Jeff Penalty verlässt die DEAD KENNEDYS

"I`m so punk that I quit Dead Kennedys" - Jeff Penalty, Sänger der DEAD KENNEDYS, hat in seinem MySpace-Blog klargestellt, warum er die Band verlässt...

DEAD KENNEDYS milking the sacred cow (c) Cherry Red/Rough Trade / Zum Vergrößern auf das Bild klicken

Lest selbst:

Or maybe I was fired. It’s kinda hard to say. But the point is I am not in the band anymore and, unfortunately, it was not an amicable split.

It’s likely that, if asked, the band will attribute my departure to scheduling conflicts brought about by my documentary work, but in reality it’s a tediously long story involving personality conflicts, creative differences, arguments about splitting money equally, arguments about how the band should be run, arguments about the wisdom of hiring a band manager whose other star client was a Christian folk artist, arguments about whether we should or shouldn’t go on MTV, and arguments about many other wretched things.

I thought about quitting numerous times over the past year, but I officially did so on Thanksgiving when I found out that the band had been recruiting a new singer behind my back and had even played a secret show with one at a bar in my neighborhood.

It should also be noted that before I left Ray and Klaus also put D.H. on an "extended leave" from the band (without my knowledge and for reasons that i shouldn’t discuss publicly). Ray and Klaus recently booked four shows under the name "Funland," playing a full DK set (and two new songs) with a new singer and drummer, but after the first two poorly-attended and low-guarantee shows, they reverted back to "Dead Kennedys" for what seem like obvious reasons.

They’ve booked two shows this summer as "Dead Kennedys," but Klaus Flouride’s MySpace page lists the shows as "Funland" shows. I don’t really know what’s going on with them and I don’t know if they’re planning on letting D.H. back in the band, but if you’re buying a ticket for "Dead Kennedys" this summer, just be aware that you’re really going to get "Funland."

Either way, for whatever it’s worth, I won’t be there.

It’s a sad turn of events for me because I was really proud of what we were able to accomplish with Dead Kennedys. Despite all the criticism, we took more of a principled stand on certain things than most people will ever know and we brought great music and a great message to a lot of audiences. I was glad that we ruffled a few feathers in the punk scene and I was amazed at the ability of their music and our performances to transcend scene politics and convert scores of non-believers. I will always think of it as an important and timely reunion both for the punk scene and for the world at large, and as a defining period of my life. So it’s upsetting for me personally to see that Ray and Klaus have finally become what they’ve always been accused of. It wasn’t always like this.

I always said that I was prepared for DK to end at any moment and that I would always appreciate whatever time I was afforded in the band, and that still holds true. My only wish is that it hadn’t ended so bitterly.

My sincere thanks, and apologies, go out to the fans that supported my participation in the band. And Jello, you’ve been wrong about a lot of stuff, but you were certainly right about not trusting those guys...

U.S.A. and Blackwater out of Iraq.

-The Jeff Penalty

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