D.R.I.
 

for greenlight.

coincidentially, i talked to page hamilton and actually i confessed he was an influence on my former band, but that we were also influenced by pantera, white zombie, portishead, prodigy, alice in chains and, yes, crossover stuff like d.r.i.

well, show some love for the dirty rotten imbeciles.

"violent pacification" is an anthem.

hope spike cassidy is better.

and yeah, d.r.i. is 25 this year.

I never really liked this band.
Just seemed like fast for the sake of fast.
At the time that they made their "crossover" LP, I was very disappointed because I thought I was "too cool" for metal and it bummed me out when punk/hardcore bands "defected" to the other side. Now I don't care as much about such things, but back then it was a big deal to me.
Maybe I should re-visit this band.

yeah, when they started they were, of course, "fast for the sake of fast" as you put it, that was the point; still, i can see how that, being so shallow, would be a turn off for people. still, i can see how that can be a turn on for listeners too.

i know what you mean about the whole "crossover" thing (but the act, the time and the album, i guess), i'm kinda neutral about it (actually, i'm for it mostly, when it comes to 80's hardcore and metal) since i got into this way after such things mattered.

anywhoo, they are/were mostly a fun band.

They were ok, but I could never listen to too much at once. The "crossover" period was laughable.

Seeing them on the tour for their first album (the one that was initially a 7") friggin changed my life. hearing them do 50 songs in 20 minutes pretty much made everything before it seem soft and weak. I lost interest when they went metal.

Whats up with Spike?

didn't you hear?

http://dirtyrottenimbeciles.com/news.htm (scroll down).

DRI rules.

Ampere did a killer cover of Money Stinks recently too on their split with Das Oath. Check it out.

Great band!! Their first couple albums are amazing. They start going downhill later on.

I still need to see them live...

nice thread.

yeah, great band. i was around 14teen when somebody gave me their tapes. their S/T album, Dealing With It, Crossover, 4 Of A Kind, Thras Zone. I loved it. very fast, punky short songs. Hard Core we used to call it. there was no much internet that time, I didn't know much about them except that they exist and they're cool. wanted to have my own band after I listen to DRI, hehe. just "3 riffs" music but so fast and powerfull. exactly what you need in that age. last album I heard was Definition, kinda liked it, don't know anything after. here's somebody's opinion on DRI which I agree with:

Starting with the awesome "I Don't Need Society" and ending with the anthemic "Explorer," D.R.I.'s debut album was an important stepping stone in the evolution of both metal and hardcore. D.R.I. drew a line in the sand between the American hardcore bands who wanted to stick close to the original punk sound and bands who wanted to branch out into heavy metal territory. D.R.I.'s use of thunderous heavy metal drumming and California hardcore songwriting made Dirty Rotten LP something special, putting them in a category with Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies as the forefront of a new movement. Their angry lyrics revolved around the usual political and social ills, but their approach was a staggering blend of pre-grindcore blastbeats (that particular drumming style may have even had its first recorded instance here), blunt and simplistic guitar riffs, and an acidic vocal workout from the young Kurt Brecht. His charismatic shout was the tone-deaf glue that kept the band together, especially in the face of abbreviated songs and sloppy playing. With some humorous lyrics, endless enthusiasm, and a penchant for short song times (only one song makes it past the two-minute mark), D.R.I.'s debut was a landmark album that paved the way for exciting new hardcore bands to spring up in its wake.

there was more bands like that, but can't remeber names. I have them on tapes but they're back home somewhere in boxes. can somebody refresh my mind? was there a band calling Lawnmover Death, or am I just hallucinating?

I always thought they were a poor man's Suicidal Tendencies.

classic 80's HC covers

never compared them.

originally from Houston motherfucking Texas

First I heard of it! Ouch, that sucks.

DRI and Suicidals were different beasts, IMO, it is not very useful to compare them.

I used to listen to one of their tapes (can't remember which) with a friend that really liked them when I was a teenager. I had turned this guy on to Sonic Youth, and I guess D.R.I. is what he haha reciprocated with in turn. I remember distinctly the first day he produced the cassette and asked me to give them a listen that he referred to them as a "prison band" and said that D.R.I. recorded the thing while locked-up. Haha, I was incredulous and didn't have the heart/balls to tell him he was out of his fucking mind.

i've heard the comparison, yeah, still, suicidal were more in line with the whole tsol/adolescents/social d oc hardcore (much more melodic) with more metal stylings and dri were more...synthetic perhaps, way more into discarding musicianship for speed, whether suicidal treasured musicianship. also, suicidal's metal influence was very much rooted in priest/motörhead territory and dri was more in line with speed/thrash metal that was to come.

corrosion is another fantastic band and yet they were different from suicidal and dri.

I'm talking about original ST (ie the first album) and pre-Crossover DRI. In which case the comparison is accurate.

I used to play their theme song off the Suicidals 1st album on my radio show back in 85 but there wasn't a hell of a lot else on it that really fit on my hardcore show because it was so metal rock whereas I could play a whole side of DRI.

But one thing that stuck with me from the American Hardcore movie is that the Suicidals really had a local umm gang if you will and we always saw them as being kind of a party band while DRI were serious anarchists - of course these are just conclusions based on rekkids and interviews and projecting their fans' behavior onto the band. DRI were a serious squat band, one of the infamous San Frn Vats squatters (we all missed out on that!) while the ST had to deal with the issues of being hispanic in the KKKUSA and a tough WC scene where the white kids from OC often weren't that nice.

say i'm scum is one of the best dri tracks ever

yeah, i was talking about that too.

maybe including join the army. suicidal's metalicisms were more in the 70's british tradition and dri were more in with the whole west coast metal thing. and suicidal quickly dropped the tsol/social style melodies pretty much by join the army.

afterwards, both bands became a mess, dri less so than suicidal.