JELLO AGAIN

“BEDTIME FOR DEMOCRACY,” Dead Kennedys. Alternative Tentacles. On this its final album, the recently disbanded San Francisco brigade delivers its usual exhilarating blast of politically-oriented thrash punk. The overwhelming majority of the 21 tunes whiz by in a blur of slashing guitars, fat bass lines and indecipherable but insistent vocals. Fortunately, the lyric sheet shows that singer-writer Jello Biafra (who appears in a reading on Xxxday at the Variety Arts Center) remains one of rock’s most intelligent spokesmen. On “Bedtime” Biafra lambastes everything from toxic waste and U.S. immigration laws to censorship and “Macho Insecurity.” There are also a few scathing indictments of the stagnant hard-core scene. It seems only fitting that the DK’s should go out swinging.