Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys ended up known for speedy-fireplace songs topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "distinctive quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential unbiased file label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray.