Dead Kennedys...

[Listen]

I hope this is in the right spot! It's kinda' two different categories.

Does anyody know what kind of bass Klaus Flouride from the Dead Kennedy's uses? He's an awesome bass player, and he has a distinct sound and style. I have the style figured, but I need to figure out that distinct noise . Does anybody know what I mean?



EDIT: He's from the Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables era.

[BigWig Will]

I thought it was a P-bass, though I could be wrong. He's a real dissonant player, I like his lines though, very fitting.

[ahpook]

i seem to remember a p-bass too

[narud]

in a video i have from around 85 he's using a 66-67 era jazz bass.

[peteroberts]

when I saw them years and years and years ago, I remember a P-bass.

[razorbakc]

its and old blue jazz with stickers, i saw them about a month ago. i actually stood right mext to him while the opening band was playing, but didnt even realize it.


as for the sound... he had some sort of pedal

[Howard K]

I have the style figured, but I need to figure out that distinct noise.

I'll bet that didn't take too long

Kidding, sorry, no offence!

I was really into DK, but I can't say I really got into the bass tho. I shall have another listen to the old albums when I get home.

All those years ago his sound was probably a combination of a knckered bass, big ol' ****ty amp and mega-old strings soaked in puke or something!

Fresh Fruit was their best album IMO, although I have a 'soft spot' for In God We Trust, Inc and Bedtime For Democracy.

...and that poster of the HR Giger painting that came free in the FrankenChrist LP... YUCK!!! That was the end of them, if I remember rightly Tipper Gore fricked them over good and proper didn't she?

[Planet Boulder]

Plastic Surgery Disasters all the way!!!!

Check out the bass line in "Bleed for Me".

[old_skool]

Saw a video today from '84. That blue/tealish J-Bass with the stickers sounds like the same one in the video. It has the "DK" sound live...

[Jarrod]

Originally posted by razorbakc
its and old blue jazz with stickers, i saw them about a month ago. i actually stood right mext to him while the opening band was playing, but didnt even realize it.

there is a band touring right now calling themselves dead kennedys, but it isn't the real band... its East Bay Ray and Klaus with a different drummer and more disturbingly, a new singer (even though they are still using biafra's picture in their press kit)

even worse, these jerks are SUING Jello Biafra for all the rights to the music after he refused to allow "holiday in cambodia" to be using in a freaking dockers commercial a few years ago

they have basically violated everything the band stood for for 20 years... and so far they're winning the lawsuit

[Howard K]

they have basically violated everything the band stood for for 20 years... and so far they're winning the lawsuit

That sucks BIG TIME!

I was into them because of the whole anti-establishment ethic as much as the music (he said in his lunch hour whilst working for a huge multi-national).

I am genuinely annoyed by that. It's obviously not bedtime for hypocracy yet

[Matthew West]

Originally posted by Jarrod
even worse, these jerks are SUING Jello Biafra for all the rights to the music after he refused to allow "holiday in cambodia" to be using in a freaking dockers commercial a few years ago

they have basically violated everything the band stood for for 20 years... and so far they're winning the lawsuit

Maybe you need to do a little more research. The other original three members are trying to gain some amount of control over the music they created. Until recently, Jello Biafra had complete control over the DK's catalog, and made all of the decisions about merchandising and royalty payments. He did not allow the other members to have any voice in the way things were run, and did not pay them the correct royalty amounts. When companies would offer money to license songs from the DK's catalog, Jello made all the decisions.

So you are saying that the other members have no right to make decisions about their music? That they do not deserve to be paid appropriate royalties? In a situation where four people created the music, shouldn't decisions be made on a 'majority rules' basis?

As last I heard, the other guys had won. A judge forced Jello to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars in back royalties, and gave them the right to make decisions about the music they wrote.

Gee, that judge sure sounds like a jerk to me too...

[Howard K]

Aah, the other side of the coin.

Yes, if the band members had equal input and agreed equal shares initially then majority rules should apply for sure.

It's a funny one, I mean by selling their tracks to Dockers commercial they are seriously selling out on everything they stood for... but they probably want a nice sum to retire to... and why not? After all they have earned it.

[Jarrod]

Originally posted by Matthew West


Maybe you need to do a little more research. The other original three members are trying to gain some amount of control over the music they created.

perhaps i should have gone into more detail

East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, and DH Peligro sued Jello Biafra for the rights to the entire catalog after Jello refused to allow "holiday in cambodia" to be used in a dockers commercial. Now it seems to me that if the other band members had any shred of dignity at all, they would have stood by jello's decision to keep their work legit by not allowing it to be used to pimp casualwear for preppies and businessmen. Instead, they decided that it would be easier to sell out if they cut him out of his piece of the rights to the music. As you probably know, dead kennedys releases have been on Alternative Tentacles records (biafra's label) since the early 80's... however there has been no evidence that jello was witholding the other members' royalties (this seems to be BS they have cooked up to gain support for their cause).

resulting from the dispute over the dockers commercial, Ray, Klaus, and Peligro sued jello for the rights to most DK releases and won, after which, Ray went into AT's warehouse and took all of the stock, with the exception of "Fresh Fruit..." and the "Nazi Punks F-off" single, which jello was still allowed to sell through the AT website until they too were eventually taken later on

the band sold the music to manifesto records, which is why you now see DK records in stores on the Decay/Manifesto label... when one of these records is purchased, jello gets no money... only the other three do (yet they supposedly just wanted fair distribution of royalties, yeah right)

jello was not forced to pay back royalties, however the other members are demanding $140,000 from him, which they claim are their legal fees to sue him (without showing any proof of this)

since that ugliness, the band has put out a lame quick-cash-attempt live album, and has begun touring under the name Dead Kennedys but without Jello... if you ask me and most DK fans, it ain't DK without biafra... JELLO BIAFRA WAS DK! and it gets better... the band is STILL using biafra's name and likeness to promote their bogus tour and is conveniently forgetting to mention that he isn't in the band... effectively swindling hundreds of fans out of thousands of dollars... that sure doesn't sound like the ethic of the dead kennedys to me... it sounds like the ethic of some money hungry jerks who don't believe in their message and apparently never did, which is extremely disheartening

and dare i even mention their Best Buy appearance? ugh

looks like another great band has bit the dust and become just another corporate cash machine

R.I.P. Dead Kennedys, you'll be sorely missed

[BigWig Will]

Brandon Cruz (they're touring singer) refuses to sign DK stuff "It's not my music" he says.

Kinda the whole thing in a nutshell.

[old_skool]

What a sad, sad matter that all is.

[Listen]

Jello screwed up, and everyone else kicked him in the ass...that's it...this is wwwwaaaaayyyyyyy off topic now.

[Howard K]

So does the bassist use a pick?

[Matthew West]

Originally posted by Jarrod
jello was not forced to pay back royalties, however the other members are demanding $140,000 from him, which they claim are their legal fees to sue him (without showing any proof of this)

I stand corrected. I guess that's what happens when you rely on the mainstream media for your DK news. My apologies.

But I do think that there comes a time for guys like the DK's where they need to think about their old age, and making some money for posterity becomes more important than upholding the punk ideals of your youth.

I have heard about the "reunion" tour, which I think smacks of opportunism.

I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

[Listen]

Originally posted by Howard K
So does the bassist use a pick?

Doesnt sound like it...but maybe