But Unfinished is far from incomplete without Guinn. Smith, who writes and arranges the band's material, is also vocally adept, proving his worth on numbers such as the mystical and dreamy Hashishin and the jazz tune Slap in the Face.
Although an independent release, the album exudes a very high degree of professionalism in both production and musical content. With the nation's love for easy listening music at an all time high, Unfinished certainly has what it takes to become one of the few bands of "aliens" to take its music further than a muddy field in Kenting.
Jello Biafra
Machine Gun in the Clown's Hands Alternative Tentacles
In the seven years Jello Biafra spent behind the microphone with the Dead Kennedys, he penned some of the most biting and savage lyrics of the entire punk movement. After he parted company with the band shortly after a 1986 obscenity lawsuit -- the result of the band's incorporation of artwork depicting sodomy in its Frankenchrist album -- Biafra followed in the footsteps of Black Flag frontman, Henry Rollins, and took his poignant wit on the road.
His first solo spoken-word album, 1987's No More Cocoons, was far less well-received than any of his Kenndeys' albums. Still, Biafra has continued to release spoken word albums in which he lampoons US culture, global politics and multinational corporations, to name a few of his targets.
The triple CD, Machine Gun in the Clown's Hands, is his latest such venture. Recorded live, the album is packed with 23 biting, sarcastic and at times humorous monologues touching on everything from the war against terror, or TWAT as Biafra referrers to it, to the Bush administration and SUV owners. While not side-splittingly humorous, Biafra packs his orations with enough sarcasm and dry wit that each routine could itself be a Dead Kennedys number, if accompaniment had been provided by his old cronies, Klaus Flouride, East Bay Ray and D.H. Peligro.
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