The Dead Boys

Dead Boys
The Dead Boys in 1976
Background information
Origin	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres	Punk rock
Years active	1976–1979, 1987, 2004–2005
Labels	Sire, Bomp!, Revenge, Hell Yeah, Bacchus, Bad Boy, Cold Front, Relativity
Associated acts	Rocket From The Tombs, Pere Ubu, The Lords of the New Church
Past members	Stiv Bators (died 1990) Cheetah Chrome Jimmy Zero Jeff Magnum Johnny Blitz

The Dead Boys were an American punk rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. The band was among the first wave of early punk bands, and was known as one of the rowdiest and most violent punk groups of the era. The Dead Boys were initially active from 1976 to 1979, briefly reuniting in 1986, and then later again in 2004 and 2005 without their frontman Stiv Bators.

The Dead Boys evolved out of the band Rocket From The Tombs and were originally called Frankenstein. When the band members relocated to New York City in July 1976, they adopted the Dead Boys moniker which came from the RFTT song "Down In Flames". They are sometimes credited with founding the U.S. hardcore punk movement, although this question is open to dispute among hardcore fans.

Moving to New York City at the encouragement of Joey Ramone, the Ramones' lead singer, the Dead Boys quickly gained notoriety for their outrageous live performances. Lewd gestures and profanity were the norm. On more than one occasion, lead singer Stiv Bators slashed his stomach with his mic stand. Such antics reportedly discouraged the development of a mainstream rock following despite the relative breadth of their material beyond pure punk. They frequently played at the rock club CBGB and in 1977 they released their debut album, Young, Loud and Snotty, produced by Genya Ravan. Their song "Sonic Reducer" is often regarded as one of the classics of the punk genre, with AllMusic calling it "one of punk's great anthems."

Sire Records pressured the group to change their look and sound to appeal more to the U.S. mainstream (which had yet to embrace punk on the level seen in the UK) and this contributed to Dead Boys breaking up in 1979. Several 1979 performances were featured in the 1980 film, D.O.A.. A few months after the breakup the band had to reunite to record a live album and thus fulfill their contractual obligations. To exact revenge on the label, Bators purposely sang off mic and the resulting recording was unusable. When the material eventually surfaced on Bomp! Records, Bators had re-recorded the vocals in a studio.