Spinner dubs Boulder's Biafra one of music's 10 biggest geeks

AOL's music blog, Spinner.com, posted a list late last week titled "Revenge of the Rock Nerds: The 10 Biggest Geeks in Music." Between such dorky songsmiths as Talking Heads' David Byrne (#10) and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo (#1) lies former Dead Kennedys frontman and longtime Bay Area fixture Jello Biafra (#8),...

By Jason Heller

August 3, 2009

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AOL's music blog, Spinner.com, posted a list late last week titled "Revenge of the Rock Nerds: The 10 Biggest Geeks in Music." Between such dorky songsmiths as Talking Heads' David Byrne (#10) and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo (#1) lies former Dead Kennedys frontman and longtime Bay Area fixture Jello Biafra (#8), who is cited by Spinner's staff for his "obnoxious persona and politically charged lyrics." Curiously, Spinner also goes out of its way to mention how the adolescent Biafra's "anti-establishment angst" stemmed from "the gentrification of his hometown of Boulder, Colo." However, Spinner fails to point out the geekiest thing about Biafra: his Chipmunk Punk voice.

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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