Happy 2015! As always at the beginning of a new year there's been a lot of looking back at the year that just passed, but in this series I tend to cast my glance a bit farther back. So let's take a trip to 1984, and a little straight edge hardcore band from Boston called D.Y.S. I'm actually pretty sure I owned this album, along with much of the Taang Records catalog up to about 1993, but to be honest I couldn't hum you a single song on it. (I'm going to have to see if I can find it in my record collection, but for now I'm listening to it thanks to the magic of YouTube.) I did, however, devote a ton of listening time to another record featuring D.Y.S. singer Dave Smalley, Dag Nasty's Can I Say. (That I know I have at home, and will be listening to very soon. Along with Wig Out at Denko's, featuring Peter Cortner on vocals. I wonder, did Dag Nasty have the highest ratio of singers to albums of any band ever?)
But enough about me. And Dag Nasty. This was D.Y.S.'s second album, and as you can see by the KCMU DJs' reactions, it was an exciting turn in the band's sound, as they started to incorporate more metal sounds into their hardcore punk rumblings. Sadly the band broke up not long after this album came out, but re-formed in 2010 and have been playing occasional shows and releasing occasional singles ever since. They recently announced a hiatus via their Facebook page, but here's hoping they'll be playing again soon. Is a Seattle date too much to hope for?
"Bridging the gap between metal and hardcore. There's something I like about this record, but I'm not sure what . . . from Boston.""Great cover. From 1530." [Circa 1562, actually.]
"MG I like this too! Kinda - melodic (?). The songs are good - reminds of SVT. Try 1-4."
"Is it 'dis' or 'dee-why-ess'?"
"It's 'dee-why-ess.' And what a wonderful surprise it is. Their first effort was horrible, generic hardcore, but this, this shreds. Whoo, look out! But Debbie, how does it remind you of SVT?"
"Some excellent metal cross-over music. 'Late Night.'"
Motörhead needs no introduction, right? Right.
I guess this year I'm making up for the previous lack of XTC posts in this series. The Dukes of Stratosphear were XTC in all but name, working under a different moniker to crank out a couple albums of pop genius that heavily mined some of their favorite sounds of the '60s, from Barrett-era Pink Flo…
