When I had the chance to speak with the civic-minded, legendary D.O.A. frontman and Sudden Death Records’ head honcho Joey Shithead Keithley, there were just so many things to discuss. You’d think after being around 25 years things would slow down, but on the contrary, this guy seems to be at his busiest. Two major projects he recently completed are his autobiography ‘I, Shithead: A Life in Punk’ (now available in the U.S. through Arsenal Pulp Press) and the releasing of ‘War and Peace’. A fine compilation of some of D.O.A.’s greatest material starting out with their first single, 1978’s “Disco Sucks”, and ending off with cuts from their last studio album, the hard-rocking ‘Win the Battle’, this disc spans D.O.A.’s exciting career in 26 tracks – still not enough to cover ALL their material – these guys are, after all, some of punk’s most prolific songwriters…but it’s essential, nonetheless.
First, it must be noted that Joey has been the lone founding member remaining in the band through the years, and has seen many a band member come and go. Today, the line-up consists of drummer The Great Baldini, who’s been in the band for about six years now, and bassist Damned Dan Yaremko. And the frontman seems elated with this set-up. I suppose I asked a rather tough/stupid question about where this line-up stands in comparison to earlier ones. He started his reply by complimenting his present bandmates thusly: “This one’s pretty cohesive. I’m pretty happy…We don’t fight too much when we’re traveling together, which is a key element, and it’s nice as a three-piece [because] it’s easy to operate, you know, less guys to argue with.” He praises the line-up, saying it’s “upper echelon,” but refuses to compare it with past line-ups like the classic early one (“the one that everybody really likes”) – Joey, bassist Randy Rampage, and drummer Chuck Biscuits, and then a bit later when guitarist Dave Gregg was added to that set-up for about eight years (1980-’88), “because that’s when people think the band is really formed, in the early years. So it’s usually impossible to try and duplicate that later on, unless you can all stick together as a band, but that’s just like so bloody rare. It’s pretty difficult unfortunately, but that’s the way it goes.”
Likewise, I wanted to know which – if any – album epitomized D.O.A.’s sound. He couldn’t narrow it down to one, but rather listed three: ‘Something Better Change’, ‘Hardcore ’81’, and ‘War on 45’, the band’s first three albums and truly, their best, full of youthful vigor and punk attitude – not to say anything against their later work of course…! It’s just that when people think of D.O.A., these are the records that come to mind – especially the first two full-lengths. And he chose these three in particular because, as he says, “Within three albums, you kinda get an awful lot of what the band is and what the band will ever be,” adding, “Obviously the band can add on ideas, style changes, and stuff like that,” but the first albums are kind of the cornerstone of what D.O.A. are about.
When compiling tracks for inclusion on the career retrospective ‘War and Peace’, a task that seems like it would be damn hard with all the material from which he could choose, the frontman agrees, “It was pretty tough.” He explains that he decided to put out this compilation because “when I signed the book deal and I started writing it last January [2003], I knew it would be probably smart to put out…an anthology of D.O.A. So I made all the decisions on the songs myself, and I just tried to bear in mind what people always ask for [live] and stuff like that. I tried to get a balance, you know, a few songs per…significant release – either a good single or an album-type thing.” He reveals that there were some albums he couldn’t take songs from because “they were tied up with other record companies,” but when that happened, he just tried to substitute “similar songs that were maybe recorded later, but would…represent [those type of songs].” There’s a bunch included from ‘Something Better Change’ and ‘Hardcore ’81’ (as there should be), plus some songs from albums like ‘Loggerheads’ and ‘Let’s Wreck the Party’ to name a few, as well as stuff from benefit singles, namely songs like “Fuck You” and “General Strike”.
As touched upon briefly before, Joey’s autobiography ‘I, Shithead: A Life in Punk’, basically chronicles growing up in Vancouver a bit and mainly focuses on the lifespan of D.O.A. from its inception in ’78 up to 1990, when the band actually broke up for about 18 months. He is adamant that in the future, he’ll write a follow-up to the book, going up to the present day. He couldn’t include the entire time frame in this volume because “it was way too long in the first place” and “too unwieldy,” he declares. “We argued with the editors back-and-forth, and it ended up in its present form,” which is about 240 pages long, “chock full of posters and set lists and pictures.” A main point he wished to get across through his book was to show people that despite all the struggles and hardships and even though “the odds were really stacked against us at times,” they somehow managed to rise above and still were able to “come out with a positive look [on] life and…thinking about trying to change the world into a better place, which is kind of part of the intention we had when we started.”
He is also quick to note that the book has made Amazon.ca’s best non-fiction book of 2003 list, which is quite an accomplishment. Ah yes, this laurel makes me think of another incredible achievement of D.O.A.: the mayor of Vancouver – Larry Campbell – actually allotted December 21st “D.O.A. Day.” This, to me at least, is insane and amazing. A punk band having their own holiday? It’s great to see that throughout the years and all their attempts at trying to open people’s eyes to world affairs and important socio-political issues has paid off.
Still, D.O.A., despite their admirable social conscience and for all their political commentary, temper the seriousness that goes along with these aspects with a healthy dose of humor. “You gotta try to be funny because if it gets a little too dry, then it’s okay, but gets pretty tough to listen to in a sense.” Take for instance, two disparate songs from their latest album ‘Win the Battle’ (and included on ‘War and Peace’) – the socio-political “Just Say No to the WTO” with lines like “It’s one big world, well we know that/We all have to trade, the world’s not flat/But our brothers and sisters around the earth need to get what they’re worth,” and then the irreverent rocker “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, a raucous and playful tune that deals with what happens to guys who fuck over D.O.A…believe me, it’s not pretty… But all kidding aside, it’s evident their heart is in the right place – trying to make the world a better place in part through their music and getting their messages out, but also balancing all that with having fun and making their records enjoyable for the listener at the same time.
Joey himself has run for public office a total of three times for the Green Party – in ’98 for city council, and in ’96 and 2000, for the provincial legislature, which he describes as being akin to a state Congressperson in the U.S. He elaborates, “The first time, I got a few votes and the second time a few more, and the third time I finished in third in our riding [i.e. district]. I got 15 percent of the vote.” Not bad. He says that he never wanted “to get elected…but I just thought we could take some of the issues that the Green Party is putting forth…[like] protecting the earth and preserving what’s left of it for now and forever,” continuing, “I thought those were good issues. Also,” he relates, “The cool thing was the Green Party over here in North America at that point had never elected anybody, so there was no chance they were corrupted, which was a key element to me.” He divulges that he has since retired from that arena, but jokingly adds that if he learned anything from the experience, it’s “that people will vote for shitheads, but not necessarily Joe Shithead.” Too bad; we (or in this case Canada – hell, anywhere!) could use someone from a more “normal” background who has lived through life as an “average” citizen – an everyman, so to speak – rather than all these political-types who DO end up being elected…but that’s another story…
Though he’s stopped his bid for public office, the political realm is still key to Joey. Why, just on March 20th, he and D.O.A. performed in Vancouver alongside speaker Noam Chomsky at the rally in response to the one-year “anniversary,” I guess you’d call it, since the invasion of Iraq began, speaking out against that. About the whole situation, he says, “The War in Iraq is to me more like Vietnam in a sense…it’s going on and on. It’s not really solving anything at this point, so we have a big show up here, probably about 20,000 people [in attendance]. To me, it’s an honor to play these things, and they asked us to play it because of what we sing.” Likewise, D.O.A. will be contributing a track (“That’s Progress”, a song featuring Jello Biafra) on Fat Mike’s ‘Rock Against Bush’ comp. He likens the idea for this record to the Rock Against Reagan concert back in August 1980 in Detroit when Reagan accepted the Republican nomination.
Unfortunately last year when D.O.A. was supposed to come around with the mighty MDC, we didn’t get a chance to see them in May at CBGB’s, but that’s not of much concern when considering WHY shows had to be cancelled: The Great Baldini’s wife had been stricken with cancer. Yet, now, she has overcome it and the guys are touring with abandon. They have been playing dates all over Canada and are set to begin their U.S. West Coast tour March 25th, which will last until April 4th. During these dates, the band of course will be playing gigs, but on some days Joey will do some spoken word performances – not reading from his book, but basically telling stories that can be found in it, as well as discussing modern politics – at record stores and bookstores that are carrying ‘I, Shithead’. And all of us on the East Coast shouldn’t be alarmed, for we can expect to see the guys from May 12th to May 23rd. Exact dates were still being worked out at the time of our conversation, but it’s great to know they’ll be back, and as Joey reveals, perhaps touring with The Dickies, which would be one fine bill, indeed.
To top all this off, Joey and D.O.A. have been working on material for a new album, but they aren’t exactly certain when it will come out. Plus, Joey’s planning on recording some songs for what he vaguely describes as “not really a solo album, I’ll have a band – but some sort of other record,” which won’t be released this year, as he sees “no point in putting out two records in one year.” AND, he’s already begun writing another book – not in continuation of where ‘I, Shithead’ left off, but rather one “about how to be an activist and survive, so it’s not about D.O.A. per se,” he explains. “It might have something about that, but that’s not the main [theme] of the book. So, yeah, we’re busy up here.” And that’s definitely a good thing. If we only had more bands with such passion, vision, and concern for the world, we’d be pretty well off…