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We‘ve got an arsenal of Canada jokes, too, but we‘d never use them around D.O.A.
Rob Ortenzi on 8/12/05 @ 12:30 PMYEARS OF EXISTENCE: 1978-Present
RECORD TO START WITH: Something Better Change (1980; reissued 2002)
AFTER THAT, CHECK OUT: Hardcore 81 (1981; reissued 2002), Bloodied Bu Unbowed: The Damage To Date 1978-1984(1984); War and Peace(anthology; 2003)
GO DOWNLOAD: "D.O.A.," "Woke Up Screaming," "New Wave Shocks," "Race Riot," "World War 3"
THE MUSIC, THE MESSAGE: You'd be forgiven for thinking hardcore punk was invented on the West Coast in the early 80's, but singer/guitarist Joey Shithead (ne Keithley) and revolving cadre of musicians who've comprised Canada's legendary D.O.A. may have a bone to pick with you. Formed in 1978, D.O.A. came roaring out of the box much like the magazine you're currently reading, as the alternative to the alternative (get it?). They found spiritual kinship in snotty American underdogs like Dead Kennedys, bands inspired more by the radical side of the 60's counterculture than by what contemporary punk fashion dictated-and weren't shy about breaking down the walls of their scene to let everything from country to rockabiliiy to reggae into the party. Meaning, D.O.A. weren't just punk; they were hardcore about it. Hence the sub-genre; hence the album (hardcore 81); hence the way Keithley has operated ever since.
PUNK-ROCK RELEVANCE: Even though they broke in an eventual Danzig drummer (Chuck Biscuits, perhaps punk's mightiest beater ever), coined a few legendary slogans (including "Talk-Action=Zero"), committed the word "hardcore" to a record sleeve before most people were hip to the term, and virtually created the DIY underground in their hometown of Vancouver over 25 years ago, D.O.A. have never enjoyed that vibrant a musical legacy in the U.S.. Don't misread us here: You ask my pack of liberty-spiked Casualties fans about the band, and they'll tell you there's a good reason Vancouver's mayor has officially declared Dec. 21 D.O.A. Day. It's just that down her in the contiguous 48, you're more likely to come to D.O.A.though the sort of scene they helped to create-sloganeering, playing benefits, releasing your own music, booking your own fuckin' life-than you are through their actual records. Which also could be because they haven't made a truly earth-shattering album in years, but you're not gonna catch us saying that to their faces.
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS;Keithley is the only original member of D.O.A. in the bands current lineup, but for those wondering who else has earned their stripes alongside him; Mr. Shithead hosts the whole head-spinning D.O.A. family tree on the website of the label he owns, Sudden Death Records (suddendeath.com/doa). Naturally, Sudden Death also stocks old classics ad new albums alike from D.O.A., Keithley, the solo artist, MDC, and many others he Unseen are currently thanking in their liner notes. If you're at all interested in what punk rock meant before it had a barcode, Keithley's recently published memoirs, I, Shithead: A Life In Punk, are mandatory reading-and way more accurate a portrait of the scene-as-community ethic than that blowhard Henry Rollins ever painted. And if you're thinking this paltry 400-word column barely scratches the surface of the legend Keithley & Co. have built, we, duh. -Aaron Burgess
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