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, Weve gotta prove that were adults now
2.
Hardcore punk
–
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock, New York punk had a harder-edged sound than its San Francisco counterpart, featuring anti-art expressions of masculine anger, energy and subversive humor. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the music industry and anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock. Hardcore sprouted underground scenes across the United States in the early 1980s, particularly in Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Boston—as well as in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Hardcore has spawned the straight movement and its associated submovements, hardline. Hardcore was heavily involved with the rise of the independent record labels in the 1980s and it has also influenced various music genres that have experienced widespread commercial success, including alternative rock, thrash metal, emo and metalcore. While traditional hardcore has never experienced mainstream success, some of its early pioneers have garnered appreciation over time. In 2011, Rolling Stone writer David Fricke placed Greg Ginn of Black Flag 99th place in his 100 Greatest Guitarists list, although the music genre started in English-speaking western countries, notable hardcore scenes have existed in Italy, Brazil, Japan, Europe and the Middle East. The origin of the hardcore punk is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D. O. A. may have helped to popularize the term with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore 81. C. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term hardcore is also a reference to the sense of being fed up with the existing punk, Blush also states that the term refers to an extreme, the absolute most Punk. One definition of the genre is a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock, like the Oi. subgenre of the UK, hardcore punk can be considered an internal music reaction. According to one writer, distressed by the artificiality of much post-punk, lacking the art-school grace of post-punk, hardcore punk favor low key visual aesthetic over extravagance and breaking with original punk rock song patterns. One of the important philosophies in the scene is authenticity. The pejorative term poseur is applied to those who associate with punk and adopt its stylistic attributes but are deemed not to share or understand the underlying values and philosophy. Joe Keithley, the vocalist of D. O. A. said in an interview, in the vein of earlier punk rock, most hardcore punk bands have followed the traditional singer/guitar/bass/drum format. The songwriting has more emphasis on rather than melody. Critic Steven Blush writes The Sex Pistols were still rocknroll. like the craziest version of Chuck Berry, Hardcore was a radical departure from that
3.
Punk rock
–
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed in the early to mid-1970s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in 1960s garage rock and other forms of what is now known as proto-punk music, Punk bands typically produced short or fast-paced songs, with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic, many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through informal channels, the term punk was first used in relation to rock music by some American critics in the early 1970s, to describe garage bands and their devotees. The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world, for the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive styles of clothing and adornment, by the beginning of the 1980s, faster, more aggressive styles such as hardcore and street punk had become the predominant mode of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a range of other variations, giving rise to post-punk. At the end of the 20th century, punk rock had been adopted by the mainstream, as pop punk and punk bands such as Green Day. The first wave of rock was aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast. According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, In its initial form, unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere, by 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock n roll. In critic Robert Christgaus description, It was also a subculture that rejected the political idealism. Technical accessibility and a DIY spirit are prized in punk rock, in the early days of punk rock, this ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands. Musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion, according to Holmstrom, punk rock was rock and roll by people who didnt have very many skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music. In December 1976, the English fanzine Sideburns published an illustration of three chords, captioned This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. The title of a 1980 single by the New York punk band Stimulators, inscribed a catchphrase for punks basic musical approach. The previous year, when the rock revolution began in Great Britain, was to be both a musical and a cultural Year Zero. As a Clash associate describes singer Joe Strummers outlook, Punk rock is meant to be our freedom, were meant to be able to do what we want to do. Scholar Daniel S. Traber argues that attaining authenticity in the identity can be difficult, as the punk scene matured, he observes
4.
Alternative Tentacles
–
Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray and vocalist Jello Biafra formed the original Alternative Tentacles partnership, but the label is now run by Biafra, Alternative Tentacles no longer owns the rights to Dead Kennedys recordings after a 2000 lawsuit. Alternative Tentacles went on to some of the most original bands of the alternative/punk scene including releasing records by bands including The Dicks,7 Seconds. The early compilation titled Let Them Eat Jellybeans, served to introduce American punk to the rest of the world. Some of the best known bands that have come through Alternative Tentacles are Dead Kennedys, NoMeansNo, D. O. A. in addition to musical acts, Alternative Tentacles also publishes spoken word albums, many by Jello Biafra himself. Another common theme of Alternative Tentacles records over the years has been the long-standing artwork of Winston Smith, which has graced many of their records, catalogs, posters, Smith also designed the Alternative Tentacles logo. The arrangement was short-lived, and as such these British editions of American hardcore records are rare, in 1985, Los Angeles prosecutors charged Biafra with distributing harmful matter to minors for artwork contained in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. The artwork was a reproduction of the painting Work 219, Landscape XX. The case ended in a jury, charges were not re-filed. A detailed account of the trial is presented by Biafra on his spoken word album. In early 2000, the label and Biafra were named in a lawsuit brought by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates, the suit claimed that Biafra had failed to pay the bands members a decades worth of royalties on the bands albums, totaling some $76,000. A2003 appeal upheld the verdict and judgment against Biafra and the label of $200,000 in compensation. The end result of the saw the rights to the Dead Kennedys albums turned over to the other band members. Dead Kennedys albums accounted for half of all sales by Alternative Tentacles. In October 2002, the moved to Emeryville, California
5.
Bedtime for Democracy
–
Bedtime for Democracy is the fourth and final studio album released by Dead Kennedys. Songs on this album cover such common punk subjects as conformity, Reaganomics, the military, in fact, by the time recording began, they had already played what would be their last live concert with Jello Biafra and announced their breakup immediately after the records release. There is an error on the Manifesto CDs so that the time length for Gone with My Wind is printed,43 when it should read 1,43. On the original version, Side A was tracks 1-11. It also came with a periodical in the form of a thin newspaper made up of collage art. The East Bay punk band Isocracy parodied the name in their 1988 EP, the cover art depicted the band together in a bed, accompanied by Jello Biafra. All songs written by Jello Biafra except when stated. M. S. O
6.
Mutiny on the Bay
–
Mutiny on the Bay is a live album by the Dead Kennedys. Its quality has been criticized by Jello Biafra, all tracks written by Jello Biafra, except where noted. The album is not one consecutive concert, but rather tracks culled from performances in 1982 and 1986. The tracks Police Truck, Holiday in Cambodia, Forward to Death, I Am the Owl and Riot were recorded at the Elite Club, San Francisco, on March 20,1982. Hellnation, California Über Alles, Too Drunk to Fuck and This Could Be Anywhere were recorded at The Stone, San Francisco, − Get off the Air and Goons of Hazard were also recorded at The Stone the following day. As a peculiarity Kill the Poor was recorded on February 21,1986, at Freeborn Hall in Davis, the show is notable in that it was the final performance of the Dead Kennedys. Jello Biafra - lead vocals East Bay Ray - guitar, producer Klaus Flouride - bass, backing vocals D. H. Peligro - drums Sue Brisk - photography John Cuniberti - engineer, mixer
7.
AbsolutePunk
–
AbsolutePunk was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate. The primary musical genres of focus were emo and pop punk, the very next day on April 1, all of the domain names and social media accounts associated with AbsolutePunk were being redirected to Chorus. fm. Founded June 6,2000 by Jason Tate, the focused on music industry news. The site also allowed user interaction via a vBulletin Internet Forum system, users could register their own personalized account, create a profile, and comment on nearly every portion of the site. Special accounts were afforded to industry figures and band members denoting them as such, the website originally started as a Blink-182/MxPx fan site. In 2005, the site was drawing six million hits daily, by 2006, the website was noted for engaging teenagers, and was beginning to chip away at the dominance of MySpace, according to OMMA online media magazine. The social media network Buzznet purchased AbsolutePunk in May 2008, AbsolutePunks community included over 500,000 music fans, making it one of the largest alternative music zines on the Internet. The site was run by contributor-turned-moderators who worked for the site but were not paid. They added news posts, wrote reviews and conducted interviews all in their free time, aBSOLUTExclusives and recent album reviews were often displayed prominently at the top of the sites news feed, while other stories were simply listed in descending chronological order. The staff conducted frequent interviews with bands and often asked the AbsolutePunk community to contribute questions in advance. They also ran numerous contests via both an opt-in lottery system and through news items, with the latter usually awarding prizes to the users who replied the fastest while meeting certain criteria. One of AbsolutePunks main purposes was to music fans with one another through its extensive online forums. The forums featured over 318,500 registered members and they were divided into a number of different sections, split into categories such as entertainment, sports, politics, and education. Users were encouraged to contribute their own media to the site, as most of the site functioned on the same bulletin board system, forum activity would often spill out into album reviews and news stories as well. The website gained a following in the alternative music scene over the years, allowing it to sponsor various tours. In the August 2007 issue of Blender, owner Jason Tate was named #18 in their list of Top 25 Most Influential People in Online Music, on June 1,2005 vocalist and pianist Andrew McMahon of the bands Something Corporate and Jacks Mannequin was diagnosed with leukemia. AbsolutePunk raised approximately $16,400 for the Leukemia Research Foundation by selling over 6,000 orange gel bracelets online, the wristbands read I Will Fight in reference to a well-known song by Something Corporate
link