Not entirely sure about the whole "spoken word" genre, although the two shows I have seen under the particular rubric - by Henry Rollins and Ray Davies (of The Kinks) - have both been splendid affairs, in that they're less intense than one-man shows but a tad more interesting than your average music gig. With "spoken word" it does help if you have something interesting to say - which is why the next gig in the genre to come to Dublin is pretty much a "must see". The person doing the talking is the one and only Jello Biafra.
Where do you start? Probably with his band The Dead Kennedys, which sent middle America into paroxysms of moral indignation during the 1980s. Very much the uncrowned kings of US punk, they led the march out from the underground which was later to facilitate Nirvana's passage into the hearts and minds of the MTV nation. Raised on a diet of the scuzzier British punk rockers combined with slabs of local Californian hardcore skate punk (the whole Orange County scene), The Dead Kennedys' live shows were a spectacle to behold, combining as they did elements of theatre of the absurd with more common-or-garden performance art-type antics - this, after all, is the band which invented stage-diving.
Early albums like Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegtables and In God We Trust Inc were powerful and trenchant attacks on all manner of socio-cultural madness, but it was the singles that really stood out, especially the still-great California Uber Alles, which was a reasoned - if vitriolic - attack on the hippy "new age" fascism which was engulfing the state. Perhaps even better was the follow-up Holiday in Cambodia, which managed to satirise Generation X-type behaviour a good decade before the term was even invented. Sample lyric: "Playing ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz on your five grand stereo/Bragging that you know how the niggers feel cold and the slum's got so much soul . . . " Any wonder he never quite made it on to many radio playlists?
Shortly after setting up his own Alternative Tentacles label (which released records by No Means No and Alice Donut), Jello Biafra ran into a bit of censorship trouble that was ultimately to determine his creative output for the next few years - and will feature heavily, no doubt, in his spoken word show here in Dublin next week. The artwork for an album called Frankenchrist (1985) featured a figurative piece by H.R. Giger called Landscape #20 (better known as "Penis landscape") which provoked the setting up by Tipper Gore (wife of Al, vice-president of the US, pop kids) and others of the pathetic coffee morning pressure group called PMRC - which was a group of self-appointed moral guardians having liberal fits about "explicit and obscene" references in rock music graphics and lyrics - the old "devil's music" argument.
In a landmark case, and way before the 2 Live Crew court case (which had an impact on Negativland - but that's another story), the PMRC took Jello Biafra to court on counts of obscenity. Biafra argued "artistic freedom" and the case became such a cause celebre in the US that Biafra ended up on the Oprah Winfrey Show (of all things) arguing his innocence. He was eventually cleared on all counts and the case was thrown out of court. The PMRC then started to pick on black rap artists, and lobbied the music industry to introduce "Parental Guidance Advised" on the covers of rap albums. The whole episode backfired when record shops reported that customers were only interested in buying albums with the "Parental Guidance Advised" sticker attached - as this meant the rap music was of the better, non-sanitised variety. Tipper Gore is now at great pains to distance herself from the work of the PMRC. But we still remember.
Biafra is now a solo artist, still making music and still making waves. Over the last two decades he has been at the cutting edge of American music and has many a story to tell. Hear it at first hand when he does his spoken word show at the new Vicar Street venue (near Christchurch) next Tuesday night at 8 p.m. sharp. He's also at the Belfast Crescent Arts Centre the following night (21st).
WELL worth a gawk is the Here Comes The Night Tour, which features a DJ set from Today FM's Donal Dineen and a gig from the Roscommon band, now signed to Geffen, The Marbles. The latter's new single In My Eye (which sounded better when they released it on their own label two years ago, but there you go) is in the shops now. The tour arrives in Horan's of Tralee next Thursday night, and goes on to UCD on October 29th before finishing up in the Half Moon Club in Cork on Friday 30th.
