Not-Jello quits Kennedys

The never-quite-satisfying post-Biafra Dead Kennedys have got a problem this morning, with Jeff Penalty quitting the band.

Although we've never really thought much of his attempts to be mimic Jello, we have to be honest: his departure is every bit as bitter and noisy as Biafra's original split with the group:

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's that last little detail - not just playing a show with a replacement, but doing it round the corner from his house - that we think really shows the Kennedys in their warmest, truest light.