The story of DYS [short for Department Of Youth Services,
a state agency that locked up juvenile delinquents]
began when Dave Smalley put a sign up in Newbury Comics
[then Boston's leading Record store on underground music]
saying singer and drummer looking to form band.
Jonathan Anastas [ex Decadence], who knew Dave Smalley a little
and who also worked at Newbury Comics, knew a guy who played guitar
so they decided to give it a chance.
They started playing and also recorded a short demo - Wolfpack.
After a couple shows, the guitar player was fired due to
drinking/philosophical differences but they kept the drummer
and started looking for a new guitar player.
Alan Barile from SS Decontrol suggested that they'd play with Andy Strachan
and Andy ended up joining the band.
Vocals Dave Smalley
Guitar Andy Strachan
Bass Jonathan Anastas [ex Decadence]
Drums Dave Collins
The band now released Brotherhood for SS Decontrol's XClaim! label.
DYS were, along with Negative FX and SS Decontrol [and later on also Last Rights],
at the core of the so-called Boston Crew. They were a group of about 20-30 people who
used to follow SS Decontrol everywhere they went [and would crew for each other if not
all bands were not playing].
There are numerous stories about what they did. One is how they used to roll into New York shows
in SS Decontrol's black windowless van with X's painted on their heads. And if they saw a kid in the
pit without an X on his head, they'd punch him as he was from New York.
Yes, there was a lot of tension between the Boston and the New York scene.
Boston had, along with the DC scene, a Straight Edge mentality and a suburban upbringing.
The New York scene was based around the lower East side and seemed very street and violent compared to Boston.
It also had beggars, Krishnas and other oddities.
As the bands musical skills progressed and as the scene moved toward more of a slow/rock influenced
sound the band felt [like many other Boston bands] that a second guitar player was needed. The band auditioned only one,
Ross Luongo [ex Impact Unit], and hired him on the spot.
Vocals Dave Smalley
Guitar Andy Strachan
Guitar Ross Luongo [ex Impact Unit]
Bass Jonathan Anastas [ex Decadence]
Drums Dave Collins
With that lineup the band wrote and recorded the material for the album DYS. It was issued by Modern Method
as they had much better distribution than XClaim!.
Just like everything else, the story of DYS had to come to an end.
The band had with the release of DYS moved into a more metal sound. This began to attract the attention of some major label
and the band began to fight about what is selling out. The individual band members' musical tastes had also began to fracture
so far that no one could write a song the other four agreed on. Thus, knowing they could go no farther, they broke up
[this was in 1985].
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