Dust (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dust was an American heavy metal band, formed around 1968. The group featured vocalist/guitarist Richie Wise and the teenaged rhythm section of bassist Kenny Aaronson (who also doubled on slide and steel guitars) and drummer Marc Bell (better known as Marky Ramone); plus, Kenny Kerner served as the group's lyricist, manager, and producer.

[edit] History

At the dawn of the 1970s, hard rock and early heavy metal were almost completely dominated by British innovators^{[citation needed]}. Dust was one of the few American bands to try picking up the gauntlet, playing a progressive brand of proto-metal that was explicitly indebted to their British contemporaries.

The band released their first album, called Dust (1971) on Neil Bogart's pre-Casablanca label Kama Sutra. The follow-up, Hard Attack (1972), sharpened the band's edge and intensified the power of their approach; thus, it became the more sought-after of the pair by collectors interested in the roots of American metal. The cover of Hard Attack features a painting by Frank Frazetta entitled "Snow Giants" (originally done to illustrate a paperback reprint of some of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories). Dust would record only these two albums.

Aaronson joined Stories in 1973, and Wise and Kerner became a production team, also working with Stories; the following year, they would go on to helm the first two KISS albums. Aaronson, meanwhile, became a prolific session bassist and Bell later became part of the New York punk rock scene, joining up with The Voidoids and then moving on to the Ramones (adopting the name Marky Ramone).