D.R.I.

The DIRTY ROTTEN IMBECILES' history begins on May 2, 1982 around 4:00pm, in the city of Houston,TX. It was on this day that the musically agressive quartet we now know as D.R.I. made their first Dirty Rotten noise and called it a song. Back then it was Spike Cassidy (guitar), Kurt Brecht (vocals), Eric Brecht (drums), and Dennis Johnson (bass).

The group started practicing at Kurt and Eric's parents home,
where the brothers lived amongst the "Madman" (their father).
They practiced a few nights a week around 5:00pm, just as the
Madman would be on his way home from a hard day at work. He would open his front door only to be blasted with 120db of the band's horrendous attempt to make music. The Madman would then pound on their jam room door until he was let in so that in turn, he could throw them out of his house calling them such things as "... you bunch of dirty rotten imbeciles". This is how D.R.I. got their name.
2 months later, on July 2,1982, the band played their first
show at Joe Star's OMNI, in Houston. On November 6th & 7th of
1982 D.R.I. recorded their first release, the Dirty Rotten EP,
stuffing 22 songs into 18 minutes on a 7" EP that played at 33
rpm's. Only 1000 copies of this EP version were pressed, making
it now a very rare collector's item. Demand caused this EP to be
pressed into a 12" LP version, released in 1983, appropriately
called Dirty Rotten LP. Leaving the underground music scene
thriving for more, DRLP became a major success and also an
inspiration for many new bands at the time. Soon after D.R.I.
was labeled the fastest band in the world.

In 1983 D.R.I. moved to San Francisco, where they lived in
their van and ate at soup kitchens in between gigs. Dennis
Johnson quit the band and returned home to Texas. He was
replaced with Sebastion Amok, and within a few months D.R.I.
found themselves on the "Rock Against Reagan" tour with the
Dead Kennedy's. At the conclusion of this tour, they replaced
Sebastion Amok with Josh Pappe`.

Their next release was the 4 song, 7", Violent Pacification
EP, in 1984. After touring in the summer of 1984, Eric Brecht got
married and left the band. He was replaced with Felix Griffin.
D.R.I.'s second full length release, Dealing With It , came
in March 1985. The group toured extensively in support of the
album. Sometime during the recording of the album, Josh took a
leave from the band. Mikey Offender (bass player of the
Offenders) was asked to play for the album, although Spike
played bass on the songs that Mikey didn't have time to learn.

The songs on DWI pointed slightly towards a metal direction,
but still remained very hardcore. Almost legendary is the band's
recording of "Madman", where Kurt's dad is mad and disturbs a
rehearsal. The band gains a real cult status, supported by such
fans as Dave Lombardo (Slayer), who tells everyone he's
influenced by D.R.I.

On April 26th, 1986, they recorded their show at the Olympic
Auditorium in Los Angeles, and released the video, which was
entitled Live At The Olympic.

Their third album, Crossover, released in 1987, was
perfectly named since the songs on this album had a strong metal
sound to them. As the band began to "crossover" to thrash, their
songs became longer, slower, and more complex. The press has
called D.R.I. the major band of the "crossover" movement, a style
that combined punk, hardcore, and metal. This music invited a
mixed audience of punks, skinheads, and metal fans to their
shows, who introduced things like stage diving and slam dancing.

The 'Live at the Ritz' video was recorded next, on June 27th
1987, at 'the Ritz' in New York, during the band's worldwide
Crossover tour. Also in 1987, one of their songs, 'Snap' appeared
on a compilation (with other bands supporting some cause)
entitled P.E.A.C.E.

In February of 1988, the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles returned to
the studio to record Four Of A Kind. The songs on this album have
even more of a metal sound to them, and production is the best
it's ever been. They even released a music video for the song
'Suit and Tie Guy'.

At the same time, the Dirty Rotten LP was remixed to include
the songs from the Violent Pacification EP, and was re-released.

The band toured Europe again to support the Four of A Kind
album, then once home in the U.S., Josh Pappe` leaves the band
because of an offer to play for Gang Green. He is replaced by
John Menor.

September 1989 brought the release of Thrash Zone. Two music
videos were released from this album. One for 'Beneath the Wheel'
and the other for 'Abduction'. Sometime after this, Felix Griffin
leaves the group and is replaced by Rob Rampy.

During the spring of 1992, Definition was released on Spike
Cassidy's own label, Rotten Records. A music video was released
for the song 'Acid Rain', and later was even featured in an
episode of MTV's "Beavis and Butthead".

D.R.I. toured in 1992, opening for Testament, as well as
headlining their own shows. They recorded their gig at the
Hollywood Palladium on November 27th, 1992, and it was released
in 1994 as their first live album, appropriately entitled Live.
It was, more or less, "released as a stepping stone between
Definition and Full Speed Ahead".

Soon after recording the show, John Menor leaves D.R.I. He is
replaced by one of the band's long time friends and roadie,
Chumly Porter. The group also took part in the Lolitabazooka
Tour, headlining that tour, in the fall of 1994.

In 1995, D.R.I. released their newest album called Full
Speed Ahead. They also made another music video, this time for a
song called 'Syringes in the Sandbox'.

In January of 1996, they started touring North America with
Acid Bath opening for them. But in April, Rob and Spike ran into
some trouble trying to cross the Canadian border because they had
both been previously charged with 'Driving Under the Influence'
in the U.S. Needless to say, all of their Canadian dates had to
be cancelled. And as much as they tour even today, I still don't
think Canada will let them in!

During 1997-98 D.R.I. continued to tour the world
extensively, including European & S.American dates. In March of
1998 D.R.I. launched their own Official Website
(www.DirtyRottenImbeciles.com).

During 1999, D.R.I. appears as one of the headlining bands
on the Social Chaos in North America Tour. One of their songs,
'I'm the Liar', is used for a Social Chaos Tour compilation cd,
containing one song from each band that appeared on the tour.
During August of 1999, in the middle of the Social Chaos Tour,
Chumly leaves the band because he is burnt out on touring, and
is replaced by Harald Oimoen. Harald had been working on and off
with the band for years, doing everything from photography and
merchandise to Bass Tech. The band resumed the tour, only
missing 2 shows replacing Chumly.

In the year 2000, the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles headlining
thier own 'Millenium 2000 Tour' which had been broken into two
halves, taking place in the spring & fall of 2000.

D.R.I. does the "Old School Tour" in the year of 2001! And
continues to tour the world in the years that follow.

For the past 30 years, D.R.I. has been the epitome of the
agressive, hardcore-punk thrash sound that we've all become
accustomed to hearing. Throughout this time, they've been one of
the few genuine underground bands to remain true to their pure
punk roots. Still actively touring and recording, the only thing
that may have changed is that they're a little older now, but
time hasn't gotten the best of the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles.
They're still thrashing just as hard, and just as loud as ever,
continuing to overload our senses with the sound that is, and
will always remain, uniquely D.R.I.