1958 Biafra born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, six blocks from the JonBenet Ramsey murder site. So far, he has not been named as a suspect. November 1963 JFK assassinated on a day Biafra remembers well. Biafra sees Oswald get shot live on the living room TV. (See last track, "Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police") Fall 1965 Biafra hears rock and roll for the first time when his parents tune in a rock station by mistake. He is immediately hooked, and knows what he wants to be when he grows up. 1966 Biafra encounters his first rock star. Bob Demmon, leader of the surf-garage legends The Astronauts, shows the second grade class his Alaskan malamute dog. (Bob's mother worked in the school office) 1966-68 Biafra idolizes Batman villains while his classmates want to be baseball players, nurses and policemen. 1969-72 The Vietnam war, Chicago 7 trial, Kent State massacre and the Denver smog problem convince Biafra that corrupt, violent governments and corporations should be fought, not trusted. 1970 Fall of the Republic of Biafra. Ibo people's war for independence is crushed by the Nigerian army. With British and some American help, all Biafran food supplies had been cut off for months. Horrific, jarring images of skeletal Biafran children dying from hunger make "Biafra" the universal symbol of starvation and genocide until the Ethiopian famine 15 years later. January, 1977 Biafra sees the Ramones horrify an audience of the pre-yuppies he loathes at Ebbets Field night club in Denver. He decides there must be more to life than listening to Judas Priest and committing suicide. He roadies for the first Colorado punk band, The Ravers, who would later move to New York and become The Nails (of "88 lines About 44 Women" fame). Fall, 1977 Biafra enrolls in University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studies acting and the history of Paraguay. After seeing very early gigs of The Saints and Wire, among others in London that summer, Biafra discovers that the early San Francisco punk scene (Avengers, Dils, Zeros, etc.) is far more raw and primal than anything he has seen so far. Its epicenter is Mabuhay Gardens, an all ages venue run by Dirk Dirksen. Biafra leaves school after one quarter. February 28, 1978 Biafra returns to San Francisco after saving money doing laundry in a nursing home in Boulder, Colorado. July 19, 1978 Dead Kennedys live debut performance after rehearsing for one week. After first calling himself "Occupant," Jello Biafra picks his name at random out of a notebook. Years later, he says he chose it because he "likes the way the two images collide in people's minds." June 1979 Dead Kennedys release first single, California Uber Alles on their own label, Alternative Tentacles. An East Coast tour follows, almost unheard of in those days for a west coast underground band. Compared to the primal pogo frenzy of the West Coast, the scene there is almost comatose, largely due to the lack of all ages venues. Audiences expecting to sit quietly and clap find themselves showered with their own beer as their tables and chairs are knocked away. Max's Kansas City looks like a tornado went through it. At the Rat in Boston, MA, people line up as far away from the band as they can against the back wall but don't leave. This may be Biafra's favorite Dead Kennedys show of all time. Fall 1979 Biafra runs for mayor of San Francisco. He finishes fourth out of ten candidates with 6,591 votes, 3 1/2% of the total; helping force a run-off. Mayor Dianne Feinstein's supporters are aghast. (For the full story, see Biafra's third spoken word album, I Blow Minds for a Living.) Biafra also performs nude before 3000 Clash fans and an infuriated Bill Graham. DK never play for Bill Graham Presents again. California Uber Alles is re-released in England on the hot label-of-the-moment Fast Product (Gang of Four, Mekons, Human League). By sheer luck a band barely known in their own back yard is an overnight sensation in the U.K. Fall 1980 Riding the wave of follow-up smash single Holiday in Cambodia, Dead Kennedys release debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. They are the first non-major label U.S. punk band to successfully tour England and Europe. Many people Biafra meets are rabidly curious about what else lurks musically in the United States. The "punk is dead" media and the U.K. record labels don't care. Biafra records The Witch Trials improvisational EP with East Bay Ray, Christian Lunch and other friends in an apartment in London. Spring 1981 Alternative Tentacles re-launched with Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation album, designed to introduce Europe and the world at large to D.O.A. , Black Flag, Flipper, Bad Brains, Half Japanese and even Voice Farm, among many more. The European underground is never the same again. Hardcore punk breaks out and spreads throughout the industrialized world. Also released is the Too Drunk to Fuck single, featuring new drummer D.H. Peligro. The British tabloid press goes ballistic, some store owners are arrested. Industry fears rise that the single will reach the top 30 of the national charts and thus mandate a performance of the song on BBC-TV's "Top of the Pops". It peaks at ..31. ...Jellybeans helps create the same effect in the United States. Black Flag and D.O.A. stitch together national tours, while the biggest splash is the east coast return of Dead Kennedys. Jaded New York music press dismisses DKs all ages matinee at Bond's as a "cheap gimmick" . Several generations of artists later report that being at that show was the baptism that made them want to start a band. New York and the East Coast are never the same. Fall 1981 Dead Kennedys release In God We Trust, Inc. EP and Nazi Punks Fuck Off single. The music is faster and more extreme, reflecting the youthful hardcore energy coming out of California and Washington, D.C. Lyrics and packaging are gut-rage responses to the rise of the religious right, violence in the underground scene and the "election" of Ronald Reagan. Almost every "dire exaggeration" in the lyrics has since come true. More touring in Britain and Europe follows, with particularly wild shows in Italy and Finland. D.I.Y. hardcore EPs mushroom in these countries a few months later. Spring-Summer 1982 U.S. hardcore explosion in full swing. Legwork by Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, D.O.A. and Minor Threat establishes solid nationwide touring network through D.I.Y. underground promoters who completely avoid the still hostile music establishment. Harassment by police was an increasing problem. Denver cops try to confiscate the band's equipment, but give up when asked to carry the amps themselves. Alternative Tentacles continues to grow and penetrate with classic releases by D.O.A. , T.S.O.L. ; and in the U.K., 7 Seconds, Bad Brains and Husker Du. Fall, 1982 Dead Kennedys release second full- length, Plastic Surgery Disasters to decidedly mixed reviews. For the third time in a row fans are confronted with different sounds than they expected. Another Euro-visit follows, this time concentrating on Germany. 1983 Places to go, people to annoy. U.S. touring for Plastic Surgery Disasters culminates in Rock Against Reagan on the capitol mall in D.C. one day before the infamous 4th of July James Watt concert (Beach Boys cancelled in favor of Wayne Newton). Under clear skies a U.S. government helicopter floodlights DKs audience and photographs them when their faces look up. Torrential rains the next day delay Wayne Newton concert for several hours. Dead Kennedys also crack open Australia, finding a much more diverse scene than narrow-minded macho U.S. hardcore audiences will allow. Most bizarre of all is Adelaide's Grong Grong whose singer screams at the audience wearing a baklava and a cowboy hat. Their album is later released on Alternative Tentacles. The Aussies take on Detroit/garage rock is at its peak, and Biafra absorbs their sounds accordingly, being possibly the first person to bring their records into the United States. 1984 More live mayhem brings Dead Kennedys to guerrilla performances outside both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Republicans in Dallas are greeted by Biafra-led crowd chanting "Fuck off and die!" as they flee the hall for their hotel rooms. A mass die-in at Nieman-Marcus and the notorious Joey Johnson flag burning case that wound up in the Supreme Court add to the festivities. At the Democratic convention Dead Kennedys take the stage in Klansman hoods, then remove them to reveal Ronald Reagan masks underneath. A thousand people break away from the crowd to march on San Francisco City Hall, where they are beaten senseless by out-of-control police officers. February, 1985 Dead Kennedys reaffirm their place at the front of the musical vanguard of underground music with the release of the Frankenchrist album (possibly Biafra's favorite). Again, not what people expected. A poster insert by Swiss surrealist master H.R. Giger will soon prove very controversial. 1985 Infamous Senate anti-music hearings are staged by Senator Al Gore and his cohorts as a favor to his wife Tipper and her openly bigoted fundamentalist friends calling themselves the Parent's Music Resource Center (PMRC). Among the PMRC's demands were the censorship through a labeling system of warning stickers, the "Reassessment of contracts" of artists whose lyrics are, "sexually explicit", "anti-Christian" or mention suicide or homosexuality. "Expert witnesses" called by the Washington Wives blame rock music for gang violence, suicide, murder, devil worship and sexual perversion. Frank Zappa stands virtually alone in opposing the PMRC and sensing their significance. The music industry above and below ground keeps their head in the sand, preferring to sleep through the hearings. Fall, 1985 Frankenchrist helps propel Dead Kennedys to their most successful U.S. Tour ever. But it is not without problems: Some concerts suffer last-minute cancellations due to pressure from unnamed sources on city and

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