**Special sections**
Rock movements
Historic concerts
Important people

**Rock ages**
Jazz Rock
Punk
Grunge
The beginning
Reggae

**Rock artists**
Eurythmics
Damned
Eagles
Hawkwind
Doors

**Rock albums**
London Calling
Street Survivors
Revolver
One size fits all
Storm the Reality St

Dead Kennedys

From USA

Listed under : Punk 1976-1980

by Eli Kaplus
The Dead Kennedys were formed in 1978 in San Francisco and quicklybecame one of the most popular punk groups of the early 1980's. They are commonlyregarded as one of the best political punk groups ever.

In 1979, the Dead Kennedys,Jello Biafra (vocals), East Bay Ray (guitar), Klaus Flouride (bass), and arevolving door of drummers until the addition of D.H. Peligro, released their firstsingle "Kill The Poor" and from then on the Dead Kennedys popularity kept rising.By 1980, the punk scene had begun to shift towards the fast fury of hardcore so theDead Kennedys immediately changed their sound from the standard punk sound to thehyper speed of hardcore. In 1981, the band released their biggest single ever, "TooDrunk To Fuck".

At the time, the Dead Kennedys were perhaps the most popular punkgroup going in the U.K. and much of Europe. In the U.K., authorities were afraidthat the "Too Drunk" single would rise into the top 30 singles prompting the groupto play on the well known British music show, Top Of The Pops. The single peaked at#31. Despite being so removed from the mainstream the Dead Kennedys pressed on andcreated some of the best political punk ever. Then in 1985 the band ran into legaltrouble when their album, Frankenchrist, was deemed obscene and a trial insuedwhich eventually the band won. The Dead Kennedys decided to break up in 1986 andreleased their last album, Bedtime For Democracy. Since then, vocalist Jello Biafrahas worked with Ministry as well as his own band Lard and has put out many spokenword records. He has continued to be a political activist and does many spoken wordconcerts.

The Dead Kennedys recently reformed without Biafra. Unfournately, a largeamount of legal trouble insued between the band members regarding the selling ofthe Dead Kennedys's songs, advertising of the band's back catalog and other things.Most recently, the Dead Kennedys invited Jello Biafra back into the fold for their25th anniversary performance. Biafra declined. Despite the sad state the band is inthe Dead Kennedys remain one the best punk bands ever. DK are essential listeningfor any punk rocker.

Web site :

Vote for this artist/group, current rating is : 1.88

Listed albums for Dead Kennedys

Bedtime For Democracy
More info

Love or hate Dead Kennedys?
Share your thoughts about Dead Kennedys

If you think an album should be listed here, let me know, just click on the button, give the album name, a comment and some tracks.

Add an album by
Dead Kennedys

Like this article?

Comments and feedback | About this site