Jello Biafra is back with the Guantanamo School of Medicine

Voodoo 2009

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By Tim Jones

Ex-Dead Kennedys singer and outspoken spoken word performer Jello Biafra is back again, fronting The Guantanamo School of Medicine (GSM). 

Unlike past collaborations with the Melvins or DOA, The Guantanamo School of Medicine is a newly formed band, consisting of guitarists Ralph Spight (Victim's Family) and Kimo Ball, bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More), Jon Weiss on drums, and Andrew Weiss (Rollins Band) playing bass on the tour. 

In a phone interview, Biafra said that seeing The Stooges reunion for Iggy Pop's 60th birthday party "gave [him] the spark" to get back to making music.

"One of the reasons I felt like I had to get back to making music and put the spoken word on the shelf for a little while is because nobody does what I do in this day and age," said Biafra. "The music sounds a certain way, it has a certain thing to it."

Jello Biafra and the GSM's new release entitled The Audacity of Hype is sure to please fans of Biafra's work in Dead Kennedys while distinguishing itself nicely with some exciting new elements. Jello's instantly recognizable voice and trademark acerbic humor are in fine form, especially on "Three Strikes", a song criticizing the criminal law policy of the same name. The dual guitars by Spight and Ball bring a new level of heaviness to the music with occasional flashes of psychotic surf guitar and shredding wah-drenched solos while Weiss's trash-can-clang percussion flourishes add an unexpected industrial edge. 

Fans of Biafra know well the intensely political nature of his lyrics, and the new record is no exception.  The album is bookended by songs about the previous and current presidential administrations, "Terror of Tiny Town" and "I Won't Give Up" respectively. "Terror of Tiny Town" is classic Jello, but "I Won't Give Up" drops the usual sarcasm and twisted humor in favor of cautious optimism and determination. 

"['Terror of Tiny Town'] was a 1930s cowboy movie and the cast were all midgets, and I saw it before Bush invaded Iraq, and it was just so parallel to the way everything went wrong in Iraq and stuff and the big evil midget villain in the black hat tried to take over everything, and eventually everybody turned on him, and he got blown up in a burning cabin that he tried to dynamite to kill somebody else," explained Biafra. 

"Overall, 'I Won't Give Up' is maybe my first shot across the bow of the age of Obama, where already on healthcare and Afghanistan and not going after the Bush crimes, he's proving to be very, very disappointing, so the whole purpose of the song is 'Look, we've gotta get him to make these changes ourselves and keep pushing,'" he added.

Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School of Medicine play in the Bingo! Parlor at 8pm Saturday.

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine will be performing at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Le Carnival in the Bingo! Parlor.

Originally Published: Issue 821 - October 28, 2009

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