Smash Magazine Presents
Sat
May
26
D.I.
Death By Stereo, Guilty By Association, Kids On Fire, Go Time, The Maxies
D.I.
D.I. are typical of '80s Orange County, California punk -- aggressive and fast, yet melodic, with a sneering, sarcastic attitude permeating nearly all their material. Such a basic style has undoubtedly helped keep the group's sound fairly steady over its myriad lineup changes; vocalist Casey Royer has been the group's one constant. D.I.'s 1981 debut, Team Goon, featured future guitarist John Bosco on bass, soon-to-be Adolescents guitarist Rikk Agnew, drummer Derek O'Brien, and further contributions from guitarists Steve Roberts and Tim Maag, plus bass from engineer Fredric Taccone. Ancient Artifacts followed in 1984, and then the well-crafted Horse Bites Dog Cries in 1985; when D.I. switched from the Reject label to Triple X in 1986, the latter reissued all of their previous output. With a lineup centered around Royer and Bosco, D.I. delivered their first album for Triple X in 1988, What Good Is Grief to a God? 1989 witnessed the release of Tragedy Again, which proved to be the band's last album of new material until 1994, when they resurfaced on the Doctor Dream label with State of Shock
Death By Stereo is a hardcore band. They were formed in 1996 in Orange County, California, with 5 members. Of these original members, only Efrem Schulz still plays with the band. Death By Stereo is well known for their energetic performances, and intricate guitar work.
The band was formed by Ian Fowles, Jarrod Alexander, Efrem Schulz, Paul Miner and Jim Miner out of were the remnants of Clint, CleanX and the D-Cons (their former bands). They practiced in Jarrod's garage for a few months and then decided to record a demo. They recorded five songs at For The Record Studios, where Paul worked. Out of the five songs, four of them went on to be included on the album If Looks Could Kill, I'd Watch You Die. On March 5, 1998, they played their first show, and soon after began playing more shows around Southern California.
In 1998, Death By Stereo was signed to Indecision Records, and released their first album in the following year. Shortly after Jarrod moved to Boston to pursue music full time at the Berklee School Of Music, and was replaced by Tim Bender. Keith also left the band, to pursue his other bands Throwdown and Eighteen Visions. He was replaced by Dan Palmer, formely of the band Eyelid. Ian also left the band fairly early on, going on tour with the likes of Sense Field and Further Seems Forever, and as of summer 2006 serving as The Aquabats' full-time guitarist under the psuedonym Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk. They toured for the rest of the year.
