You may know Jello Biafra from his work as frontman of Dead Kennedys. But in the 20 years since the the legendary punk outfit disbanded, the San Francisco native has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations, with names like the Melvins, No Means No, DOA, Mojo Nixon, and Lard on his resume.
On October 20th, Biafra will debut his latest project, this being a brand new band featuring an all-star collective of bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More), guitarist Ralph Spight (Victims Family), guitarist Kimo Ball (Freak Accident), and drummer Jon Weiss (Sharkbait). They call themselves Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine and on the aforementioned date will offer their debut full-length, The Audacity of Hype.
Produced by Biafra by Matt Kelley (Hieroglyphics, The Coup) and recorded at Prairie Sun Recording in Cotati, CA and San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios, the record consists of nine tracks that are described as a two guitar attack that retains “some of the space-punk overtones and spy-music-on-meth chaos of Dead Kennedys while adding a healthy dose of Detroit style proto-punk, flavored with Weiss’ industrial excursions into metal percussion.”
Also worth mentioning, just because it’s fucking awesome, is the fact that of the album’s nine tracks, one, titled “Electronic Plantation”, was originally composed by No WTO Combo, Biafra’s short-lived one-off collaboration featuring Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) & Kim Thayil (Soundgarden).
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine of Medicine plan to tour in support of the release, with Jon’s brother Andrew Weiss filling the live bass position recently left vacant by Billy Gould, who of course has returned to Faith No More. So far, just one date is confirmed — an appearance at this year’s Voodoo Experience in New Orleans on October 31st.
The Audacity of Hope Tracklist:
01. The Terror of Tinytown
02. Clean As A Thistle
03. New Feudalism
04. Panic Land
05. Electronic Plantation
06. Three Strikes
07. Strength Through Shopping
08. Pets Eat Their Master
09. I Won’t Give Up