D.I. (band)

D.I. is a Southern California punk band featuring ex-Adolescents and Social Distortion drummer Casey Royer on vocals. Royer formed the group after he and former Social Distortion original member Rikk Agnew (also formerly of Christian Death), left the original Mike Ness Social Distortion crew.

Since forming in 1981, D.I. has had many line-up changes and Royer has been the only constant member of the band. They almost usually consist of former members of The Adolescents and Social Distortion (including the Agnew brothers Rikk and Alfie). The band has continued to work to this day, although they have been inactive perodically, which include the band going on hiatus between albums. During their years of touring and recording albums, D.I. never gained a large mainstream success, but they have influenced many of today's later punk rock groups, including F.T.E.,^[1] Face to Face, Guttermouth, Jughead's Revenge,^[2] The Offspring and Pennywise.^[3] Members of the band also joined up with Daddy X and The Dirtball of the Kottonmouth Kings, to create the punk rock group The X-Pistols, in 2010.

History

Early history (1981–1986)

D.I. was formed in 1981 and combined the Orange County hardcore punk sound with a decidedly surf/new wave style on their debut self-titled EP. The EP featured five songs including "Richard Hung Himself" (originally written by Steve Roberts while he played for the Adolescents, recorded it with the Adolescents to later re-record it in D.I. ), "Venus De Milo," "Reagan Der Fuhrer," "Purgatory," and "Guns". This EP was later reissued as Team Goon with extra tracks including versions of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part II" and Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge". Their first proper album Ancient Artifacts was a more straight ahead Orange County sounding album that included a new version of "Purgatory" from the EP.

Not long after the release of Ancient Artifacts, D.I. returned to the studio to record their second album Horse Bites Dog Cries, which was not released until 1986 (though album itself has copyright date of 1985). Generally considered their best studio album.

Two more albums and hiatus (1987–1992)

Before recording sessions for their next album commenced, guitarist Rikk Agnew left D.I. in 1987 to pursue his career with the Adolescents and released two more albums (Brats in Battalions and Balboa Fun Zone) before splitting up. Rikk was replaced by Hedge on bass, Alfie (guitar), and Bosco was switched from bass to second guitar- eventually Mark "The Kid" Cerneka replaced Alfie. The resulting album, What Good Is Grief to a God? (1988), was a commercial failure. After the 1988 US tour, "The Kid" left and was replaced by Sean Elliot. In 1989, D.I. released their next album Tragedy Again.

Return and more lineup changes (1993–2010)

A live album, Live at a Dive, was released in 1993. After Stevie DRT left the band, original drummer John Knight rejoined and their fifth album State of Shock was released in the following year. Chris Roboson and Steve Lyen joined and continued playing from 1995 to 1997. The loss of their record label soon followed. After two years of strictly playing live shows, and original guitarist Tim Maag replacing Roboson, D.I. headed back into the studio around 1997 to record what would be their follow-up to State of Shock and shopped them around to labels but nobody was interested.

Numerous line-up changes went on before they had their current line-up, consisting of Royer, chckn (guitars), Clinton (guitars), Eddie Tatar (bass) and Joey Tatar (drums). As of this moment, Royer would become the only constant member of the band. D.I. had continued touring for years and released their first of original album in 8 years, entitled Caseyology, in 2002. Caseyology was followed up five years later by On the Western Front (2007) all music & lyrics written by royer and eddie tatar

Casey Royer's arrest and recent activities (2011–present)

In March 2011, Casey Royer was arrested for almost overdosing on drugs while watching television.^[4] He was also sentenced to a 90-day jail term and placed on probation for three years.^[5]

In May 2011, according to their Facebook page, D.I. has been working on a 7" EP, which is due for release. It marked the band's first EP of original material in 28 years (since 1983's Team Goon), and the band's first release of any kind since the 2007 album On the Western Front.

Since then Casey has cleaned up and D.I. have been touring and playing live shows.

Line-ups

Discography

Studio releases

EP, compilation and live albums

References

External links

• D.I. on Myspace
• D.I. discography at Discogs
• 2007 Interview with Casey Royer on Deviant Nation