Customer Reviews

I Blow Minds for a Living

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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Being an avid fan of Jello, I regret saying that this album was less than you can usually expect from him. This is 2 CDs jammed full of preaching to the choir. The only spectacular item on this album is "Running for Mayor", which I thoroughly enjoyed. If you're a fan, you should have this for the classics like "Die for Oil, Sucker" and "Grow More Pot". (WARNING: Alternative Tentacles and Jello will get more money if you order straight from them!) www.alternativetentacles.com

This spoken word album, by ex-Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra, tackles a wide variety of topics including the Gulf War, Marijuana and other drug prohibition, censorship, sexual repression, and his 1979 run for mayor of San Francisco against the now California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

As of this date (6/97), Jello Biafra has released four spoken word albums. Look for:

No More Cocoons
High Priest of Harmful Matter
Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
END

This is a stunning spoken word with afew roars of agreement from Jello's audience. This will change your view on the american goverment forever this features the mix of wit and truth of his most well known spoken track "America should grow more pot" He is close to being the new voice of the generation X, more of a shock he already is.

I could listen to this all day long. Biafra is a little high strung but he does get his point across.

For all those who have yet to hear Biafra's satiric social commentary, this collection is a great palce to start. The 1st two pieces, "The Pledge of alleigence" and "Die For Oil" make this set well worth the money alone. And both are just as relevent today in our post 9-11 police state posture as they were when first released at the onset of the Operation Desert Storm, i.e., the holy war for oil. For as Biafra points out, quoting the famous social philosopher George Santayana, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repaet it." And that is precisely what this copuntry is poised to do with another round of attacks against Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people, which is just a pretext for assuring control of Middle East oil reserves and Isreal's contimuing disspossession of the Arab people.

Aside from these serious issues, Biafra also rails against the hypocrisy of censorship and its essential threat to freedom, his own journey from pacisist to advocate of direct action, the possibility of electoral reform, which after the "election" of Bu$h all can see is nothing more than a fanciful, albeit immobalizing, illusion. In addition to his comments on political participation he also gives a sardonic recounting of his own run for mayor of San Francisco, which is both hilarious and revealing of America's so-called democratic process. This is commentary and protest as only one should expect from the frontman of ther Dead Kennedys and as these disc's show, Jello is just as independent, serious, brash and entertaining as he was when singing "Califronia Uber Alles", only know he does so without the accopnaying music. This along with his other works can also be obtained directly from alternative tentacles and AK press. DIY and get involved now, before its too late.

Although originally released in 1991, during the first Gulf War, the first half of this album is more relevant and rings more true today than it did in 1991. The first half or so of the album is an excellent poetic rant against the war in Iraq and the neocons, even before the term "neocons" was widely used (he describes them accurately, without using the "neocon" label). His poetic rant against the war in Iraq has references to the oil industry, U.S. aid to Israel, the falling U.S. petrodollar, loss of civil liberties in the U.S., U.S. media, and the unwelcome reception the U.S. is receiving in Iraq for spreading "democracy". And just as this album states 14 years ago, the Democratic party has proven ineffective against the Republican war machine. Jello Biafra's words sound prophetic, 14 years later. My only criticism is that in one piece, Biafra puts too much faith in democracy. As we saw in the recent anti-gay marriage referenda, and the questionable election returns, too much democracy can be dangerous (mob rule). A must-have for anyone against the Iraq war, and anyone concerned with the future of America.

Jello Biafra proclaims the obscured truth on this well-performed spoken word. Agree with him or disagree with him, just think. Jello is a perfect mix of passion and reason. I loved this album, and i only wish i knew what he thought about all the nonsense AmeriKa and Klinton are doing in Kosovo.

An absolute piece of art this will change your entire view on the american goverment

There's always room for Jello, especially when it's got some extremely important content. A little old, talking about Bush, but still valid.

I am going to make this short but sweet: I have to wonder where Jello Biafra got the idea that it is my view that cultural tradition has never contributed a single thing to the advancement of knowledge or understanding. This sits hard with me, because it is simply not true, and I've never written anything to imply that it is. To plunge right into it, he proclaims at every opportunity that he'd never put a sinful spin on important issues. The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. The next time he decides to test another formula for silencing serious opposition, he should think to himself, cui bono? -- who benefits? "I Blow Minds For A Living" says that the worst types of crass louts there are are all inherently good, sensitive, creative, and inoffensive. What he means by this, of course, is that he wants free reign to exploit the public's short attention span in order to fill the air with recrimination and rancor.

His methods of interpretation always follow the same pattern. He puts the desired twist on the actual facts, ignores inconvenient facts, and invents as many new "facts" as necessary to convince us that he has achieved sainthood. I, not being one of the many peevish anthropophagi of this world, acknowledge freely and make no apology for the fact that I once considered it reasonable for malicious ostentatious big-mouths to put shiftless pettifoggers on the federal payroll. But now I know that ancient Greek dramatists discerned a peculiar virtue in being tragic. "I Blow Minds For A Living" would do well to realize that they never discerned any virtue in being ruthless. So, sorry for being so long-winded in this review, but the reservoir from which Jello Biafra draws his accomplices is primarily the masses of stupid obstinate blackguards.