Jello Biafra (born Eric Reed Boucher; June 17, 1958, Boulder, Colorado) is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. After he left the band, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and actively supports various political causes. He ran for the party's Presidential nomination in 2000, finishing second to Ralph Nader. He is a staunch believer in free society, which is not to be confused with libertarianism or voluntary society (voluntaryism), who utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south). The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new country was among the complex causes for the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War.
Land of the Rising Sun was chosen for Biafra's national anthem, and the state was formally recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Zambia. Other nations which did not give official recognition but which did provide support and assistance to Biafra included Israel, France, Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa and the Vatican City. Biafra also received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland, Caritas International, MarkPress and U.S. Catholic Relief Services.
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore (née Aitcheson; born August 19, 1948) is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore. She is known for her role in the Parents Music Resource Center criticizing record covers featuring "profane language", especially in the heavy metal and rap genres.
Born Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson in Washington, D.C., Tipper Gore is the daughter of John Kenneth "Jack" Aitcheson, Jr., a plumbing-supply entrepreneur, and his first wife, Margaret Ann (née Carlson) Odom (who lost her first husband during World War II). Her nickname, Tipper, derives from the lullaby "Tippy, Tippy, Tin", originally sung in the 1940 Our Gang short "All About Hash" by child actress Janet Burston. Her ancestry includes English, Scottish, German, and Swedish. Gore grew up in Arlington, Virginia. Her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother and grandmother.
She attended St. Agnes (now St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School), a private Episcopal school in Alexandria, Virginia, where she excelled in athletics and played the drums for an all-girl band, The Wildcats.
Oderus Urungus, played by Dave Brockie, is the lead vocalist of the Metal band Gwar. He appears as an intergalactic humanoid barbarian with devil horns and a meaty looking face, and always carries around a long sword named "Unt Lick". His only true companion is his Cuttle fish, though lost for a short period it has returned to its true resting place.
According to Gwar mythos, Oderus Urungus is 43 billion years old, and was assembled on a planet called Scumdogia in "Syntho Womb 5" after pieces of his mouldy war frame were found scattered throughout the galaxy. According to interviews, Oderus' father was a supercomputer, and his mother was a petri dish. It is suggested in the lyrics of "Fire in the Loins" (from RagNaRok) that Slymenstra Hymen is his sister, but this is never fully explained.
Oderus Urungus is the only character to have existed in every incarnation of Gwar, having started as a guitar player, then moving to bass, and finally the vocals.