The Dead Boys

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Dead Boys
Origin Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Genre(s) Punk
Years active 1976-1979, 1987, 2004-2005
Label(s) Sire (main), Bomp!, Revenge, Hell Yeah, Bacchus, Bad Boy, Cold Front, Relativity
Associated acts Rocket From The Tombs, Pere Ubu, The Lords of the New Church
Former members
Stiv Bators
Cheetah Chrome
Jimmy Zero
Jeff Magnum
Johnny Blitz

The Dead Boys were an American punk band from Cleveland, Ohio. Among one of the first bands to play punk rock, the band was initially active from 1976 to 1979, they reunited several times until a so far permanent break-up in 2005.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation and 1970s punk rock era

The Dead Boys evolved out of the band Rocket From The Tombs and were originally called Frankenstein. When the band members relocated to New York City in July 1976, they adopted the name by which they are best known.

Moving to New York City at the encouragement of Joey Ramone, the Ramones' lead singer, the Dead Boys quickly gained notoriety for their outrageous live performances. Lewd gestures and profanity were the norm. On more than one occasion, lead singer Stiv Bators slashed his stomach with his mic stand. They frequently played at the legendary rock club CBGB and in 1977 they released their debut album, Young, Loud and Snotty, produced by Genya Ravan. Their song "Sonic Reducer" is often regarded as one of the classics of the punk genre, with Allmusic calling it "one of punk's great anthems."[1]

Sire Records pressured the group to change their look and sound to appeal more to the U.S. mainstream (which had yet to embrace punk on the level seen in the UK) and this contributed to Dead Boys breaking up in 1979.[2] A few months after the breakup the band had to reunite to record a live album and thus fulfill their contractual obligations. To exact revenge on the label, Bators purposely sang off mic and the resulting recording was unusable. When the material eventually surfaced on Bomp! Records, Bators had re-recorded the vocals in a studio.

[edit] Bators' subsequent career

Bators recorded a solo album, Disconnected, on Line Records. Bators later formed Lords of the New Church with Brian James from The Damned and Dave Tregunna from Sham 69. They released several albums on IRS Records, including the keyboard-laden hit single "Open Your Eyes" and a twisted cover of "Like A Virgin."

[edit] Chrome's subsequent career

After the band's break up, Cheetah Chrome (b. Eugene O'Connor 2/18/1955) played around NYC (mostly at Max's Kansas City) doing shows with the Stilettos , as well as his own band Cheetah Chrome and the Casualties.He recorded a single for ORK Records, "Still Wanna Die/Take Me Home", recorded by Atlantic Records co-founder Herb Abramson.Shortly therafter he played on Ronnie Spector's debut solo album Siren. He appeared on several recordings during the 80's , most notably his own "Cheetah Chrome and the Ghetto Dogs" (Get Hip) and Jeff Dahl's " I Kill Me" (Sympathy For The Record Industry). He also rejoined the Dead Boys for the ill fated reunions of the late 80's. In the 90's Chrome moved to Nashville,TN , and recorded a live album "Alive in Detroit"(DUI) at Lili's in Hamtramck, MI , and played guitar on several track on False Alarm's "Fuck 'Em All,We've Already Won" . In 2003 he reformed Rocket From The Tombs with David Thomas, Craig Bell , with Richard Lloyd (Television)replacing Peter Laughner and Steve Mehlman (Pere Ubu) taking the Spinal Tap-like drum stool. They toured in 2003 and 2006, and recorded a studio CD of their old material, "Rocket Redux"(SmogVeil). Chrome continues to play live shows both in the US and Europe.

[edit] Reformation

The Dead Boys reformed for several gigs in the 1980s. They re-released their first album as Younger, Louder and Snottier in 1989, mastered from a cassette tape, of rough mixes, attributed to a young Bob Clearmountain, a studio assistant at the time.

In 1990, Bators died in France due to injuries sustained after having been hit by a taxi. In September 2004, the remaining members of the band re-formed for a one-off gig in Cleveland. In 2005, they played a benefit show for CBGB and another reunion show on Halloween.

[edit] Members

[edit] Discography

The Dead Boys only have two official full length studio releases, however many labels have released rough material and outtakes in the years following their initial 1979 breakup.

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Later Releases

[edit] Singles

[edit] 7" Singles

  • "Sonic Reducer" (1977, Sire)
  • "Tell Me" (1977, Sire)
  • "Search and Destroy" (1977, Revenge) (Import/France)
  • "Buried Gems" (2000, Cold Front Records)
  • "Paul Sherry goes Back - The Paul Sherry Sessions" (2007)

[edit] 12" Singles

  • "All The Way Down/Nights Are So Long" (1987, Relativity Records 8165) (never released on CD)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Prato, Greg; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, Dead Boys: Biography, Allmusic, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:iifjzfaheh8k~T1, retrieved on 2007-10-12 
  2. ^ McNeil, Legs; McCain, Gillian (1997), Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, New York, London: Penguin Books, pp. 335–336, ISBN 0140266909 

[edit] Further Reading

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Boys"
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