Green Jellÿ


Green Jellÿ is an American comedy rock band formed in 1981. Originally named Green Jellö, the band changed its name due to legal pressure from Kraft Foods, the owners of the Jell-O trademark, who claimed that it was an infringement of their trademark. Despite the spelling difference, the new name and the old are pronounced identically.
Known for sophomoric humor, theatrical performances and intentionally crude musicianship, Green Jellÿ has had hundreds of members during the band's existence, with vocalist Bill Manspeaker the only consistent member throughout.
The band's early 1990s lineup included drummer Danny Carey, who went on to be the drummer in Tool. Their biggest hit was the single "Three Little Pigs", adapted from the fairy tale.

History

Bill Manspeaker, a resident of Hollywood, California, formed Green Jellÿ in 1981 as Green Jellö, a four-piece comedy-punk band. As most of the band's members were poor musicians at the time, they billed themselves as "The World's Worst Band" and emphasized bizarre theatrics, power chords, and self-deprecating humor. The name, which was suggested by a friend of the band, was chosen because the band members felt lime-flavored Jell-O was the worst Jell-O flavor, and Manspeaker believed this also reflected the band's talents.
The band began playing punk shows around Buffalo, New York, and became notorious for their onstage antics and live theatrics. The band were musical novices to the degree that the bassist had to color-code the frets on his bass guitar so that he could memorize finger placement by color.

Early career (1981–1984)

One of the band's earliest shows was held in a Masonic Temple in Kenmore. During the show, members of the rowdy audience broke into the venue's kitchen mid-concert and found a full case of ice cream sandwiches, which they proceeded to throw at the band. By the end of the night the stage was ruined and Green Jellö had to reimburse the venue for damages and cleaning. Another early gig at a YMCA also ended in the band having to pay for clean-up; this time for spilling a large amount of fake blood on the carpets. The band acquired a reputation as a "food-throwing rock band", and audience members started bringing their own green Jell-O to shows, which they would then throw at the band. The group was eventually banned from Buffalo music club McVans for an act that included smashing televisions on stage with a sledgehammer. They temporarily changed their name to AJP, copying the Sex Pistols' trick of changing their name to "SPOTS" in order to play shows in places where they were banned, including McVans. This proved successful, and they got back into McVans only to repeat their destructive conduct and be banned once again. Following this incident, the name was changed back to Green Jellö and they attempted to book different venues.
Green Jellÿ found a supporter in local punk club "The Continental" owner Bud Burke. Burke let the band play his club on a regular basis despite the bizarre live shows. Implements of sadomasochism, such as inversion boots and wheels of torture were employed and on some occasions the band incompetently played an entire show of Led Zeppelin covers. As word spread, the shows began to regularly sell out.
In 1984 Green Jellö opened for the Ramones at a Buffalo State College summertime outdoor free concert, and the band were pelted by the audience with the usual Jell-O, whipped cream and pudding. In the end, not only were Green Jellö covered, but so too was the Ramones' equipment. Years later in an interview with New York Rocker magazine, Joey Ramone singled out Green Jellö as the worst band to ever open for the Ramones.

''Let It Be'' (1984–1987)

In 1984 Green Jellö released Let It Be, an 8-song 7-inch 45 EP, on their own label, American Jello Parti Productions, Inc. The cover artwork was a parody of The Beatles' Let It Be album cover. Recorded in Bill's bedroom and at a local band rehearsal hall, the album featured the theme song "Green Jellö Theme Song", as well as early songs "I've Got Poo-Poo On My Shoe", "Whip Me Teenage Babe", "Hill, Hill", "Do the Howie", the one-second long "Icrog", "The Ice Cream Song", and "I'll Buy You Any Major Appliance You Want Baby, Ooo Ooo".
Let It Be was limited to a release of 500 and only released picture sleeves were simply a green tinted photocopy of the original cardboard sleeve. The original hard-cardboard sleeves are now highly sought after by collectors.
The record also included a multi-panel lyric sheet. The back cover of the picture sleeve features an actual endorsement from Kiss member Paul Stanley, whom Green Jellö had met during that time. The Let It Be EP was also given away at a record release party in which fans had to climb a "Green Jellö Tree" in front of the club to claim a free record. The band actually taped a large amount of 45s up in the tree in the front of the club. The band's high propensity for absurd, illogical stunts such as this soon became the norm.
Around this time, Green Jellö started turning up for gigs in multiple stretch limos. The band just thought it was an absurd, funny thing for an admittedly horrible band to do. Other weird things Green Jellö used to do on stage during early Buffalo shows included making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on their chests, and ironing clothes on stage while singing.
The band began to get more and more outrageous onstage, eventually involving fake torture, whipping and women. Often the band would play new songs, so that the audience would not know how badly they were messing up. Crazy stage names were adopted, multiple members joined. Green Jellö appeared on the TV show The Gong Show. Trying hard to sound bad, the band was "gonged" quickly, but had achieved its goal of national TV exposure.

Road to success (1987–1991)

After the local success in Buffalo, many of the members relocated to Hollywood, California. In 1987, while working at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, they reformed the band, and quickly became a fixture in the Hollywood underground scene. Their first Los Angeles show was at The Central, playing a show organized by Sylvia Massy, who would later produce two of their albums. In 1988, Bill and the band met Gwar, and an instant friendship was formed over their mutual love of costumes and props. After the initial meeting, Green Jellö decided to ditch their uncomfortable and dangerous papier maché/chicken wire costume heads in favor of the more user friendly foam rubber heads that Gwar had been making. They garbage picked cushions from abandoned Hollywood couches and carved their new characters such as "Shitman", "Cowgod", "Rock n Roll Pumpkin", and "Satan's Ham". The band's live show became an over-the-top adventure in absurdity, now consisting of usually 20 members onstage.
In 1989, Green Jellö released its second album, Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan, on February 29 Records, which was recorded in a garage with producer Sylvia Massy in about the same amount of time it takes to play it. A rare video was also released for this album with music videos for each song. It featured a much more defined sound, as well as far better production and songwriting. The band began to tighten up musically, enlisting drummer Danny Carey, as well as bassist Bill Tutton, guitarists Marc Levinthal, Steven Shenar, C.J. Buscaglia and Bernie Peaks, along with bassist Rootin' Bloomquist. The band also had 7 vocalists, including Bill Manspeaker, Joe Cannizzaro, Keith Matherne, Gary Helsinger, Greg Reynard and Maynard James Keenan. The band also had two female backup singers/floor tom drummers, Kim O'Donnell, and Caroline Jester. Kim O'Donnell also designed and created all the artwork, covers, comics, and logos for the band.

''Cereal Killer'' (1991–1993)

In 1991, the band approached BMG subsidiary label Zoo Entertainment, and claiming they were the "world's first video-only band", offered to make the entire project entirely on their own for the unheard-of sum of $50,000. Zoo signed them on the spot. The only problem was, it had been a bluff, and the band had never made a "video album" before. After buying a video camera, some wood and some lights, the band set out to learn on the job, and in Fall 1992 delivered their third album Cereal Killer, again produced by Sylvia Massy, recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The Cereal Killer album came with the long-form video release, consisting of music videos for each song, as well as a behind-the-scenes feature. The video album slowly gained a reputation in the underground, and would eventually go on to sell over 100,000 copies. Their break came when a radio station in Seattle, Washington, The X KXRX, played "Three Little Pigs" as a joke, but instead the station's phones lit up and it became a local hit. This caused Zoo to issue the EP Green Jellö SUXX, consisting of four songs from Cereal Killer, which in turn led to "The Three Little Pigs" becoming a hit on The Box. By early 1993, the song was gaining airplay around the country, and after appearing on MTV Headbanger's Ball, everything exploded. MTV added the video and the full-length audio album Cereal Killer Soundtrack was finally released in April 1993.
The video for "The Three Little Pigs" was directed by Fred Stuhr, and it featured a claymation rendition of the classic fairy tale with modern twists, such as pot-smoking pigs, an appearance by Rambo, and a Harley Davidson-riding wolf. The video was an instant hit on MTV and was No. 17 for most of the summer of 1993 in the US, receiving both an MTV music award and Billboard music award nomination. Meanwhile, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at a peak position of No. 5. As a result of "The Three Little Pigs" video, the Cereal Killer Soundtrack album went gold in the US, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as platinum in Australia, eventually selling over 14 million songs worldwide. Green Jellö spent almost a year touring the US and Europe in support of the Cereal Killer Soundtrack. In 1993 they released the single "Electric Harley House ", the video featured Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS and also featured some of the band in KISS-inspired costumes. Later in 1993, Green Jellÿ released a single that was not to be included on any of their full-length albums: a duet with Hulk Hogan performing Gary Glitter's "I'm the Leader of the Gang ", which scored them a third Top 40 hit in the UK.

''333'' and late career (1994–1995)

In 1994, Green Jellÿ began a joint venture with $4 million from their parent company, BMG Music, to open Green Jellÿ Studios, an audio and visual production house on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The production house made music videos for other artists, as well as production pieces for TV and film. It was here that Green Jellÿ recorded and filmed their 4th album, 333. Focusing more on the musical side, and even featuring non-comedy songs, the album was a more eclectic gathering, ranging from thrash metal to grunge rock to dance music. Due to problems with the record company and virtually no promotion, the album failed to make waves. The long form video for the album was never properly released, and is extremely hard to find. The album spawned "The Bear Song" which appears in the Farrelly Brothers film Dumb and Dumber, but failed to chart. Though the new video album was never properly released, it did receive a 1995 Grammy nomination for best long-form video.
Also in 1994, the band wrote and produced the soundtrack for the Acclaim Entertainment video game '. Due to the state of video game music technology at that time, the soundtrack was not recorded music, but a computerized rendition of the songs. Portions of the soundtrack also made an appearance in Maximum Carnages sequel, . In the same year, Green Jellÿ appeared as themselves in an episode of the Fantastic Four animated series called "Super Skrull", in which The Thing records a music video for a song about his catch phrase—"It’s Clobberin’ Time!"
In 1995, the band recorded an album's worth of brand-new material for Zoo Entertainment, but due to ongoing problems with the struggling label which would eventually lead to it being merged with Volcano Entertainment in 1996, the album was not released. However, this material would be released 14 years later in the form of Musick to Insult Your Intelligence By''.
Although Green Jellÿ never officially broke up, the members of the band's core Cereal Killer/333 lineup gradually started going separate ways afterwards.
Green Jellÿ also released a cover of "Born to Be Wild" in 1995, for a movie soundtrack of the same name.

Reunion and ''Musick to Insult Your Intelligence By'' (2008–2009)

On February 19, 2008, music news website Blabbermouth.net announced that Green Jellÿ was reuniting and that a possible U.S. tour was in the works. The band also re-released the Cereal Killer and 333 video/albums on a self-produced DVD with Originology Records, which were only sold at their concerts.
In late August, the band announced via their Myspace page that they would again be going on tour in the Fall. Several "new" songs became available via their Myspace page, as well as information on a new Green Jellö DVD and CD.
Green Jellÿ finally released Musick to Insult Your Intelligence By on October 13, 2009. The album was actually a collection of the "lost demos" from 1995 for the band's 3rd album before being dropped by Zoo Entertainment, and was pulled from a DAT safety that Gary Helsinger had kept. It features the same lineup as Cereal Killer and 333 except for C.J. Buscaglia and Roy Staley, who had already left the band at the time of recording.

Touring and new releases (2010–present)

On March 25, 2010, Green Jellÿ embarked on the Parental Advisory tour with headliners Nashville Pussy and the cult comedy metal band Psychostick. The tour ended in Phoenix, Arizona on May 30, 2010. In May 2010, Shell Gasoline released a commercial featuring "The Bear Song" from the album "333". On June 26, 2010 Green Jellÿ played the "American Skate Fest" in Rutland, Ohio with headliners Gwar. Then the band played four shows on The Vans Warped Tour on the "Punk Rock Legends" stage. The band toured extensively the rest of the year on the "Shell Gas Commercial Tour" playing in over 130 cities throughout the United States.
The band took most of 2011 off, only playing select shows at The Vans Warped Tour and The Skatopia Bowl Bash.
As of 2012, Bill Manspeaker has once again brought Green Jellÿ back to life to embark on the "Green Jelly Jet Set Tour 2012" touring throughout the United States and eventually the world. To present day 2019 this tour has been ongoing and only broke for brief periods of time, up to three weeks.
While talking to members of the local opening bands at shows, Bill Manspeaker realized that a lot of these people grew up listening to, and learning how to play along to, Green Jellÿ songs. This gave him the idea to set up groups of musicians across the country as Green Jellÿ franchises. The concept would allow Manspeaker to fly to a state one weekend, meet his franchise band at the airport, play three shows, and fly home before starting the process all over again the next weekend in a new state with a new frachise band. As of 2019, using this model, Jellÿ currently has over 850 band members across the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
Funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015, the band released a DVD on December 1, 2016. Toronto filmmaker & Green Jellö superfan Rob Gabriele joined, toured, and documented the band and their crazy antics while on stage at seedy dive bars. The toured throughout 2017 in support of the film and its soundtrack. On June 28, 2018 "Green Jelly Suxx Live Soundtrack" was released via "Enjoy The Ride Records". The release is limited to only 500 total copies on 12" vinyl, available in three different variations. A clear with Green splatter version limited to 100 copies, and a Three Little Pigs version and Maximum Carnage version limited to 200 copies each. As a bonus each copy also includes a 12"x18" poster, the DVD video, and a special re-release of the rare and highly sought after 1984 EP "Let It Be", pressed on Green Jelly 7" vinyl.
After 22 years, Green Jellÿ finally released a new music video. Fr3tö F33t was written by bassist Mike Snyder, with a vocal performance by Bill Manspeaker. The music video was first seen on YouTube, and 1,000 CD copies were sold via the Green Jellÿ Facebook page.
Bill Manspeaker, Lazy D, Mike Snyder, and a few members of the Eastern Canadian chapter, appeared on Trailer Park Boys: Park After Dark. The Swearnet exclusive podcast featured Manspeaker being interviewed, after a night of hard partying.
In October 2019, Green Jellÿ joined the Insane Clown Posse on the Wicked Weekends Tour. The tour ended with Insane Clown Posse’s annual Hallowicked show on October 31.
Green Jellÿ released "Silence of the Sponge," a macabre cover/parody of the theme to SpongeBob SquarePants The song was included on a self titled EP. The EP also featured FR3TO F33T, and Obey the Cowgod.
As reported by World Star, in November 2019, Green Jellÿ performed a show in London, Ontario. After the show, the band was not paid by the promoter, Markus McLean. The following day, Bill Manspeaker, along with members of the band, showed up at the promoters home to demand their money. The incident was broadcast live on Facebook Live, and later uploaded to YouTube.

Band members

Current
Former
Timeline

Lawsuits

At the height of the band's fame, Green Jellö was plagued by multiple lawsuits. In 1992, they were sued by Kraft Foods for trademark infringement. Due to the name "Jellö", and more so the band slogan "GREEN JELLÖ SUCKS!", the band was forced to change their name to Green Jellÿ, with an umlaut over the Y. This umlaut, according to the band, "changed the 'Y' sound to an 'O' sound". The band was forced to re-release their album and long form video, as well as change all merchandise carrying the "Jellö" name.
Later in 1992, Green Jellÿ was sued by the Kellogg Company for trademark infringement of their Toucan Sam character, as well as others. The cover of Cereal Killer depicted "Toucan Son of Sam" the "Cereal Killer" that kills other cereal characters, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Trix Rabbit, and Lucky the Leprechaun in extremely gruesome fashion. The band were forced to change the cover art, as well as place a white box in the center of the new cover which stated "Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kraft/General Foods". Additionally, the band was forced to remove the music video for the song "Cereal Killer" from the long form home video release. On the album 333, Toucan Son of Sam is referred to as "Pelican Son of Sam", and "Pelican Pete" at subsequent stage shows.
In 1993, Green Jellÿ was also sued by the management of Metallica for partial use of their song "Enter Sandman" in the song "Electric Harley House ". The bass and rhythm guitars in the solo section of the song play a riff close to that of "Enter Sandman", and even though the band mentions it in lyric immediately after the riff, the band was forced to remove the part from the later CD versions of Cereal Killer and pull the music video from MTV.

Connections with Tool

Green Jellÿ has been described as a comedy rock band, fused with heavy metal, and punk rock.

Discography

Albums